Donald Trump
It's gotten to the point where there is no avoiding this guy, unless you want to demediate yourself. Don't bother looking it up, I made up the word. It means to crawl in a hole and avoid the media, which is about what you'd have to do to avoid the media these days. I hope the word will gain as much traction as the economic term, disintermediation, which also flags a misspell, meaning it's not recognized as a word by spell check (so does blog, btw), but which has made it to Wikipedia (also a "misspell"). Disintermediation is big because so much of it is going on right now. It means, basically, getting rid of the middlemen, cutting short the supply chain, most of is made possible by the internet. I greatly enjoyed the effect on the music industry.
Anyway, demediation does not seem to be a trend here, quite the opposite, we've added numerous layers over this century. However, selective demediation could probably go wide. A sort of universal spam blocker... I simply type in "Donald Trump" and no images of the guy and his "wisdom", venom or indefensible hairdo will get through to me in any form. The TV would automatically change to a default station as I passively enjoy my Trump-free life, never having to see one of his infomercials about how to make it big like him (I hope his course comes with a developer dad, like he had). My magazines would come with appropriate references removed... ok, enough dreaming, it's years away, time to get on with my actual point.
I read Donald's book in the 80's, my kids and I are Apprentice fanatics, and, I have no real problem with his unabashed NY style, as a New Yorker, I totally get that. He came from wealth yet has the bravado of a self-made man, which is somewhat offensive. He lives in a shallow world of deals and yes-men, he makes deal after deal after deal, he writes books about the art of the deal. He won't let the deal go down. He is the deal. He makes no apologies. Is this man what we all want to be?
That is the crux of the question for me. Do you want to be Trump? Do I?? Do the millions of applicants to his show, the readers of his books, buyers of his water? Obviously. He is the American Dream..... or so I thought. Now I see him engaged in this Rosie feud. If all the money, fame, power, young wife etc. make him so happy, wouldn't he be above getting annoyed with a comedian's barbs? Is Donald Trump happy? And, if he isn't, why should we devote our lives to the goal of becoming more like him?
He certainly comes off like a happy guy, but, even his own kids seem to have a sort of business-like relationship with him. He doesn't strike me as a particularly warm or peaceful guy. Unlike most famous people, who achieve fame in the arts, Trump represents the average "successful" person, someone who is confident and used to being treated with a certain amount of deference. He's like the guys I see downtown all the time in pressed shirts with Crackberries on their hip, on important calls, taking important lunches, making important deals.
It's a shallow, temporal happiness at best, but that's not how any of these guys see it. It's mental state that's easily ruffled and it's a narrow comfort zone because, most of these guys have a tough time getting real with themselves or others. As long as they're talking about business or some other mundane feature of their lives it's smooth and easy, but ask why they do this or feel this or think this and there's a total sea change, now they're in the ocean in a rowboat looking for an island. When they sense the platitudes aren't working, it's even worse, now they're peeking within and seeing nothing, feeling nothing but mild fear and confusion.
They start to sense that there's a whole other level they are not tuned into and the reaction, sadly, is not to try and tune into it, but to ignore it in favor of terra firma. Your job will not support you spiritually, even your church will probably not sustain you. If you want true peace and happiness, you have to work for it. It's hard work. In many ways, much harder than career work. But, you shouldn't run from it. Hard as it is, and probably with little support, at least at first, it is so worth it. If you're not centered in yourself, if you're not facing yourself, the career, even at the pinnacle will never really satisfy you.
Anyway, demediation does not seem to be a trend here, quite the opposite, we've added numerous layers over this century. However, selective demediation could probably go wide. A sort of universal spam blocker... I simply type in "Donald Trump" and no images of the guy and his "wisdom", venom or indefensible hairdo will get through to me in any form. The TV would automatically change to a default station as I passively enjoy my Trump-free life, never having to see one of his infomercials about how to make it big like him (I hope his course comes with a developer dad, like he had). My magazines would come with appropriate references removed... ok, enough dreaming, it's years away, time to get on with my actual point.
I read Donald's book in the 80's, my kids and I are Apprentice fanatics, and, I have no real problem with his unabashed NY style, as a New Yorker, I totally get that. He came from wealth yet has the bravado of a self-made man, which is somewhat offensive. He lives in a shallow world of deals and yes-men, he makes deal after deal after deal, he writes books about the art of the deal. He won't let the deal go down. He is the deal. He makes no apologies. Is this man what we all want to be?
That is the crux of the question for me. Do you want to be Trump? Do I?? Do the millions of applicants to his show, the readers of his books, buyers of his water? Obviously. He is the American Dream..... or so I thought. Now I see him engaged in this Rosie feud. If all the money, fame, power, young wife etc. make him so happy, wouldn't he be above getting annoyed with a comedian's barbs? Is Donald Trump happy? And, if he isn't, why should we devote our lives to the goal of becoming more like him?
He certainly comes off like a happy guy, but, even his own kids seem to have a sort of business-like relationship with him. He doesn't strike me as a particularly warm or peaceful guy. Unlike most famous people, who achieve fame in the arts, Trump represents the average "successful" person, someone who is confident and used to being treated with a certain amount of deference. He's like the guys I see downtown all the time in pressed shirts with Crackberries on their hip, on important calls, taking important lunches, making important deals.
It's a shallow, temporal happiness at best, but that's not how any of these guys see it. It's mental state that's easily ruffled and it's a narrow comfort zone because, most of these guys have a tough time getting real with themselves or others. As long as they're talking about business or some other mundane feature of their lives it's smooth and easy, but ask why they do this or feel this or think this and there's a total sea change, now they're in the ocean in a rowboat looking for an island. When they sense the platitudes aren't working, it's even worse, now they're peeking within and seeing nothing, feeling nothing but mild fear and confusion.
They start to sense that there's a whole other level they are not tuned into and the reaction, sadly, is not to try and tune into it, but to ignore it in favor of terra firma. Your job will not support you spiritually, even your church will probably not sustain you. If you want true peace and happiness, you have to work for it. It's hard work. In many ways, much harder than career work. But, you shouldn't run from it. Hard as it is, and probably with little support, at least at first, it is so worth it. If you're not centered in yourself, if you're not facing yourself, the career, even at the pinnacle will never really satisfy you.
posted by Intervision at 4:37 AM
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