THE SPIRIT OF THE DAY

 

THE SPIRIT OF THE DAY

 

James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.

© November 10, 2020

 

It is an interesting time.  I mentioned (in an e-mail) that I doubt the sophistication of President Biden to manage an economy much less a country, such as the United States.

 

Someone who has read all my books, and all my e-mails, and whom I have actually written one book thinking of him in mind, seeing him as the professional lost in his career, has asked to be removed from my e-mail list, which I did promptly.  This breaks a thirty year connection.

 

The reason for the separation?  He writes: “I am for the new president and I don’t want to hear a word that may be negative about him.  Besides, I lost my job, I’m now 60 years old, the company has had to downsize and it is because of Trump and his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.”

 

Now, this is a thinking man, an engineer, a professional and a person I am fond of, but I had to react, at least to myself, “Say what?”

 

For nigh on four years I have constantly been reminded electronically through e-mails, The New York Review, Foreign Affairs, The Tampa Bay Times, and network and cable television communications, and yes e-mails (now from China) what a terrible person Donald J. Trump is. 

 

I have been asked to absorb them at face value, comments far beyond mine of the new president’s lack of wherewithal to lead, while l continue to peruse these media, and haven’t ask anyone to quit writing to me.

 

Do I agree with these assessments?  No.  Am I surprised by these assessments?  No.  Do I think President Trump is like Beelzebub, and a continuous danger to me and everyone when no longer president?  No.  Did he destroy America, fuel the coronavirus, destabilize the economy, cause “global warming,” or create international crises?  Of course not.  Even Attila the Hun couldn’t do that; nor could Abraham Lincoln whose critics were equally savage.

 

I see President Trump as a flawed man like us all, but a “doer,” a man with ideas, and a man with a plan to put America back to work again without apologies, a nationalists more than a Republican.  In fact, a number of prominent Republicans abandoned him because he wasn’t doctrinaire enough.

 

Trump was a man tired of the United States being the hardware store, food bank, loan agency, and policeman of the world, allowing these other affluent nations of the world to be American dependents.  And like anyone who allows you to do for them what they best do for themselves, you can never do enough, so no surprise, they, too, constantly threw arrows at President Trump. 

 

If you noticed, these nations now are elated that he is gone, believing the money train is back to make up for these deficit indulgences, and they may be right.  It remains to be seen.

 

A reader writes that he read a book that a journalist provides page, chapter and book on all the bad things President Trump has done, and along the way what a despicable man he is. 

 

It reminds me of an experience.  When I was a young businessman traveling a lot, I would read a whole book on a long flight.  This was after President Richard Milhous Nixon resigned.  After Nixon’s Watergate, which admittedly was his low point, he was rushed out of office before being impeached.

 

It so happened I was on a plane going somewhere for Nalco Chemical Company on business, and reading a Lou Cannon book on Nixon.  Nalco always had me assigned to first class on these flights although I didn’t drink, while Honeywell whom I worked for later always had me in business class.  I mentioned this because the lady sitting beside me saw I was reading this book on Nixon, and said, “Isn’t he the most despicable man you have ever heard of?” 

 

I looked up, and said, “Madam, I thought President Nixon was the greatest president in my lifetime,” and that of course included President Kennedy.  The woman buzzed the stewardess, as they were known in that time, and asked to have her seat changed.

 

“But, Madam,” the flight attendant said, “we have no other seats available in first class.”  I smiled into my book.

 

Not dissuaded, the woman said, “Perhaps someone might not mind changing seats with me.”

 

Exasperated, the flight attendant said, “Yes, madam, I’ll check.”  She did and no one wanted to give up their present seat. 

 

At the time, I was a Nalco executive with an engineering background, and no knowledge or training in the social dynamics of people.  Later on, when I returned to academia, now in pursuit of a Ph.D. in social psychology, I learned about people and "territorial imperatives," that is, how people tend to treat their current situation, whatever it is, as sacrosanct and belonging to them.  

The woman had to stay with me for our three hour flight, drank a lot, but never touched her food.  Meanwhile, I finished my book.

 

It is good that people have opinions.  My wonder is how valuable is it to “buy the party line” or “the ideas of journalists, the intelligentsia much less party wonks or the media.” 

 

The “Spirit of the Times” is to have passion for certain ideas at the expense of not having passion for others, which is not only all right, it is the way we are as citizens of a Democratic Republic.  But are they our ideas, our thoughts, our passions, or are they subliminally acquired?

 

In any case, if we’re going to buy into the idea that our current president is a bad man, but our new president is a good man, that – to my mind – doesn’t speak too highly of us as independent thinkers.    

 

You can only imagine what kind of responses I have gotten to my recent missives.  I would like to say “they are interesting,” but truthfully, they sound too much as if they are coming out of well-paid “talking heads.”

 

I’ve been working for the past ten months on a book as if I have been sitting across from longshoreman philosopher Eric Hoffer inhaling his terrible cigar smoke as he talks on and on about, not about what everyone thinks, but what he thinks and why.    It has been quite refreshing.

 

Some of you readers sound like Hoffer, but some others sound like everyone which means no one.  My aim is to hear what you think and why, not justified because some author, pundit, or academic says it is so, or you think says it better than you can.  I want to hear what you think, period.  As I've said many times, I'm not interested in you agreeing with me.  I am not on a crusade for anything. 

 

Therefore, it was refreshing to hear from one reader whom I quote to end this:

 

Jim,

Just want to say that I think your responses to (readers) were truly well said. I would also add that my appreciation goes beyond the fact that I agree with the content. I enjoyed that they were essentially reference free as well as direct, crisp, clear, and friendly in tone. Well done in a contentious age.

The reason I share this with you is because the writer is his own man with his own opinions and a balanced perspective on things.  Hoffer would love his quip because he believed governance was not about the elected, but about every man in the trenches, which to him were like Kierkegaard's "common man."

 

A company survives, not because of its competent or inept management, but because of its people; the same is true of a nation.  

What goes on in each of our own little worlds, which hopefully is not contentious, saves us all as individuals, and in turn saves our nation.