Italys Silvio Berlusconi & Americas Donald Trump

Have you observed?

Have you considered the importance of the events that are
unrelentingly battering the very foundations of Western Civilization I (Europe) and
Western Civilization II (the DisUnited States of America)? Do you know what these
menaces are? Have you even thought about what can be done to stunt their pernicious
spread?

The British scholar, Peter Watson, author of The German Genius:

Europes Third
Renaissance, The Second Scientific Revolution and the Twentieth Century (Simon & Schuster
UK Ltd; 2010), a magnificent tour de force through modern German philosophy and
culture, has convincingly argued, according to the Independent newspaper, that Germany
has done more than anything else to create the modern West.
Peter Watson asserts that there were well-defined characteristics of contemporary
German culture that accounted for both its dazzling brilliance and its shocking demise.
One factor was that the Germans were highly educated. During World War I, 1 of every
1,000 Germans was illiterate, while 300 of every 1,000 Italians were illiterate, and 68 of
every 1000 Austro-Hungarians were illiterate. Still, the Germans were not sharp-witted
enough not to go to war, and they would even try their hand at it again, in the 1930s,
eventually participating in the worldsuntil that timemost massive massacre. Despite
this, their prodigious scientific inventions can not be considered less than remarkable.
Quoting Goethe, Peter Watson explains that bildung, the German sense that if the
ultimate meaning of our humanity is that we develop that higher being within ourselves,
this then requires that we must continually improve ourselves. The German philosophers
(also David Hume, Bertrand Russell, Jean-Paul Sartre, et alia!) had buried God, and
Germans were left with only themselves whom they imagined would have to perform
god-likely and spawn god-like undertakings. Science, at the expense of the humanities,
took front row in the German quest to create a master race, and without pondering over
the human side of human life, the laboratory was well on its way to reducing humankind
to some sort of sterile 3-D clone whose parts could be interchanged for centuries to
come.

It might be said that in the twenty-first century we are in the throes of a fourth scientific
revolutionor even a fifth, depending on ones perspective. Whatever one, it is not
shrouded in black shirts and brown shirts, but rather the elegance of tailor-made
garments, Ferragamo shoes, Tiffany jewelry and Gucci bags. Today, our powerful point
men and women are also adherents of some Christian-Judaic Capitalist Democracy
blessed over and sanctioned by those who refuse to respect that line separating church
from state. It is so obvious that political leaders kowtow to the authoritarians of the
religious affiliations of their constituents, and then pander their wares to those
components seeking from them their support and financial assistance. In this puzzling,
blurring-of-the-lines free-for-all, chief executive officers behave as generals once did, and
generals conduct themselves as politicians do! A metaphysical impuissance symptomatic
of all ways of life on the verge of dying out.
Science, as yet, is the tool that enables the powers that be to calculate trends, invade the
privacy of their electors, and manipulate what is truthful in order to gain advantage.
Most people, not being capable of believing in themselves, must believe in something
beyond themselves. Religions and governmental arrangements serve well this need.
Religious and political overseers are carefully chosen to fit the correct profile that will
represent the ideals of these coteries. Leaders must be clean as a whistle, beyond
reproach, constantly, unfailingly set with the best quip or retort, sort of handsome,
money bags or very well connected, God-fearing men and women, not divorced, and
while many of them are educated, none of them are so tolerant, talented or open-minded
enough to be distinguished as being an intellectual. No philosopher-king here. Not even
the hope for one.
Of Italys Silvio Berlusconi and Americas Donald Trump, Nietzsche would have not
counted these supposed pre-eminent men as belonging to mankind at allto me they
are the refuse of mankind, abortive offspring of sickness and vengeful instincts; they are
nothing but ruinous, fundamentally incurable monsters who take revenge on life Let
us examine how Berlusconi and Trump would merit the wrath of the author of
Zarathustra.
Both Berlusconi and Trump are rise to power quirks who made it their lifes obsession
to be obsessed. These two have been extraordinarily bulldozed by themselves and others;
and, with luck and ability have advanced far more than most othersif we are to judge
them based only on their financial accumulations. On the Forbes Worlds Billionaires
List (2015), Berlusconi is classified in the rankings at 179 ($7.4bn); Trump at 405 ($4.1bn).
Credit must be given where credit is due; yet, if anyone has the minimum notion of how
dog-eat-dog capitalism functions, he or she will know very well that the business world is
not founded on generosity, kindness and the Ten Commandments. Rather, this privileged

ambience is truly a rough and tumble arena. Not for softies. To succeed, B & T needed to
be Teflon tough. Most importantly, they fretfully called for a small army of other brawny
types to pay homage to them and follow through at the behest of their most ambitious
and vicious requestsoften not above board. (When Berlusconi lost one of his initial
political trials, he lamented on Italian television the following: When I was president of
my company, Fininvest, I could order my 400-or-so managers to do exactly as I wanted.
But, when I arrived in Rome, I could not manage the 5000-or-so political types who were
in charge of the Italian bureaucracy. Nevertheless, he returned pushing his way around
Rome, for another twenty years, struggling to get his way.) Naturally, B & T left behind, in
their wakes, a stunning array of enemies. Dont they all?
The criminal activities of our businesspeople and politicians of great wealth and power
are now common thought. More interesting is the way these big shots evolved to be what
they are. Born with silver spoons in their mouths, B & T grew up surrounded by all they
needed, but more. The best of everything. The most expensive of everything. The family
friends who could get things done for them. They became little brats watching their
mothers and fathers running out of their homes to catch a flight, attend an important
meeting or luncheon, and being left by their parents in the hands of often foreign men
and women helpers. They are to be taken so good care of by these assistants who have
been orderedto assuage guilt complexesto do what the kids want, no matter what. It
is not uncommon that these parent-substitutes initiate these emotionally tortured
individuals to their first sexual experiences. The children are so used to having what they
wantthe best of what they wantthey lack control over themselves and easily burst
into violent tantrums. No wonder many of them become alcoholics or drug addicts.
(Both B & T are gluttons for food.) You do not want to be around them when they dont
get what they clamor for. One of their most common reactions to failure is revenge.
Vendetta against whatever and whomever they think failed them. (Youre fired!) Their
arrogance is stultifying. When they are guests on TV programs, you can see them
seething below with the temptationcautiously held in checkto burst out some
unseemly, non-Christian expletive. They flash that frozen smile I once saw that goon,
Richard Nixon, constantly hold for the TV cameras at a Miami Dolphins-San Diego
Chargers football game in the Orange Bowl. The rich and powerful are so fixated on
making money, they dont even have time to have an affair with their secretaries or any
one else. Their lonely wives, naturally, have all the time they could ask for.
Silvio Berlusconi, during his reign in Italian politics, did so much harm to the Italian
economy it today continually sinks into a Black Hole of non-competitiveness and debt
paralysis. With his media holdings, he portrays himself for Italians as some sort of
political genius emeritus. Italians are planning to erect statues and name streets in his
honor as soon as he dies. He keeps smiling and smiling and smiling. And while his

nation gets poorer and poorer and poorer, he gets richer and richer and richer! He is a
fervent devotee of the capitalist system that has been so favorable to him. You would be
shocked to know how stingy he is!
Trump, too, is extraordinarily convinced of his prowess. Having never served one day in
an elected political office, does not matter to him. Just as Berlusconi thought he could
manage Italy as a business, Trump, too, is convinced all will fall into place magically once
he sets to restructuring the American political system and its enormous bureaucracy
according to the Harvard Business Review. He actually believes his magic wand will
immediately bring the DisUnited States of America to new heights of prosperity for all
Americans and then for all in the world. The DisUnited States will take no sassiness
from any one. Trump, the bully on the worlds block, will put everyone in their proper
peg hole. (Americans are a wonderful peopleif they arent bombing you.) Trumps
flamboyance is based on fanaticism and its appeal to angry, frustrated and alienated
American citizens who are desperate to exit their dismal lives. Pent-up violence is their
best bet because no other alternative has been offered to them. How can a braggart keep
gun-toting Americans at peace with themselves? How can the ego of a tyrannical
businessperson calm the turbulent waters of a nation so drastically confused and
disorientated? More than 50% of them do not vote.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), mathematician, rationalistic philosopher and winner of the
1950 Nobel Prize in Literature, authored The Conquest of Happinessnot a technical,
professional philosophical volume yet one that has enjoyed numerous reprints since its
initial publication in 1930. In that tome BR distinguishes the narcissist from the
megalomaniac: The megalomaniac differs from the narcissist by the fact that he wishes
to be powerful rather than charming, and seeks to be feared rather than loved. Donald
J Trump exhibits these symptoms of megalomania: heebie-jeebies, manipulation of
others, bad temper, delusions of greatness, beliefs of superiority, and excessive absorption
in himself. Does he have more enemies than he possesses friends? Maybe not. Will he
make more global enemies on behalf of the DisUnited States? Depending on what the
Pentagon tells him!
On page eleven of Professor Wing-Tsit Chans very much respected A Source Book in
Chinese Philosophy (Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey; 1963) the following
excerpt, written in 662 BC, from the chapter on The Growth of Humanism, is cited:
When a state is about to rise, its ruler is solemn, illustrious, sincere, and correct. He is
discriminating, pure, kind, and affable. His virtue is sufficient to make his fragrant
offerings manifest, and his kindness is sufficient to unify the people. As the spiritual
beings enjoy his offerings and the people listen to him, neither the people nor the
spiritual beings have any complaint. Therefore brilliant spiritual beings descend in his

state, see the evidence of the virtue of the government, and spread blessings everywhere.
When the state is about to perish, its ruler is greedy, reckless, depraved, and perverted.
He is lewd, indolent, negligent and lazy. He is vulgar and cruel. Because his government
has a disgusting odor, his offerings do not rise. And because his punishments are
imposed on the basis of treachery and slander, his people desert him and divert their
loyalty elsewhereand his people want to leave him
Is it possible to imagine a president/presidentess of the DisUnited States
as being solemn, illustrious, sincere, correct, pure, kind and affable?
Will the Americans be as intelligent as the Italians,
and also elect an irascible, money-grabbing businessperson instead of a bona fide,
righteous politician as their leader?
Heil, Trump?
Have a nice nightmare!

Authored by Anthony St. John

15 February MMXVI
Calenzano, Italy
www.scribd.com/thewordwarrior
Twitter: @thewordwarrior