An interesting reflection of The economistThe American editor of John Prideaux, in a newsletter intended only for subscribers, is worth quoting extensively (“How to cover Trump 2.0”, Checks and Balances, January 10, 2025):
Perhaps the least important thing about the terrible fires in and around Los Angeles is Donald Trump’s reaction to that. And yet he is about to become president again, so his sharp opinion cannot be ignored. “Gavin Newsom has to resign. This is all his fault !!! ” He wrote on Truth Social.
An underestimated part of Trumps political method and his attraction is that he does not say what he should say. Every normal person, or every politician who receives advice from a communication professional, would manage to manage those who have lost loved ones and whose houses have burned down and say something reassuring about how he will help LA stronger back when he comes to power to come. . Trump does not interfere with that. He knows that his voters are not allowed to news. Beating him for a terrible natural disaster is therefore exciting. Henry Adams wrote that “politics, as a practice, regardless of its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatred.” Trump’s success reminds me that he was right.
One could associate the striking aporism of Henry Adam with the state theory of Anthony de Jasay. Because, for the Jasay, each The state’s performance comes down to discriminating against someone to help someone else (“Maximizing the total utility” is a handy rationalization). It can understandable hatred of those who are discriminated against. However, the Jasay’s theory (or part of his theory) is different: in a democratic state, the victims of discrimination instead will claim a discriminatory privilege to their own advantage, which in turn will generate dissatisfaction with other individuals who are discriminated against, and so forth. Until the “Plantation State” (see his book from 1985 The state).
On this road, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, to name two recent examples, will have just been milestones.
Under the plantation state, everyone would be more or less equal, except the recticers. Will all the assets hate the state? Maybe so, but they should hide their hatred.