Delusion

The Buddha famously explained that human suffering is due to clinging, which he described as a longing, a desire, for things to be different than they are.  Some of this clinging is a desire for our current state of being to last forever - for us not to grow old, for our children to be young and innocent forever, for the intoxicating pleasures of new-found love to not give way to the more mundane pleasures of familiarity and mere contentment.  

All these concepts are ultimately delusional - we are all subject to aging, sickness and death, children mature, grow and eventually die, and love in its initial form does not last forever.   But a particularly pernicious form of delusion is clinging not to the impermanent wishing that it was permanent but clinging to that which has never existed even in the first place.  

It's a difficult concept to come to grips with, but the Buddha taught that the concept of the ego-self, that an individual self exists separate from the rest of the world, is a delusion.  "Internally, I am me and external to that 'me' is the rest of the world," seems like a reasonable proposition, but one which the Buddha rejected.  Descarte's "I think, therefore I am," although considered an axiom of the European Enlightenment, is almost the polar opposite of the Buddha's enlightenment.

To the Buddha, clinging to the ego-self is clinging to a delusion and the source of much suffering.  A narcissist takes that clinging to a whole other level, and their suffering, expressed as a series of grievances, complaints, and cruelties, are the expression of that suffering. Racists, nationalists, the various forms of xenophobes, and chauvinists are all clinging to the delusion of an ego-self.

Enter one Donald Trump.  That he is clearly a narcissist, a malignant narcissist at that, almost goes without saying.  His narcissism leads him to reject those not like him, those of different nationalities, different races, different genders and sexual orientations, different political views.  This condition of his had led to much of the divisive politics of the past four years.  

One of the many problems with this kind of malignant narcissism is that if left unchecked, or in the case of Donald Trump, encouraged and abetted by enabling sycophants as well as celebrated by unquestioning followers, is that those considered to be unacceptable outsiders continually grows.  At first it was just Mexicans and the Chinese, but in the course of his presidency, it has grown to include others.  That it was always assumed Africans were considered unacceptable outsiders went without saying, and that view was confirmed with his reference to "shit-hole countries."  

But as his presidency continued and his behavior became more and more repugnant to more and more of the world, that list came to include many European countries and certainly their leaders (e.g., Angela Merkel).  It came to include, right here in American, the entire Democratic Party, liberal and progressive Americans who voted for Democratic candidates, and several American states in their entirety, as evidenced by his lack of concern about Californian wildfires.  His indifference to the covid-19 pandemic was due to a lack of empathy for those who contracted the disease or who, unlike him, did not have a small army of the country's best physicians to help him recover when he himself contracted the disease.

Now, in the waning days of his presidency, the circle of those similar enough to him to be considered acceptable has become alarmingly small.  He has turned against much of his own selected cabinet members and many of his White House advisors and counselors.  He has even turned against his long-faithful Vice President, and the recent insurgent crowd of his followers were heard chanting in the Capital, "Hang Mike Pence."  Nothing short of unquestioning and unwavering loyalty, as well as racial, linguistic, and behavioral similarity, is required to stay in his inner circle. I have no reason not to suspect that circle will continue to become ever smaller until it excludes even his own wife, children not named "Ivanka," and eventually even Ivanka herself.  

The man is suffering - suffering mightily due to clinging to the delusion of an outsized ego-self - and he takes out the pain of his suffering on a nation he is supposed to be protecting.  Mercy on this nation in his final days in office.