The Optimism of Satan
Is power only for the corrupt, or is its pursuit part of our nature?
A friend of mine once had the opportunity to ask the Dalai Lama a single question.
“Who was your greatest teacher?” he asked.
The exiled leader replied, “Mao Zedong.”
I once felt provoked in my own sphere by a similarly unlikely teacher — Donald Trump.
Years ago, Trump the Developer asked an interviewer: “What good is something if you can’t put your name on it?” His comment is indelibly stamped on my memory, though I confess I cannot find a source for it. Did I imagine it? The sentiment, while coarse and easily rebutted, came to haunt me.
Did Trump, the showy conman obsessed with naming rights, capture a nagging truth of human nature — a side none of us can deny or push away, other than by an act of self-regarding hypocrisy? And did I, hopefully in a more integral way, share a kernel of his outlook? Was the voice even his — or something within me?
Soon after hearing Trump’s remark, I received what struck me as a bit of ridiculous advice from the editor of an academic spiritual journal. I told him in candor that I wanted to find greater exposure for my byline. “You don’t have to put your name on everything you write,” he replied. Such a…
