Zeitgeist Petulance: the Government We Deserve
Written by Teodrose Fikre, May 1, 2017, 0 Comments
We jumped the shark a long time ago as a country; the minute we elected an unknown quantity based on a logo, chants and empty rhetoric of “hope and change”, we became a society of uber cult of personality. Not satisfied with the vacuous 44, we saw it fit to swerve from era of fraudulence to the zeitgeist of petulance—now the sharks are jumping over us. The titular head of our government is thus an immature hack who has the temperament of a toddler and the wisdom of an infant. At least children have innocence about them; Donald Trump combines infancy with the pugnacious personality befitting of a warthog.
The excesses of Donald J. Trump are innumerable and can fill up entire books. I wrote yesterday of the gravity that our names have on us; well “the Donald” proves this point in spades. It’s like Donald wakes up each day trying to figure out how he can trump his own buffoonery. Cognitive dissonance will prevent his most loyal supporters from ever seeing this truth about the oaf they elected the commander in chief—they will go down with the ship chanting “make America great again” as our nation is imploding. No amount of fact and evidence will convince Trump’s most hard core supporters from seeing the reality of the con artist who has turned Mar-a-Lago into the new White House.
There was a time where old age conferred upon people wisdom and prudence. Donald Trump is the Benjamin Button of sagacity—the older he gets, the more he becomes a naive. Can you imagine your grandparents getting on Twitter and trolling “haters”? Can you imagine your elders bashing detractors using the most absurd and vile language? Can you imagine a man in his 70’s going on TV shows to sexually objectify his own daughter! No need to, the man who resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave does this and more on a daily basis. The shinning city on the hill that is America has her doorsteps darkened by a repulsive jingoist who sells his grandiosity in order to hide the smallness of his mind and his manhood.
But perhaps this is exactly the president we deserve; Donald Trump is nothing more than a reflection of the society we have become. Fatuity and brutishness is the new normal as civility and discourse have taken a back seat to childish peevishness. It’s as though technology is devolving all of us back to grammar school. We don’t even talk to each other anymore; we live a binary existence where all we do is search for people who echo our thoughts or bash those who don’t concur 100% with our beliefs.
I am not saying this from a place of piety for I too do my part to contribute to this nonsense even though I should know better by now. There was a time where I used to incinerate anyone who dared to come at me sideways. I used to boast that people who would come at me with a matchstick would be met with blowtorches. I took pride in getting the better of those who tried to troll me. “You have to fight fire with fire” I would proclaim. It’s only after going through my own fire that I finally realize the utter folly of combating hate with yet more hatred. Sadly, even after gaining a wisdom through mind bending hardship, the conniption still rears its head occasionally to roast those who try to toast me with animus.
This level of absurdity is what most people are reverting to without thinking about it. Vengeance breeds pettiness that blinds us from extending grace. So we troll on; society has become a village of social justice warriors who use animosity to arrive at peace and co-existence. The incongruity of it all; we complain that the world is on fire as we keep adding butane to the flames. We turn up the heat then take umbrage that we are getting consumed by muggy conditions. We are the ones mugging ourselves though; it’s like we are shadow boxing with ourselves and keep applying jabs and uppercuts to our spirits.
This is what happens when a people decide to be led by the upper crust of society as if fame and wealth automatically confers benevolence and discernment. We thus let a broken two party system—who both work for corporate interests and against us—dictate laws and morality while practicing none of it themselves. An entire nation splintered between insane notions of “red and blue states” as we fight over ideologies and parties that benefit none among us. Partisan blinders prevents people from seeing the truth of this; instead both sides blame the other side of myopia and herd thinking—as both get fleeced by nefarious shepherds.
We are doing this to ourselves. Instead of uniting and letting compassion dictate public discourse, we are letting enmity be the society’s moral compass. Consequently, we are headed due south as a nation and where we stop is the township of indigence for a nation divided will in time tumble. When that time comes—a time of economic penury and hardship—we will have none to blame but ourselves for we were too busy proving points to notice the cliff that we are headed for.
This is not to say that a place for condemnation is not needed. There are a fractional few in this world who prosper at the cost of the rest of humanity. We keep fighting among each other when the true battle has always been the few who run roughshod over the rest. Stop aiming your ire sideways and realize the injustice is coming from the elites who sit atop us. Instead of squabbling with fellow co-victims in this economic warfare that has been declared on 99.9% of us, how about we unite in order to defend ourselves from the excesses of the globalist plutocrats and the politicians, pundits and personalities they employ to fracture all of us into islands of grievance and animus? Trust me, doing the opposite and combating those who are struggling in either poverty or economic anxiety just like you is counterproductive at the very least and folly at its apex.
The news that we are watching as a form of entertainment and the pundits we love to follow is nothing more than toxins we are breathing into our souls. It might feel good to hear empty suits like Hannity and Maddow utter yellow press journalism into our ears as they turn up the oven, but realize that they are doing so in order to get checks from the very system that they are bashing. The elites thus get taken care of for their endless demagoguery and the antipathy they sow into the public, but it will be us—the people—who will sow the oats of discontent that is metastasizing into our communities. We are slow walking right into strife and sorrow as we are being led and bled by the very personalities we worship. Click clack! That is the sound of the gun being cocked and put to our collective heads by the idols we keep adoring.
Petulance will be the death of us and malice will be our last rights if we don’t soon wake up from this odium filled coma. But introspection and changing ourselves the harder task, we would rather be at once outraged and entertained at the asininity of Donald Trump. It was Joseph de Maistre who said “Every country has the government it deserves”. He hit the nail right on the head with that observation; that nail will be the last one in the coffin of our nation if we do not stop being led by a cult of personalities and cease letting partisan fidelity trump our fealty to common decency. #ZeitgeistTrump
“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.” ~ Isaac Asimov
If you appreciate this article and the message behind it, share it widely on social media using #ZeitgeistTrump
This is how our two party system and both Democrats and Republicans, as well as the upper crust of society, is crushing us and fleecing all. Watch the Ghion Cast below.
The only way to overcome tyranny is through unity. This is the message of the “Adwa” video below.
Teodrose Fikre
Teodrose was born in Ethiopia the same year Emperor Haile Selassie was deposed by the communist Derg junta. The grand-son of Emperor Atse Tewodros Kassa II, the greatest king of Ethiopia, Teodrose is clearly influenced by the history and his connection to Ethiopia. Through his experiences growing up as first generation refugee in America, Teodrose writes poignantly about the universal experiences of joys, pains and a hope for a better tomorrow that binds all of humanity.
Teodrose has written extensively about the intersection of politics, economic policies, identity, and history. He is the author of "Serendipity's Trace" and newly released "Soul to Soil", two works that inspect the ways we are dissected as a people and shows how we can overcome injustice through the inclusive vision of togetherness.
Latest posts by Teodrose Fikre (see all)
- Conservative Buffoon or Liberal Tool: Blueprint for Black Pundits - May 1, 2017
- Zeitgeist Petulance: the Government We Deserve - May 1, 2017
- A Star’s Radiance: the Symphony that is Aster Aweke - April 30, 2017
