The Punishment Sutra
Who’s your daddy?
The first hand of America’s big poker game’s been dealt. The part of America that believes in liberal democracy only gets one seat at the table, though the ante for the first hand has already been paid — by everybody. Granted, it’s very nervous-making, but you alone must play the hand that all our bets ride on. I’ll junk this metaphor in a paragraph or two, but I want you to feel weight of the responsibility. Around the table sit Trump, many of his henchmen and some powerful autocrats from distant countries. It’s easy to imagine they’re all in cahoots, working some elaborate scheme.
To a certain extent, they are in cahoots — your chances of losing the farm increase with each chair occupied — but bad odds don’t make a conspiracy. They’re all against you and you have as many ways of losing as there are players. So even if there’s no organized conspiracy to pick you clean, yes, they do intend to pick you clean. But it’s a poker game for them, too. One you have no choice but to play. In this metaphor, however, the deck isn’t stacked. None of the other players know any more about what cards are where than you do. It’s a gamble for everybody — until the game gets going.
I’ve been playing a Dutch Uncle role here on Medium since the end of June, 2016, comparing America’s Trump with the Philippines’ Duterte. (Since I have so many more “followers” than “readers,” I direct you to my profile for examples.) That writing began with an experiential response to someone determined to vote for Trump. The “Sutras” in particular address America, but most every piece in my profile forewarns America (my nation of birth) from my vantage point six months down the fascist, authoritarian road in the Philippines (my country of adoption) as it suffers at the hands of its own madman demagogue.
It is only now that Trump has taken office, however, that I feel assured that you’ll understanding what I’m saying. As many Medium writers have pointed out, fascist authoritarianism may vary in detail, but its developmental arc is depressingly the same. Country to country. Era to era. Demagogue to demagogue. Indeed, it is people’s expectation that “this time” will be different that makes the whole sorry affair possible. That this dictator will be a good one — the “man on a horse.” New demagogues come to power, not because people are ignorant about dictators and dictatorships — but because the demagogue convinces people that “this time is different.” It won’t be. Fascism, after all, purports to be about order — not innovation.
Also, one of the gravest difficulties we in the liberal opposition face is that we too may expect it to be different. It won’t be. Trump’s immigration fiasco is just the first hand of a poker game in which American liberal democracy is on the table. I hope we can understand it better from my six-months-down-the-road anecdotes. Within hours of Trump’s introduction of the new immigration tumult, the Philippines’ Duterte pushed the pause button on his opening hand from seven months ago. There are things to be learned from comparing the beginnings and ends of these hideous policies.
Just as Trump campaigned on a Muslim ban, Duterte campaigned on a War on Drugs. At first, he promised to “rid the country of drugs” in three months. Then, as the day passed, his chief cop offered to resign because for some reason drugs had not been eliminated. Sincerity having been demonstrated, Duterte refused the resignation and spent a week or ten days waving lists around before the media, lamenting that there were so many more “drug personalities” than he’d ever expected, that he was going to have to ask the people to be patient — his cops and vigilantes (many of whom are both) were unable to kill more than about a thousand people a month, despite their best efforts. The total eradication of the drug problem was going to take six months.
After dozens of untoward events and with the new deadline falling, the poker game dealt Duterte a losing hand. A well-to-do Korean businessman was hauled away by the cops, ostensibly on a drug charge that turned out to be a kidnapping. He was killed inside the police compound just a few houses down from the Police Commander’s residence. After he was already dead (strangulation, according to the whistleblower), the cops’ greed and audacity prompted them to ask their victim’s wife for a ransom, which was paid. But since the husband had already been cremated at a funeral parlor owned by one of the cops, his ashes flushed down a toilet, their next logical move was to demand a second ransom.
At that point, the entire operation began coming apart. The worldwide notoriety of Duterte’s drug war escalated into a full-blown international incident with the government of Korea — an important regional player upon whose aid and investment the Philippines depends both legally and illicitly. As a result, Duterte has put the drug war on hold, shut down the police drug squad — already notorious for looting, evidence planting, cold-blooded killing during “operations” and being the main source of “vigilantes.”
Miraculously, all the drug killings stopped with that order. That’s for the moment. But Duterte and his chief cop — who again proffered a refused resignation — swear that the “special” (read: “killer”) drug squad will be back. As soon as it’s cleansed of “a few bad apples.” Several of these “scalawags” have already been punished — by having to do pushups. Appearing slightly discouraged, Duterte further announced that things were so bad that the drug war would now have to continue for the rest of his six-year term of office.
Let’s examine some parallels. Trump’s immigration decree seeks to fulfill a campaign promise much like Duterte’s drug war. In both cases, there is a deliberate absence of paper trail. The “spirit” of the operation is passed by word-of-mouth — outsiders excluded — while the “letter” gets retrospectively justified by outré interpretations of existing law. Neither demagogue much cares who gets hurt. Both — in classic fascist form — have already dehumanized the victims, in their own eyes and in the eyes of many of their supporters. In the long run, both will work to the detriment of their constituency — but by the time the true believers are forced to face that, it will already be too late.
Trump’s immigration order — which isn’t faring too well in Federal Courts across the land — will eventually be revised into something just over the line into extreme right-wing constitutionality and Trump will declare it a great victory. But here’s what I mean by “too late.”
Duterte’s drug crisis has never been anything but a red herring. Competent surveys — done before his war on drugs was even an issue — showed the rate of drug use in the Philippines to be among the lowest in Asia. The number of “addicts” he usually spouts is nearly twice the figure his own agencies estimate for mere “users.” Although Duterte and his most rabid supporters agonize over horrid cases of “drug related violence,” police records show relatively few actual victims. This is not to say that such crimes are not horrible — they are, often in the extreme — but only to say they are rare. All the above facts have been widely published in local media.
But here’s what I mean about “too late.” Virtually all writers and commenters on the wrongs of the drug war now uniformly preface their remarks with the disclaimer that “though the drug problem certainly calls out for solutions” or “we need to fix this, but extrajudicial killing is not the way.” The fact that drug use is a symptom of a real problem, rather than the problems’ cause, has been all but abandoned. By ordinary people and by the media people who work for the very outlets that have already published facts to the contrary. Duterte’s narrative has overridden reality. A classic case of “alterative facts.”
To the extent that America’s people and media allow, you can expect Trump to be equally successful at establishing his narrative of alternative facts as well. We may be able to resist some of the most horrific actions, but in the very process of doing so, we will be tricked into adopting the tropes of Trumpian discourse.
Duterte gleefully accepts his identity as “The Punnisher.” The prime characteristic of Trump supporters has been shown to be their enthusiasm for authoritarianism. Both see punishment as their right. Their unexamined self-righteousness is astounding and we can expect them to continue doing exactly that — astounding us with their eagerness to punish. Without empathy. With no care for the lives they ruin in the process. A ghastly exercise in chauvinism and privilege.
Of course, decisions affecting international affairs will suffer too — given America’s position in the geopolitical world. That is yet another nightmare. But for now — if we’re to be worth out liberal salt — we must concentrate on harm reduction. Trump and Duterte are fascist authoritarians who would love to rule as dictators — will rule as dictators to the extent we allow. They care nothing about human suffering. In fact, they consider it just another tool or method of gaining the control they lust after. How well will we be able to psych out the other poker players? Will we be able to enforce the rules of the game? Can we find backers if we need to up the ante? Will we last the game without being forced to fold? Can we remain poker-faced and bluff when necessary? With all our intelligence, talent and ability, we must resist!
