To many it might seem strange that Donald Trump's recent departure from his election promises has made me think of Marcel Aymé's story about a character in a book who wanted to avoid her destiny. What could a French author of absurd comical novels have to do with the political analysis of Donald Trump's strange about-face from the foreign policy he promised before his election? Marcel Ayme, in "Le Romancier Martin," the first story in Derriere chez Martin, writes of a novelist who developed a bad habit of killing off most of his principal characters and even some less important ones, which made very depressing reading and diminished sales. The characters themselves and Martin's editor complained that their life expectancy was grossly inferior to that of characters in other novels. Madame Soubiron, the wife of a principal character, somehow sensing that she would be next to die, decided to challenge her fate. First she visited the writer and begged him to make certain changes, but he claimed to have little say in what his characters did. Once he had created them, he said, the die was cast. Although it seemed impossible for a mere fictitious character to influence her role, Mrs Soubiron ultimately managed this by deviating from what was expected of her in strange and unusual ways which the novelist could not have considered in advance. For instance, one evening at dinner, she took off her shoe and put it on her plate. Instead of eating the slice of beef she had served herself, she dropped it down the front of her dress and rubbing her stomach, mimed how tasty it was. As she continued to act more and more absurdly out of character, she eventually escaped death.
Trump suddenly starts acting out of character
Well, after hearing Donald Trump babbling on about 'beautiful little babies' and not hearing any punchline, then of his ordering the firing of 59 missiles at a Syrian airfield in response to an implausibly attributed chemical weapons attack at Khan Sheikhun, and conveying, furthermore, this news to a Chinese president over a 'beautiful slice of chocolate cake', of course I had a sense of déjà vu. Trump was obviously a fan of Marcel Aymé's and he was using the Mme Soubiron tactic for resisting a fatal and stupid script. Anyone with a slight knowledge of Trump's history on the subject knows that before and during his election campaign, Trump held in utter contempt, had several times denounced as absurd, the idea of intervention in Syria and Obama's near invasion on the basis of specious chemical weapons. Now he was carrying on just like Hillary. Who had a gun to his head? Had his grandchildren been taken hostage?
A cry for help?
When Trump dropped the absurdly outsized and expensive cliched 'mother of all non-nuclear bombs' on caves in Afghanistan, I knew it was an absurdist cry for help. Trump has been surrounded and somehow forced to go along with ISIS fans, Bin Laden obsessives and Putin-Rasputin conspiracy theorists like John McCain, John Kerry, Obama and the Clintons. How did they do it? Many have said that the neocons run the Whitehouse according to a script no-one may escape. Bribery, blackmail, threats and assassination are among the establishment's arsenal, according to John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman. And we all know it anyhow, as that same establishment openly targets anyone standing in its way with assassination: most recently Gadaffi (Hillary Clinton, 'We came, we saw, he died, ha ha ha') and a long list before him: J.F.K, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King and then lots more foreign leaders: https://wikispooks.com/wiki/US/Foreign_Assassinations_since_1945. It has also been suggested that a somehow no less irresistible pressure has been applied by purportedly Zionist son-in-law, Jared Kushner, via Ivanka, Trump's beloved daughter. Shades of King Lear! Another absurdist character. And this Kushner pressure is also supposed to have led to Steve Bannon's departure. See, Steve Bannon exposes Jared Kushner also see How much of Kushner's financing came from George Soros?.
Or has Trump gone mad?
An alternative theory is that Trump has gone mad. Gordon Duff at Veterans today, "Breaking: VT Hit with Stuxnet as Trump’s Complicity in Gas Attack is Confirmed," (April 15, 2017) suggests that Trump is suffering from bi-polar disorder and, under pressure from the situation in the Whitehouse, he has become hypomanic or even manic, with delusions, suggestibility and loss of judgement. However I don't think the madness theory stands up. If Trump was going to lose his mind, it would have happened during that long and grueling election campaign with all the travelling to give speeches, interaction with millions of supporters, and the few hours of sleep nightly. No, Trump showed he had incredible endurance when he was in charge of his own campaign and policies.
Cryptic genius
Another theory is that Trump is conducting a program of such cryptic genius that most mere mortals simply cannot put the pieces together. A bit like Mme Soubiron. Thierry Meyssan of voltaire.net.org writes: http://www.voltairenet.org/en. "Trump : two steps forward, one step back": "Damascus, Syria. Whilst the international press describes Donald Trump's big about-turn, Thierry Meyssan shows that it's not that at all. Far from having abandoned his ideal of peace, the President of the United States shouts and bombs, but always careful not to do anything irreversible...."[1]
Deep state victim
It could still be, however, that Trump has recently being drugged, poisoned, blackmailed, or threatened in other ways. Certainly something has changed. Since no-one outside the White House can be sure of what is happening, it all makes you think that Trump should never have agreed to live at the White House. He should have remained at Trump Towers with his tried and true security forces. But is it even possible to resist the Deep State? They got Gaddafi. They got Bin Laden (they say). And maybe they have got Trump.
What happened to Mme Soubiron, the character who evaded death by her creator? Although she wasn't insane, she finished up in an insane asylum, as the novelist found her impossible to bend to the plot. And the plot went on without her.
Will the Deep State swallow America? Surely America is bigger than the evil dwarfs who run the Deep State! Well, let's hope so. But we need some hobbits or something to help us.
NOTES
[1]"Trump : deux pas en avant, un pas en arrière
DAMAS (SYRIE)
Alors que la presse internationale décrit le grand retournement de Donald Trump, Thierry Meyssan montre qu’il n’en est rien : loin d’avoir abandonné son idéal de paix, le président des États-Unis hurle et bombarde, tout en faisant attention à ne rien commettre d’irréversible.." Source: http://www.voltairenet.org/article196024.html
Comments
Geoffrey Taylor
Fri, 2017-04-21 00:46
Permalink
As Pence threatens to start WW3 in Korea Trump has disappeared?!
I think the more pessimistic hypothesis given above in the paragraph Deep state victim is the most plausible of the hypotheses in Sheila's article. Paul Craig Robberts' grim appraisal is perhaps still better.
The following is from from his article President Trump's Disappearance (20/4/17):
Geoffrey Taylor
Sat, 2017-04-22 21:18
Permalink
RT video debate on apparent broken promises: "Pentagon Rules"
Originally published on RT as a CrossTalk debate Pentagon Rules (21/4/2017). The copy embedded below is from YouTube.
Who rules? For decades the imperial presidency has steadily grown in power. Wars today are named after presidents. Trump appears to be going a step further - now the military is being given latitude to conduct its own conflict around the globe.
CrossTalking with Michael Vlahos, Medea Benjamin, and Robert Naiman.
Add comment