The Age of Narcissism Is Ending

 Answering the Kennedys’ Call

PEWResearch

The election of President Biden is bringing an end to the age of narcissism, or as Tom Wolfe titled it in 1976, “The ‘Me’ Decade”? Only 30 percent of adult Americans say they still approve of our former Narcissist-in-Chief in the latest polls since Donald Trump’s defeat in November.

Donald Trump epitomized what psychologists have described as a Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPR). Psychologists Jean Twenge and W. Keith Campbell described in their 2009 book, “The Narcissism Epidemic”, the destructive effects of narcissistic behavior: the breakdown of institutions that bind families and communities, thus encouraging divisive and antisocial, short-term behaviors over long-term, collective decision-making.

There is much more to the definition, of course, but psychologists are in general agreement a person with NPR, such as former President Trump, has sociopathic behavior with an almost complete lack of empathy, or regard for others.

Dennis Shen, in a London School of Economics article maintains narcissistic behavior became prevalent in baby boomers and millennials, the Gen X and Y’ers born approximately between 1946 to 1980, as they focused on their own needs rather than the needs of others.

It was a sharp divergence from the post-Depression and World War II generations, when a rare consensus within America emerged, the result of existential crises in the form of the World War and looming Cold War.

“This post-war era of togetherness saw unprecedented economic stability and trust in the state as the steward of the people,” said Shen., “The nation backed global reciprocity, exemplified during the founding of the United Nations, Bretton Woods institutions and Marshall Plan.”

We now have a president who is explicitly restarting global reciprocity by rejoining alliances such as the Paris Accord on climate change, and restoring economic stability with a ‘new’ New Deal of Rooseveltian proportions—more than $6 trillion in government spending to ‘build back’ American institutions and programs designed to heal communities and families.

We also have a younger generation facing serious existential crises—diminished economic and educational opportunities, a deteriorating physical environment and polarized political environment that has endangered our constitutional-based democratic system.

And they don’t like what America has become.  Gen Zer’s (born after 1996) are more progressive and pro-government, most see the country’s growing racial and ethnic diversity as a good thing, and they’re less likely than older generations to see the United States as superior to other nations, said a recent PEW survey.

A look at how Gen Z voters view the Trump presidency provides further insight into their political beliefs. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in January of last year (2020) found that about a quarter of registered voters ages 18 to 23 (22%) approved of how Donald Trump is handling his job as president, while about three-quarters disapproved (77%).

"Millennial voters were only slightly more likely to approve of Trump (32%) while 42% of Gen X voters, 48% of Baby Boomers and 57% of those in the Silent Generation approved of the job he is doing as president."

So Americans are coming together again with the election of President Biden, who has asked “that we all do our part”—the younger generations in particular, who are reacting as did those of the Great Depression and World II when faced with existential threats.

Harlan Green © 2021

Follow Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen

End of the Age of Narcissism--Part II?

 Answering the Kennedys’ Call

USAToday

South Dakota’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally this August was notable for the estimated 450,000 attending during the COVID-19 pandemic. It happened in spite of the almost unanimous warnings given by public health officials that it could be the mother-of-all super-spreader events.

Is this the last cry from a culture of narcissism that has prevailed in America since at least the 1970s, a culture of ‘me first’ with the credo of personal freedom unhindered by a regard for the welfare of others?

“Within weeks of the gathering,” reported WashPost, “the Dakotas, along with Wyoming, Minnesota and Montana, were leading the nation in new coronavirus infections per capita. The surge was especially pronounced in North and South Dakota, where cases and hospitalization rates continued their juggernaut rise into October.”

There were no state and local health officials to identify and monitor attendees returning home, or to trace chains of transmission after people got sick. “Some, however, believe the nearly 500,000-person gathering played a role in the outbreak now consuming the Upper Midwest,” according to WashPost.

And a USA TODAY analysis showed COVID-19 cases grew at a faster rate than before after at least five of President Trump’s most recent political rallies in the following counties: Blue Earth, Minnesota; Lackawanna, Pennsylvania; Marathon, Wisconsin; Dauphin, Pennsylvania; and Beltrami, Minnesota.

“Together, those counties saw 1,500 more new cases in the two weeks following Trump’s rallies than the two weeks before – 9,647 cases, up from 8,069.”

Why the almost suicidal determination of those bikers, and Trump die-hard supporters, to behave with such a blatant disregard for their own health, or that of others?

Were they making a desperate last stand against a pandemic that outnumbered them? Many of the attendees maintained it was an infringement of their personal freedom to not be able to participate in such public gatherings that obviously meant so much to them.

“I don’t think there was nothing that was going to stop me,” said one middle-aged biker who was infected with COVID-19 at the Sturgis rally, according to the WashPost.

In every other western country going through the same struggle to control the new coronavirus, super-spreader events wouldn’t be allowed or even considered in this day and age. Yet no authorities, or our Commander-in-Chief, mandated the banning of super-spreader events as a public health danger that could ultimately infect tens of thousands of Americans.

What will it take to end to such destructive behavior, based on a credo of personal freedom that has also fragmented our country into red and blue states? Are we seeing an end in President Donald Trump’s failing faux populism which has always been for the benefit of the financial elites, rather than discontented proletariat, and who has been diagnosed by multiple mental health professionals with a Narcissistic Personality Disorder?

This behavior is another description of a sociopathy —to use a clinical term—that has infected one political party, a party that is in effect destroying itself. The natural world has signaled that this behavior without a regard for the welfare of others, can no longer be tolerated. Mother Nature in the form of this COVID-19 pandemic is calling for an end to this culture of narcissism during the worst disease pandemic in 100 years.

Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam with co-author Shaylyn Romney Garrett, in his latest best-seller, The Upswing, How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We can Do It Again, believes we are seeing the dawn of a new era with the youth of America, one that eclipses the culture of narcissism and advances Teddy Roosevelt’s progressive policies of more than a century ago that broke up big business monopolies and instituted more egalitarian public policies, ultimately leading to FDR’s New Deal.

“America’s challenges will be equally difficult to solve—and will therefore require just as much youthful courage, vigor, and imagination to overcome. And so, to a large extent, America’s fate lies in the hands of the post-Boomer generations. Today’s young people did not cause today’s problems. But like their predecessors 125 years ago, they must forgo the cynicism of drift and embrace the hope of mastery.”

Will it signal the dawning of a new, more forward looking era, a new, new deal? Let us hope so, beginning with the results of this presidential election.

Harlan Green © 2020

Follow Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen

'It’s Not About Me…"

Popular Economics Weekly

FRED

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is sounding like President Roosevelt when he intones, “It’s not about me, it’s about we.” in his morning COVID-19 press conferences.

President Roosevelt, who was also a New York Governor before becoming president, most famously said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” in his first inaugural address at the beginning of the Great Depression. Roosevelt was telling us we could conquer a Great Depression if we conquered our fears and came together to fight economic collapse.

We could be entering another such depression, though this downturn will probably be much shorter. The March 8.7 percent plunge in U.S. retail sales is the first major indication of the effects of the business shutdown and shelter-in-place mandates.

The severest part of the oncoming recession could  last only a matter of months if we listen to the health care experts and do the testing and contact tracing required to prevent a further spread of the novel coronavirus in all 50 states.

But the abrupt shutdown of businesses with consumers unable to shop outside of buying necessities will cause a horrific decline in economic growth—on the order of 3 to 6 percent, according to the IMF, depending on how closely Americans follow the stay-at-home recommendations.

And there are more pessimistic scenarios. For instance, if the pandemic lasts into 2021, it could reduce the level of global GDP by 8 percent compared with the baseline, said Gita Gopinath, the IMF’s top economist.

March retail sales sank a breath taking 27 percent at auto dealers and 17 percent at gas stations, two of biggest segments of the retail industry, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Fewer people are buying cars with millions of Americans losing their jobs and millions more worrying about their next paycheck.

“Americans also drove less as an economic shutdown spread across the country, exacerbating already steep price declines caused by a global price war that has cut the cost of crude oil by two-thirds in just a few months,” said MarketWatch’s Greg Robb, commenting on the retail sales figures.

It may console us a bit that the 1930s were a much different time. The Great Depression only became ‘Great’ because it lasted 10 years over two successive recessions, until the beginning of World War II.  This COVID-19 pandemic doesn’t have to be a repeat if we keep the necessary safeguards in place long enough to prevent successive recurrences of the pandemic.

Governor Cuomo’s words could end up to be as historically significant in helping to inspire Americans, for they signal what Americans must also conquer—the narcissism exemplified by our Narcissist-in-Chief and his political party—in order to work together and ignore political affiliations and ethnic divisions.

It takes a certain kind of selflessness when many are banding together to supplement the shortage of PPE masks and clothing, while states work together to supply each other with medical equipment, like ventilators.

This is while we see President Trump’s fumbling responses to the pandemic that so exemplifies the personality disorder we seem to have been living through as a country. Maybe this worldwide pandemic will bring us out of the Age of Narcissism itself, the ‘me first’ attitude that has been the byword for the fragmentation of the U.S. into blue states and red states, white vs. brown skins, and native-born vs. immigrant divisions that our Narcissist-in-Chief has fomented to enhance his own political power.

President Roosevelt in his 1932 speech also said, “…we now realize as we have never realized before our interdependence on each other; that we can not merely take but we must give as well; that if we are to go forward, we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline, because without such discipline no progress is made, no leadership becomes effective.”

Simply put, we can no longer think of just ‘me’, if we want to survive this pandemic and prevent another Great Depression.

Harlan Green © 2020

Follow Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen

President Trump's Bully Mentality

Popular Economics Weekly

President Trump’s first days in office were alarming for several reasons. He immediately began attacking the press, while intentionally stating falsehoods such as he would have won the popular vote, but for “3 to 5 million” fraudulent votes. Or, maybe they weren’t intentional falsehoods? Since most of those falsehoods are easily debunked, such as the size of the crowds at Friday’s Inauguration and Saturday women’s march.

Then you have the CIA meeting, where he stated that it was the lying media that made up his dispute with the intelligence community, whereas it is easy to check Trump’s speeches and Twitter messages for all to see he was the one that criticized the intelligence community for their findings that Vladimir Putin’s intelligence services wanted him elected.

So could it be that he is delusional, the words of Mother Jones’ David Corn? Or is it possible that he only listens to news from the likes of Breitbart, The National Inquirer, Fox, and Russ Limbaugh that cater to his voters, not the mass media that reports to the rest of US?

No, it is far more likely that he believes his success in business, such as it is, was due to his bullying tactics, tactics that browbeat investors and lenders to such an extent that he can no longer rely on U.S. investors and banks to finance his projects. So he doesn’t care—and may even have contempt for—facts or truths or any kind that don’t further his agenda.

A New York Times reporter on Lawrence O-Donnell’s MSNBC Last Word said it reminded her of the behavior of dictators, such as the current Russian and Chinese autocrats who considered all news as grist for their propaganda mills.

I have written about the bully mentality several times that has led to increased bullying in school, and even gun violence. It is a mentality that attempts to impose a bully’s version of reality on the real world for the sole purpose of domination. President Trump has always acted the bully, which is the reason for his history of lawsuits and bankruptcies, so that facts are only useful in so much as they support his positions.

Evidence of Trump’s bullying tactics also comes from his words on Twitter and elsewhere, reports Groff Beattle, a professor of Psychology at Edge Hill University who specializes in gestures, has discussed how Trump uses the body language and mannerisms of a bully, such as the exaggerated use of his hands.

Also comments such as “mentally sick”, “dummy”, “looser” or “looked disgusting” are all examples of bullying language on Trump’s Twitter. Trump’s bullying tactics include calling President Obama the founder of a terrorist organisation and insinuating that Clinton took drugs prior to a debate. Furthermore, he has mocked the disability of reporter Serge Kovaleski, portrayed immigrants and foreigners as dangerous people, rapists or “criminal aliens”, and demonstrated a significant lack of respect for women generally.

How does one oppose such destructive behavior? First, remember that bullies have to prey on the weakest, and avoid confrontation with those stronger because of their own insecurities. Trump preyed on naïve students and the elderly in his Trump University scam. And he stiffed workers and employees when building his Trump Casinos either by paying them less than was contractually agreed to, or not at all.

Combine it with his case-study narcissism that requires he be constantly in the limelight. So standing up to such a bully means the news media should ignore his tantrums, rather than commenting on them. Remember that he makes such outrageous lies to gain even more attention.

Psychology Today has posted a list of bullying behavior, a list that fits President Trump like a glove:
– Uncontrolled anger and unpredictable irritability, frequently directed at the weakest people (‘safe targets’) or those perceived as a future threat
– A sociopathic ability to control their own image – the selective ability to look like a different person to different audiences – for example, being aggressive to ‘subordinates’, while being charming and helpful to others
– Having little status outside of work, bullies wield the power that their job gives them with vicious zeal
– Running ‘witch-hunts’
– Gratuitous domineering behaviour – sometimes physical
– The ability to make the unreasonable seem reasonable, even to the victims
--Projecting their own inadequacies onto others
– Making irrational accusations
– Publicly putting people down
– Sadistic enjoyment in humiliating others

The list is endless of President Trump’s bullying tactics, and the responses are well known. There is even a government website, https://www.stopbullying.gov/ to help understand what the bully mentality is all about.

How sad it is that this US President, the most powerful person on earth, is setting such an example of his own weakness and insecurity.

Harlan Green © 2017

Follow Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen

The Real Donald Trump—Part II

Popular Economics Weekly

President-elect Donald Trump is about to move into the White House. This is the man who has become a case-study and text book model of Narcissism for Psychotherapists. Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) as defined by Wikipedia, ‘is a long-term pattern of abnormal behavior characterized by exaggerated feelings of self-importance, an excessive need for admiration, and a lack of understanding of others' feelings.”

 Or, a Narcissist can also be defined as one who has to believe he cannot do wrong, cannot admit he has ever been wrong or apologized for any of his failings. So it could be helpful to understand President-elect Trump’s failings, in order to understand and perhaps influence (as President Obama says he wants to attempt), just how he might behave as ‘our’ next President.

In fact, that is why Trump doubles down on any who would question him, accusing the accuser of the same misdeeds. Maria Konnikova implied that Trump was a classic Con Artist in her now famous New Yorker article: “A grifter takes advantage of a person’s confidence for his own specific ends—ends that are often unknowable to the victim and unrelated to the business at hand. He willfully deceives a mark into handing over his trust under false pretenses. He has a plan.”

That has to be why Trump maintained during the campaign that he would convene a special prosecutor to prosecute and jail Hillary Clinton for her “crimes”, when in fact Trump himself has been prosecuted for outright criminal behavior, such as the three Trump University lawsuits that he had to settle. Whereas, Hillary was cleared of all criminal charges for use of a private email server by FBI Director Comey.  We need need not compare their Trusts, as the Trump Family Foundation has just admitted to the IRS that it was ‘self-serving”, meaning it it broke IRS regulations that govern a foundation.

Or, he accused President Obama of not being born in the US for six years, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Was Trump being stupid? No, he was currying favor with the birther movement to gain their support; mainly white male, racist Tea Partiers still fighting the Civil War who wanted to cast doubt on Obama’s legitimacy as the first African American President.

“What ultimately sets con artists apart is their intent,” says Konnikova. “To figure out if someone is a con artist, one needs to ask two questions. First, is their deception knowing, malicious, and directed, ultimately, toward their own personal gain? Second, is the con a means to an end unrelated to the substance of the scheme itself?”

It is the classic definition of a con game. Distract from the actual behavior by misdirecting our attention elsewhere—preferably to something even more sensational. Mitt Romney, Senators Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and many others have called him a classic con-man.

But no one seems to be asking why he has had to perpetuate so many cons, broken so many contracts, filed multiple bankruptcies, and been involved in so many lawsuits—some 4,000 at last count—on his way to become the celebrity billionaire? The toll on supporters—even his family—must be devastating to maintain that image of success with overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

A major reason has to be his very short attention span. Tony Schwartz, ghost writer of Trump’s “The Art of The Deal”, has described him best: “Trump has been written about a thousand ways from Sunday, but this fundamental aspect of who he is doesn’t seem to be fully understood,” Schwartz told Jane Mayer, author of a New Yorker article. “It’s implicit in a lot of what people write, but it’s never explicit—or, at least, I haven’t seen it. And that is that it’s impossible to keep him focussed on any topic, other than his own self-aggrandizement, for more than a few minutes, and even then . . . If he had to be briefed on a crisis in the Situation Room, it’s impossible to imagine him paying attention over a long period of time,” said Schwartz

Trump in fact may only be able to focus on what is in front of him at the moment, hence his need for advisors more capable than he to pay attention, to analyze and make intelligent decisions. It has to be why he has lost so much money in his various ventures (such as the Trump Casinos), stiffed so many investors, walked away from so many debts, so that all the major banks now shun him.

We can now know the reason for his admiration of Vladimir Putin, for instance, who Trump has been trying to cultivate since his 1980 Miss Universe contest held in Moscow. It was really an attempt to buy a Moscow hotel. He has had to turn to Russian oligarchs and Mafia figures in order to fund many of his real estate ventures. How’s that for a classic conflict-of-interest as President?

So the question: if once a con-artist, always a con-artist? He’s 70 years old, and one doesn’t change their behavior at that age. But can he use such talents for the good of US, as he has promised; or once again, for his own self-aggrandizement and wealth?

Harlan Green © 2016

Follow Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen

Trump Must Hate the Little Guy

Financial FAQs

The Republican Party may rue the day they didn’t vet their presumptive candidate for President. The vetting can no longer just be about his overt and premeditated racism, or even his xenophobic wall building. His business practices are finally coming under detailed scrutiny, and what we see is very ugly.

A USA TODAY article catalogues more than 3,500 lawsuits filed for or against Donald Trump over his business career. Many were filed by small business people and firms that Trump refused to pay for work done on his various real estate properties.

The result was that many were driven out of business. It looks like Trump’s main business model was and continues to be preying on those who are least able to defend themselves legally, in order to enrich himself. This smacks of more than predatory business practices.

David Brooks’ latest New York Times Oped this tries to put a handle on his narcissistic behavior. “By one theory, narcissism flows from a developmental disorder called Alexithymia, the inability to identify and describe emotions in the self. Sufferers have no inner voice to understand their own feelings and reflect honestly on their own actions.”

Could this also be defined as sociopathic behavior, since he seems to have no compunction in harming others financially, especially those least able to defend themselves in court?

Psychology Today defines sociopathy as follows; “A sociopath can be defined as a person who has Antisocial Personality Disorder. This disorder is characterized by a disregard for the feelings of others, a lack of remorse or shame, manipulative behavior, unchecked egocentricity, and the ability to lie in order to achieve one's goals.”

Donald Trump often portrays himself as a savior of the working class who will "protect your job." But a USA TODAY NETWORK analysis found he has been involved in more than 3,500 lawsuits over the past three decades — and a large number of those involve ordinary Americans, like the Friel family, who says Trump or his companies have refused to pay them.

The Friel’s family cabinetry business, founded in the 1940s by Edward’s father, finished its work in 1984 and submitted its final bill to the general contractor for the Trump Organization, the resort’s builder.

Edward’s son, Paul, who was the firm’s accountant, still remembers the amount of that bill more than 30 years later: $83,600. The reason: the money never came. “That began the demise of the Edward J. Friel Company… which has been around since my grandfather,” he said.

Graph: USA Today

This is not to speak of a Florida lawsuit against Trump and his Trump's Doral golf resort--also embroiled in recent non-payment claims by two different paint firms, with one case settled and the other pending, says USA TODAY. Last month, his company’s refusal to pay one Florida painter more than $30,000 for work at Doral led the Miami Dade Circuit Judge Jorge Cueto (whoops, another Hispanic Judge) to order foreclosure of the resort if the contractor isn’t paid.

Juan Carlos Enriquez, owner of The Paint Spot, in South Florida, has been waiting more than two years to get paid for his work at the Doral. The Paint Spot first filed a lien against Trump’s course, then filed a lawsuit asking a Florida judge to intervene.

“In courtroom testimony, the manager of the general contractor for the Doral renovation admitted that a decision was made not to pay The Paint Spot because Trump “already paid enough,” said USA TODAY. As the construction manager spoke, “Trump’s trial attorneys visibly winced, began breathing heavily, and attempted to make eye contact” with the witness, the judge noted in his ruling.”

It looks like Trump’s attorneys and supporters will continue to wince as more stories of his business practices come out—whatever his personality disorder. Republicans should have definitely vetted him, instead of listening to his hype.

Harlan Green © 2016

Follow Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen