On humility, humor, and the most basic of human emotions
What strikes me the most about this entire Trump debacle is the stunning lack of common ground between anyone in this administration and anyone outside of it. Sure, Trump may have run his campaign with the promise of catering to the little man and returning the power to the American people, but I have never seen people so out of touch with even the most basic of human responses — humility, humor, and irony.
Humility is important. Often misconstrued as weakness, appeasement, or soft-spokenness, humility is a noble trait. It is my personal belief that we should all walk through life with an air of confidence, but not one of entitlement — the two are often confused as one and the same. There is absolutely no shame in having pride in your country, in your accomplishments, or in your former successes. But to view your own achievements as far superior to anyone else’s garners no respect among peers. You can accomplish greatness without belittling your fellow man. This, of course, is even more appropriate when your former accomplishments turn out to be complete falsehoods, whether they’re the number of jobs you’ve saved or the size of your inauguration crowd.
If there is anything that binds humanity, it is humor, and while we all have differing views of what is funny and what isn’t, we can all agree that some things are funny and some aren’t. The truly clownish antics of this administration garner some sort of acknowledgement of their inherit buffoonery. To the dismay of Mr. Trump, SNL has done a wonderful job of highlighting the truly absurd nature of our nation’s current predicament. Humor, however, is a two-way street. No one can be expected to be taken seriously if they can’t handle a bit of self-mockery. The inability to view one’s actions as humorous, even when they are not purposefully so, does nothing but divide. Sean Spicer, to his credit, seems to get a kick out of the jabs dished out by the wonderful Melissa McCarthy. But everyone else’s reactions to these preposterous situations are those of anger, offense, and shock. If you fail to see your own actions as funny, even if it pains you to do so, you have lost touch with part of yourself. Everyone is funny. Just not in the ways we expect ourselves to be.
Finally, this entire situation positively reeks of irony. I could rehash the basics, but I don’t want to beat a dead elephant — draining the swamp didn’t pan out (seemingly knowingly), Trump continues to use private email servers and phones to carry out government business just like Hillary didn’t, et cetera, et cetera. And yet, Trump et al. completely fail to see how there are any parallels to be drawn between what has been said, what has been done, and how it compares to milder actions that they had previously criticized ad nauseum (forgive the excessive Latin, taking four years of it in high school is entirely mea culpa). My personal favorite tasty tidbit of glaring irony is the perpetuation of the “fragile left” stigma, while conservatives have a tendency to respond to even the most benign of criticisms with offense and rage. Could it truly be that they are this ignorant, to not see how a failed raid on Yemen that led to the death of a Marine and an American girl is not relatable at all to Benghazi, not to mention far worse? Could the immediate turnaround from “draining the swamp” to filling your cabinet with big bank execs truly not warrant even the slightest of quizzical looks from within? Do the same screaming hoards who chanted “lock her up” really not see how their dismissal of Trump’s use of private phones and email accounts is deserving of similar treatment?
It’s truly a unique situation we’ve got in these United States. For the first time in most of our memories, we’re captained by a demagogue, part failed businessman, part washed-up reality star, all-in-all a losing choice for our country (sad!). But it’s not necessarily Trump, the person(?) who is so dangerous. It’s how we respond to him. I’m not talking in terms of protest — now, more than ever, it is so important to get out and voice your opinion, rebel against the powers that be, and fight for what is truly right, not what simply won the popular vote. No, our response as a country — whether or not we enable him to get away with these things, is the true danger. And our ability to see the shady dealings and murky announcements from the White House is to see the humility, humor, and irony in it all.
“Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.”
– Kurt Vonnegut