The Book I'm Still Reading: Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov

As a matter of fact, I AM still reading The Foundation Trilogy. And I actually read on it every day...but only two or three pages PD. (I'm also reading ten other books.*) So I'm making progress...and, by the way, enjoying it immensely...but it's going to take some time, you know?

But once again I've run aground on some words that make me think of Trump. This time with the focus on those who seem to follow him blindly. I think Asimov presents a pretty good case for understanding how and why that happens...and why it's unlikely to stop happening. I haven't tried to do anything to make this quoted material cleave more closely to the Trump scenario other than (1) trimming some excess stuff out--mostly stage direction-y stuff, and (2) crossing out the name of Seldon and replacing it with Trump. You're welcome. Here it is:

“It's a mass psychosis, an unprintable mob panic. …Here you have a whole culture brought up to a blind, blubbering belief that a folk hero of the past has everything all planned out and is taking care of every little piece of their unprintable lives. The thought-pattern  evoked has characteristics ad religio, and you know what that means. …Characterized by strong faith reactions. Beliefs can't be shaken short of a major shock, in which case, a fairly complete mental disruption results. Mild cases—hysteria, morbid sense of insecurity. Advanced cases—madness and suicide. …When Seldon Trump fails us, in other words, our prop disappears, and we've been leaning upon it so long, our muscles are atrophied to where we can not stand without it.”

Aside from the most obvious stuff (in terms of parallels), one thing that hits me here is the idea that people depend on Trump for their world view...which I do see signs of...and obviously if you've gone that far, you are going to defend him to the death. In fact, you have to, because if you don't, you collapse with him. I'd take that a step farther and suggest that people know this on some level, probably subconsciously, and that explains the blindness and ferocity of their allegiance to Trump. (Subconsciously, I'd say, because it is very hard for someone to admit that they have built their house on the sand. Much easier to refuse to back down and tell yourself it's a point of honor. That way you completely avoid acknowledging your own fragility.)



* Yeah, literally. There's (1) The DK Illustrated Family Bible  by Claude-Bernard Costecalde, (2) The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, and (3) Beautiful Bible Stories by Patricia Summerlin Martin with Jacqueline. Then there's (4) Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer, (5) The Mucker by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and (6) The Beginner's Bible For Toddlers by Carolyn Nabors Baker and Cindy Helms with Joe. And just for me there's (7) Pogo: The Complete Daily & Sunday Comic Strips, Vol. 1: Through the Wild Blue Wonder Volume 1 by Walt Kelly, (8) The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir by John Bolton, (9) The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II Volume III by Fernand Braudel, and (10) Cold Snap by Thom Jones. Some people tell me they don't know how I keep all of those stories straight, which I've always thought was kind of weird. Do you only watch one television show at a time? Well, maybe you do now...but there was a day when we watched like a dozen different shows a week, because they didn't come out in season-sized blocks. Anyway...it's really not that complicated.