The Madness of Crowds

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/opinion/the-madness-of-crowds.html

Version 0 of 1.

People ask, and it’s a reasonable question, why everyone’s so angry, why they’re voting against their own-self-interest, even electing hucksters like Donald Trump who never really had anything but mean little thoughts and now says he’ll clean the swamp as he replenishes it daily.

They ask what the deal is when job numbers are pretty good and Warren Buffett, no less, says the American economy will continue to perform its wealth-making miracle and the world has known a solid quotient of peace for way longer than is usual — and yet there is enough anger for a shallow con man to get elected who says he’ll make America great again with “one of the greatest military buildups in American history.”

What Trump knows about history (or for that matter the Constitution) would not fill a Post-it note. Just for the record, massive military buildups tend to precede a war. My bet would be with Iran, possibly before the midterms. But that’s not the issue here, although it’s scary.

The issue is the anger. It’s a European as well as an American phenomenon. It led a generally cautious people, the British, to hurl themselves over the White Cliffs of Dover last year in a successful attempt to break from the European Union and satisfy an urge to get their country back (whatever that means). A windy buffoon called Nigel Farage led this exercise in the madness of crowds and has since become Trump’s dining companion. I suppose they disparage Muslims over well-done burgers and Coke. Multilateralism gets a guffaw with the ice cream. God help us.

There are plenty of theories about this anger. I won’t bore you with them because they’re pretty familiar by now, but what it comes down to is that a lot of people are pretty sure they’re getting cheated. If you think the world has screwed you, you get mad.

They notice that the attempt to squeeze the last cent of profit out of any operation has also squeezed the last trace of sentiment out of what passes for human interaction. They see that technology serves relentless efficiency, and somewhere in that efficiency life gets joyless and existence precarious. They note that good unions, retirement benefits, manufacturing jobs, overtime and health care get eliminated or curtailed in pursuit of that last cent.

They observe how put-together types with attitude and little qualification can make a bundle buying and eviscerating solid companies that actually produce things or setting up consultancies that trade on connections at the money-influence margins of politics. They know that if something goes wrong with the rigged system the losses will get “socialized.” Regular schmucks who work a shift will pay while insiders walk away. That’s how things have been since the 21st century began. The fix is always in.

So why should people not conclude that there’s no moral code any more, no discipline, no parenting, no backbone, and what’s needed is some guy to shake up the system, blow it up, and put some moral standards back and remind everyone once in a while who has the big stick and can use it to keep everyone in their corners?

(O.K., the guy in question happens to be a study in immorality, but if you think logic is an adequate guide to human conduct you really need to think again.)

As George Orwell observed, human beings “don’t only want comfort, safety, short working-hours, hygiene, birth-control and, in general, common sense; they also, at least intermittently, want struggle and self-sacrifice, not to mention drums, flags and loyalty-parades.”

Hence that big military buildup after eight years of consistent no-drama common-sense: It’s one of those “intermittently” moments (we were about due).

You’re sitting in the middle of the country sharpening dull needles with fingernail files to be sold on the street for $25, or taking too many prescription opioids to calm the nerves before a presentation, or taking the coating off an opioid and cooking it down to liquid form, and straining it and shooting it up, or trying to cope with a couple of foster kids and a criminal record — and hell the country looks ready for a shake-up. It really does; and this guy is angry for you against all the phony intellectuals who have no idea.

Don’t underestimate that anger or the number of Americans who still believe Trump is the most honest president in history.

It’s a small thing, but I was on a short British Airways flight the other day from Amsterdam to London and BA in its brilliance wanted to charge me about three bucks for a cup of tea. Talk about the last cent!

Now maybe Alex Cruz, the BA chief executive, is a smart guy, but whoever came up with the notion of charging BA customers for a “cuppa” is a fool intoxicated by the bottom line. Next there will be a charge for oxygen.

No big deal, except that the system that produces such rip-offs is ripe for the furies.