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There Is No Method to Trump’s Madness. He’s Simply Insane.
His defenders try to apply reason to his erratic, nonsensical decisions. That’s a fool’s errand—but fools abound in this administration.
There Is No Method to Trump’s Madness. He’s Simply Insane.
His defenders try to apply reason to his erratic, nonsensical decisions. That’s a fool’s errand—but fools abound in this administration.
newrepublic.com
“They say an old man is twice a child,” Rosencrantz remarks in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, as he and the prince of Denmark observe Polonius. It’s a borrowed line, dating back to antiquity: Sophocles wrote, “For the aged man is once again a child.” We all recognize that old age can cause senility and fragility. And when a person is already inclined toward delusion, that trait can become more entrenched and grandiose over time. The irony in Rosencrantz’s comment is that he is speaking with a character who is both feigning madness and possibly descending into it. Polonius, in fact, is the one to note that Hamlet’s act may produce certain benefits, declaring, “Though this be madness, yet there is method in ’t.”
We’ve seen this strategy throughout modern political history. Khrushchev feigned irrationality to strike fear into the West. Reagan thought it benefited him if Russia viewed him as possibly crazy. After Hiroshima, Truman wanted the Japanese to believe he would bombard them with “a rain of ruin from the air,” even though he only had one more bomb at his disposal (and figured it a bonus if the Soviets thought he might drop one again). Sometimes it can be difficult to discern what is an act and what is true madness, but it’s important to recognize when there is no meaning to be found—no method to the madness.