Pericles on the Potomac – Fat Tail Daily | Australian Markets

‘I can do whatever I wanna do. Because I’m the president of the United States.’

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–Donald Trump

We’ve been monitoring what we see as a shift from more or much less consensual democracy…to Big Man democracy. This pattern is new to the US however acquainted in different nations. And it was foretold by the ancients.

Thucydides commented:

“Athens, though still in name a democracy, was in fact ruled by her greatest citizen…”

The ‘greatest citizen’ Thucydides was speaking about was Pericles…a prototypical Big Man chief. He ostracized his opponents. He gave out favors to the decrease courses — very like Trump’s ‘no tax on tips’ program. He tightened restrictions on Athenian citizenship. He constructed great monuments, together with the Parthenon. He spent an excessive amount of money. And he promoted a long-running struggle with Sparta which ended badly; Sparta captured Athens and looted the metropolis.

Sometimes people agree. Sometimes they will’t. And after they can’t agree, they might need more muscular management to put an finish to the squabbling. A headline at Bloomberg means that some European nations could also be headed that method too:

Much of Europe is Losing the Ability to Govern

Anatol Lieven provides:

France could also be the latest domino to fall as debt disaster sparks an austerity backlash

Typically, consensus collects round rules or guidelines, like iron filings round a magnet. We drive on the proper (or left!) facet of the highway. We agree to not kill one another. We say please and thanks…even to people we don’t particularly like. And whether or not we’re a males’s choir or a stitching bee, we discover common ground.

Even armies have generally relied on consensus relatively than command. The anarchist militias in the Spanish Civil struggle elected their officers and debated their techniques. George Orwell reported that they had been efficient navy models.

In the business world…and even in church sacristy conferences…concepts collide. The most engaging ones — or these put ahead by the most forceful and persuasive proponents — survive. The relaxation are discarded or held for additional dialogue.

The current, televised White House cupboard assembly was one thing totally different. Big Men don’t wish to be constrained, neither by guidelines…nor by consensus. They need lackeys to hold out their plans, not unbiased thinkers to problem them. So, their conferences take on a character that’s not like something we’re used to.

Cabinet members are alleged to be some of the most ready people in the nation. And but, if this was a battle of concepts, all the contributors got here unarmed. They didn’t offer new and higher ideas. They didn’t come to debate daring new plans. Instead, they appeared to be there solely to reward POTUS.

Of course, the liberal media howled its calumnies and contempt.

Jen Psaki:

‘Trump’s groveling, cult-like White House Cabinet conferences go from dangerous to worse.’

Washington Examiner:

‘Team of sycophants: Cabinet lines up to lavish praise on Trump.’

Rolling Stone:

TRUMP’S CABINET MEETING WAS STUFFED WITH FLATTERY FOR DEAR LEADER

‘The televised groveling festival lasted over three hours.’

The most admirable facet of this show was the endurance of the grovelers. These had been center-aged women and men. They will need to have had different issues to do.

Of course, some of the cupboard members are stuffed shirts and placeholders. But others are wealthy and highly effective. All are adults. And but, all of them performed their roles — with no obvious irony, residual dignity or need to go to the rest room. They had been the shameless suck-ups a Big Man wants.

We had been reminded about conferences of the North Korean politburo…or of Stalin’s speeches in the Kremlin. After one of these speeches the clapping went on for eleven minutes. No one needed to be the first to stop. Eventually, the supervisor of a paper manufacturing facility dared to sit down down. He was arrested that very same evening and sentenced to 10 years of exhausting labor in the Gulag. Over a million people had been killed by Stalin’s goons. Millions more had been despatched to the Gulag, most of whom died.

But Stalin was proper. If you wish to govern as a Big Man, you’ve bought to weed out the unreliable little males. The first one to stop clapping was in all probability the most unbiased thinker in the group. Independent pondering is the final thing the Big Man desires.

There was no unbiased thought on show in the Trump cupboard.

Instead, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer was virtually in rapture:

“To see your big, beautiful face on a banner in front of the Department of Labor, because you are really the transformational president of the American worker.”

Trump’s former business companion, Steve Witkoff, now on the public payroll, stated this:

“Mr. President, working for this government, for you, is the greatest honor of my life…There’s only one thing I wish for: That that Nobel committee finally gets its act together and realizes that you are the single finest candidate since this Nobel award was ever talked about to receive that reward beyond your success is game-changing out in the world today…”

But Scott Bessent, Treasury secretary, in all probability gave the most lovable efficiency. He spoke like an newbie, which made it sound honest:

“Our country has never been so secure thanks to you…You brought us back from the edge.”

’With debt scheduled to increase to $60 trillion in 10 years,’ a braver cupboard member might need requested, ‘and since we haven’t cut a single penny of spending, internet, aren’t we nonetheless headed to the edge?’ But the query by no means got here up. It wasn’t one the Big Man needed to listen to.

Whatever else may very well be stated about these performances, they’re certainly taking sycophancy in American politics to a new stage. Mr. Trump is the proverbial bull in a china store. He simply rocked the Fed by ‘firing’ one of its governors. He disrupted trillions in commerce along with his trade wars. He bombs international nations. He proposes to annex Greenland. He suggests he may need to ship US troops into Mexico. He imposes federal troops on US cities. At home and overseas, people marvel and fear about what he’ll do subsequent. And says Scott Bessent:

“And you, sir, are restoring trust to government.”

The mainstream press harrumphed. But that is simply how Big Man authorities works. It’s the Big Man himself who counts. He’s the star. The relaxation of the forged are stage fingers…holding up the lights so we will see him in all his glory.

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