Trumpism ... Alt-Right ... Dominance and Jesus Christ

Daily, on social media, we discuss human issues under the general banner of politics. Humans have been doing this from time immemorial seemingly without ever reaching success at resolving human issues to everyone’s satisfaction.

Now we have what can be dubbed as “Trumpism” that has shaken up, disturbed and even violated the status quo once again creating strife, division, confusion and political chaos in hearts and minds.

Why?

Why has Donald Trump been so successful at challenging established norms … debasing behavioral codes … rubbishing rules of conduct … glorified mendacity … trampled over professed culture and values … discredited State institutions … attacked and subverted human rights … and invented the notion of a "deep State" ... with so much approval?

Alt-Right at Charlottesville, Virginia

Why are millions of human beings avidly supporting a grotesque debunking of the path that humanity had set itself on. Why, in particular, is America proving so susceptible to abandoning the road it was making sure and steady progress on after the iconic “I have a dream” speech by Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Why is there so much support for abandoning its hitherto professed culture of equality, brotherly love and cooperation that it has been busy exporting across the planet?
Why is this atavistic culture receiving so much support across the planet in the phenomenon known as the Alt-Right? 

The answer is actually quite simple. It has to do with our DNA encoding.

You see, we were once in a cave, huddled together, fearful of just about everything out there. The

world was big … it was confusing … and it was dangerous. Darwin’s law of survival of the fittest was very much at play. It was very much a case of kill or be killed … eat or be eaten.

Note that just about all creatures were in the same situation … and reacted in the same way.  That is why we have a herd of elephants …. a troop of baboons … a flock of birds … etc. Survival has always involved banding together as a species … no question whatsoever.

Note that successful survival is not purely passive. It is not just an issue of self-defense. It also involves … and this is key … active dominance. Man, as a species, has proved most successful and become dominant because he was best at banding together to leverage collective strength.

Thus it even became the norm to invade, conquer and subjugate even other members of the human species. Until Adolph Hitler took this now entrenched culture of invade, conquer and subjugate to diabolical levels it was the universal culture across this planet.

The horrors of Hitler’s War, especially the Holocaust, induced a paradigm shift in man’s culture. For the first time in history humanity had the concept of human rights and the commitment to equality … all set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (“UDHR”), signed off at the United Nations after the last world war in 1948.
From that day mankind, with the exceptions of Russia, South Africa and Saudi Arabia, professed to set itself on a new path of equality, not dominance.

Mankind was repudiating what had been encoded in its DNA over the centuries of its existence as a species. It was repudiating the culture of dominance. It was abandoning what now part of its natural instincts. 

Perhaps it is to state the obvious that such repudiation of a natural instinct, so deeply embedded, was always going to be very problematical. This is so especially as we have continued to fuel this instinct in so many other respects. Our socio-economic model is absolutely geared for the achievement of dominance at all levels, personal, sectorial and nationally. The concept of achievers and under-achievers is deeply embedded. Sporting events, that thrill us to the very core, are the embodiment of this culture. Sectorial achievers enjoy iconic status be they Michael Jackson, Mohammed Ali, Meryl Streep, Bill Gates or Tiger Woods.

So the reality … the hard reality is that our genetically encoded instinct of dominance is still with us and has been available for leverage by the likes of Donald J Trump, Idi Amin, Robert G Mugabe, Vladimir Putin and the other skunks of the planet.
Common to all these skunks is a narrative, promise and commitment to dominance over “others”. “Others” comprise anybody and anything that stands in the way of that dominance.
As regards Trump this even includes established State institutions like the FBI and the CIA and the media.

Dominance is intoxicating. It is an appeal to the very core of one’s sense of being, worth and validation. Its attractiveness is as natural as breathing. It is why bullying is a never-ending problem. Ditto abusive relationships.
It is what drives racism and tribalism. It is why we have genocides. It is why we have gangs and cartels.
It is why in South Africa the reform model is to replace White dominance with so-called "Black" dominance.
So our instinct of dominance has always been there for exploitation and leverage … and Donald J Trump has succeeded quite spectacularly to date.

If you are in any doubt about this please consider the story of Jesus Christ.
Think it through.
When you do you will arrive at the point where you have to resolve His central counsel, admonition and insistence that – “Love thy neighbour as thyself … and do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.
He was repudiating the culture of dominance.
At that point He was doomed.
The Pharisees, arch protagonists of the culture of biblically based exclusion and dominance, found it all so very easy to have Him crucified.
Donald Trump's "lock her up ... lock her up" is simply his version of a crucifixion.