What unites President Donald trump with his slogan “America first”, Polish political puppet Jaroslaw Kaczynski and the President of Russia Vladimir Putin? Boastful nationalists trump and Kaczynski would have had to condemn the Russian leader for his revanchist expansionist policy in the former Soviet Union countries such as Georgia and Ukraine. However, trump fervently praises Putin and Kaczynski increasingly mimics his autocratic methods. And, it seems, three of them not only believe ridiculous conspiracies, but use these beliefs for policy and manipulating public opinion.
Putin sees everywhere conspiracies aimed at undermining the greatness of Russia, mostly initiated by Western spies from the United States and the United Kingdom. The theory which he holds, often groundless, but at least you can understand why he might believe them: for the former KGB agent, who himself was a spy, an increased level of suspicion — belief that the situation may not be what it seems — cannot be called shocking.
The inclination or even enthusiasm trump the radical conspiracy theories more difficult to explain. Trump is not a master of intrigue (if only the cutthroat world of new York real estate is not controlled by the mafia is much stronger than we imagine).
It seems obvious that chief strategist trump Stephen Bannon, the lifelong anti-liberal fabulist, strengthens lumpen Outlook of his boss. But even the influence of’bannon cannot explain sent early last Saturday morning feverish tweets from trump’s accusations against former President Barack Obama that before the election, the trump tower “auditioned”.
Without providing any evidence, trump called on to investigate — as he demanded to investigate “fraud” on Vyborov favor of his opponent Hillary Clinton that never happened. This latest bombastic tirade sounded so strange and implausible — even for a drugged news channels, dependent on Twitter of the President — that can only to ask the question (which many do)of whether or not trump has some kind of mental disorder.
The Kaczynski is your paranoid theory. He believes that the President of the European Council Donald Tusk, the former Prime Minister of Poland, who had agreed with Putin to kill his twin brother, Polish President Lech Kaczynski. Occurred in 2010 near Smolensk plane crash took the lives of 92 Polish dignitaries, including Lech Kaczynski. She was thoroughly investigated, and none of the evidence does not confirm claims Kaczynski. And yet, osnovyvayas on their painful delusions, Kaczynski engaged in Brussels, the organization of conspiracies to replace Tusk.
What the late historian Richard Hofstadter called the “paranoid style” has reached in the United States and Poland political heights. The question is how these two democracies came under the influence of leaders, more like Putin than the usual Western leaders. Conventional political analysis — and even psychology — may be unable to give an answer.
The writer Joan Didion might be the closest to the explanation of policy trump and Kaczynski. In his essay “Notes Toward a Dreampolitik,” Didion describes people who move through the world, “constantly chopping down trees in some jungle wildlife.” They are “illegal immigrants who go somewhere near, the nodes of a fantastic electronic pulsation” that characterizes modern life, and they “continue to receive information only through the most delicate chain accidentally leaked rumors and rumors”. They are “nominally competent”, but “nevertheless, they’re watching events in the country only through the dark glass.”
The refusal of the President of the United States from most of his daily briefings with the State Department, the military and intelligence services is sufficient cause for fear. The fact that instead, he relies on Fox News, racist alternative-the right-wing blogs, and the uncontrolled excesses of talk radio, really — even existential — scary. The leader of the free world have made their home the manic corners of American political discourse.
Under Kaczynski, Poland, seem to be stuck in the same vortex of radio and the Internet. Indeed, the radio station of the Roman Catholic Church “Radio Maria” can be called one of the most famous “mystery persons”.
But, as shown by the control of Putin, the paranoid style is not just a personal weakness. In his book “voodoo History: the role of the conspiracy theory in shaping modern history,” British journalist David Aaranovitch has described this political paranoia as a kind of voodoo in the age of social networks. Choice of words speaks for itself. As demonstrated during his almost 15 years of dictatorship in Haiti practiced voodoo, Francois Duvalier “Papa Doc”, where there is no basis for political legitimacy, the paranoia of the ruler must be infinite.
Papa Doc drew fear in the most gloomy form of political magic. Everyone in Haiti who questioned his rule, could expect to be sent into exile — often publicly and theatrically — in a brutal way — a terrible TONTON Macoutes of Papa Doc. Foreign critics have received a damaged reputation. Graham Greene, who skillfully analyzed in his novel “the Comedians” the reign of Papa Doc, was named Benzedrine a drug addict — and even worse — promoter mode. Putin is familiar with such tactics.
And now the West is going through something similar. US President George Bush once, you know, warned against “voodoo Economics”. Today we are faced with one of the forms of voodoo politics: the Board, based on the “alternative facts”, unfounded and untested theories. They put a kind of spell on the citizens, not able to understand the globalized world and economy, from which they feel excluded.
Trump, Kaczynski and Putin use this approach because it works. Regardless of the extent to which they believe their own words, these leaders can be sure that for the majority of their supporters, the magic will never disappear, regardless of their failures or lies.
