That the United States of America is controlled by a criminally perverse, two party ruling class should be obvious to any reasonable (not rational, for the above-named people are very rational) person not living in what Jean-Paul Sartre, the French existential writer, called bad faith (mauvaise foi).
Bad faith is based on Sartre’s premise that people are radically free despite social and biological constraints; in each person’s consciousness they sense this but choose to play games, to perform for themselves and others, and to act as if they have no choices when they do. They deny their freedom. This is not lying but a form of self-deception since one cannot lie to oneself for “the one to whom the lie is told and the one who lies are one and the same person, which means that I must know in my capacity as a deceiver the truth which is hidden from me in my capacity as the one deceived,” writes Sartre. This should be so obvious but it escapes most people who imbibe psychobabble.
Lying is different since it involves other people. “The essence of the lie implies in fact that the liar actually is in complete possession of the truth which he is hiding,” added Sartre. This cynical consciousness that knows the truth but denies it to others is a perfect description of politicians, propagandists, intelligence services, and their media mouthpieces. They know they are lying and are proud of it, but of course they will never admit it. Regular people also lie regularly but with not the same tremendous social consequences.
People often say that certain people really believes their own lies, that they are deluded, but this is impossible.
I begin with this brief excursion into philosophy (and psychology) because I recently read a fine journalist, Patrick Lawrence, in an otherwise excellent article – “Trump, Bibi, and Ayn Rand’s ghost” – write the following about war criminals Trump and Netanyahu’s recent dinner meeting in which Netanyahu shows Trump a letter he wrote nominating Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, that Medea Benjamin of Code Pink rightly called “surreal:
We must reason through the matter such that we are able to recognize that these two appalling men were serious in their self-congratulation. The idea of themselves they presented before the media cameras is to them genuine: They sincerely understand themselves in this way—virtuous, courageous, standing heroically alone, bearing the world’s banner forward. (my emphasis)
Of what are such people made? This is our question. Attempting our answer leads us beyond politics and policy and into the spheres of psychology and pathology. I have long contended that any true understanding of global affairs cannot leave out consideration of the mental and emotional makeup of those who, for better or worse, are in positions of leadership. The Israeli PM, a case in point, exhibits clear symptoms of clinical psychosis if by this we mean a frayed relationship with reality.
Now Patrick Lawrence most forcefully and eloquently often condemns Trump and Netanyahu and their ilk as the genocidal war criminals that they are. Because I admire his work so much, I hesitate to pick up on his point about their sincerity, but I think it is essential to do so because of its wider implications.
Sartre claimed “sincerity,” purportedly the anti-thesis of self-deception, takes one deeper into self-deception. It goes to Patrick’s question of what are such people made, of what are we all made; it goes behind psychology to its philosophical presuppositions and beyond the issue of pathology to a theological analysis of evil. While Lawrence’s analysis is focused not on these matters but on Ayn Rand’s influence on Trump, Netanyahu, and the wider individualistic culture – an astute analysis – it respectfully needs an a priori corrective.
I maintain that not for a second do Trump and Netanyahu believe they are genuine or virtuous or believe their own lies. They are the perfect examples of hypocrites, as in the word’s etymological sense of stage actor; pretender, dissembler, from the Greek hypokritēs. To repeat: it is impossible to believe one’s own lies since one knows they are not the truth one withholds.
Since it is obvious from their own words and actions and can be followed in real time video by any concerned person that they enthusiastically support the genocide of the Palestinians without an iota of compunction, can we say they are mentally ill? I think not. That would suggest that if in some alternative universe they were tried for their crimes and convicted, they should be sent to a mental institution, not a prison, because they are sick. They are far beyond sick and are the current examples of their nations’ predecessors’ support for massive war crimes for a very long time. Both the U.S.A. and Zionist Israel were founded on similar claims of being God-ordained countries that hid the satanic violence they used against native peoples and anyone who dared to suggest God was not on their sides.
Are they, as Lawrence says of Netanyahu, out of touch with reality? I think not. In any case, whose reality? Those in power, with the corporate mass media and tech companies as accomplices, create their own reality, as in the famous quote attributed to a George W. Bush aid by Ron Suskind: “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.” This is even truer today with the use of artificial Intelligence. Their reality is not yours, mine, or Patrick Lawrence’s. Their facts are not ours. In any case, to suggest Netanyahu is out of touch with “reality” would suggest mental illness, not evil intent. Sartre would say that to do so is to excuse him, which is clearly not Patrick’s intention. The result, however, of saying that Netanyahu and Trump sincerely think of themselves as genuine does exactly that.
One can, of course, reject Sartre’s philosophical premise about freedom, bad faith, and lying in favor of psychological and biological explanations. This is the modern approach, which is commonplace. It assumes much. It needs to be understood within the historical context of the decline of religion and the rise of science, modernism, and post-modernism. It is not scientific, however, but pseudo-scientific, and delusional on its own claims to being scientific. I maintain that it fails to comprehend the nature of evil.
But like Sartre and Dostoevsky, I too believe we are fundamentally free. Which is not to say we are not confronted with biological and social limitations on that freedom. We are. But fundamentally we have free will.
In the ancient tragedy Oedipus Rex, known in its Greek original as Oedipus Tyrannus, Oedipus commits two heinous acts: he kills his father and marries his mother. He commits crimes against society and sins against the gods. But he does so unknowingly, unconsciously, as the play makes clear. Throughout the Western world in morality and law it has become accepted, as Aristotle argues in his Ethics, that consciousness and will are necessary for acts to be ethically bad or good.
If Netanyahu, Trump, and their ilk (to be clear, by ilk I mean Biden and former U.S. presidents and Israeli prime ministers before Netanyahu) are not conscious but believe they are being virtuous by mass murdering Palestinians and so many others, then they, like Oedipus, deserve sympathy. For they know not what they do. But they clearly know, so they deserve no sympathy. They deserve condemnation.
What could possess them, and all the other political leaders, to commit mass murder over and over again while reveling in their “accomplishments,” and to speak casually about using nuclear weapons? For that is what they do. I should emphasize that I am not referring to individuals who commit murder and other horrible crimes but to political leaders backed by millions of supporters. Institutional leaders who quite rationally sit in offices discussing the best methods for slaughtering millions.
Why do they act this way? Why did Hitler? Harry Truman with Hiroshima and Nagasaki? George W. Bush with Iraq? You know all the names, or should. They are legion, as are the statistics. The demonic nature of U.S. history from the start is there for all to contemplate, as the late theologian David Ray Griffin has documented in a number of books. No amount of feigned amnesia will erase the bloody truth of American history, the cheap grace we bestow upon ourselves. It is demonic, as is the history of Zionism in Palestine.
So we are left with the question that has engaged people for millennia: What is the nature of evil? The demonic? While not here entering into a long analysis of this question, I will cast my vote with those, such as Soren Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Herman Melville, et al., who have claimed it goes much deeper than psychological sickness to a spiritual level and that the Enlightenment’s error was that it lacked a devil.
Satan is hard character to fathom, but when he is strutting his stuff, the consequences of his evil are blatantly real in the actions of those who have sold their souls for his favors.
In Melville’s Moby Dick the possessed Ahab says to Starbuck and to us:
Ahab is forever Ahab, man. This whole act is immutably decreed. ‘T’was rehearsed by thee and me a billion years before this ocean rolled. Fool! I am the Fates’ lieutenant, I act under orders.
The same clarity of mind and will can be said of Trump, Netanyahu, and their ilk. They know from whence their orders come; they echo Ahab’s words that “from hell’s heart” and “for hate’s sake” they will kill the innocent and exult in the slaughter.
God and Satan battle on.
Edward Curtin: Sociologist, researcher, poet, essayist, journalist, novelist….writer – beyond a cage of categories. His new book is AT THE LOST AND FOUND: Personal & Political Dispatches of Resistance and Hope (Clarity Press)
“If Netanyahu, Trump, ……are not conscious but believe they are being virtuous by mass murdering Palestinians and so many others, then they, like Oedipus, deserve sympathy. For they know not what they do. But they clearly know, so they deserve no sympathy. They deserve condemnation.”
As a matter of fact, they know what they are doing. I suppose (don’t know what is brewing in those rotten heads) that doesn’t mean much because they ascribe different meanings to the facts. Scumbags likely have very different worldview, essentials of it are based on faith. Recently I wrote on this topic:
https://off-guardian.org/2025/07/16/the-experiment-of-representative-democracy-has-failed-whats-next/#comment-727455
Scumbags’ worldview is wrong, bad, still it allows and enables them to do what they do.
Scumbags also subscribe to Machiavelli: a leader must be able to commit the worse things, if a situation requires.
I believe in free will, but according to the worst case in Milgram’s experiment only 10% of the people involved possessed effective free will. They were the Ubermenschen I would say.
I think the biggest Enlightenment’s error is dismissal of faith, I mean it in a secular sense, not exclusively in a religious sense. We all have a worldview, our basic beliefs. We can’t have sound arguments for all of them, we can’t go down the path of infinite regress. Faith is the solution.
I’m not concerned with badness, evil, Satan. Fuck them.
My contemplation is devoted to goodness. Lack of goodness makes place for badness. Lao-Tzu nailed it perfectly (Tao Te Ching 38):
When the Tao is lost, there is goodness.
When goodness is lost, there is morality.
When morality is lost, there is ritual.
Ritual is the husk of true faith,
the beginning of Chaos.
Where are we now?
We have some rituals, elections for example. Well, even people who went to elections didn’t go to choose the good they believe in, they went mostly to choose the lesser evil. Majority of voters in the latest American elections didn’t vote at all, so actually, the orange one wouldn’t have a mandate, if there were any Justice!
We barely have a semblance of rituals, in many people faith is confined to unconsciousness…. I hope we won’t descent into Chaos.
P.S.
To anyone who might have read me as an apologist…..bibi the evil deserves a capital punishment and I would be willing to join a lottery for assembling the firing squad immediately, no mater that I might suffer from ptsd later. No mercy for a living satan.
At the risk of offending agnostics and atheists, and given a consensus among reasonable people that both Trump and Netanyahu are poseurs and criminal politicians, the answer to Ed’s question has been answered by Paul the Apostle…. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” [Ephesians 6:12] Similar “men of renown,” are mentioned in Genesis 6 ….. whom, in any age, have represented the spiritual embodiment in flesh and blood bodies of the powers of darkness, perennially in combat with the children of light.
Thank you Larry E. We have been obedient to the plantation owners, to the very small group of people who manipulate the masses of citizens to their advantage for far too long. How can we live without having this kind of discussion continue for another 1000 years or even 10 years? Why do people want to be told how to live, what to live for and at the same time experience misery or at the very least, left wondering if there is another way?
Perhaps too much time is spent on considering, thinking about the past. Perhaps one thing we can do is demand the churches pay taxes or least pay property tax. In Brunswick, Maine, there’s a church on every corner, but they apparently have the same god, yet I do not see integrity, morality, friendship or even sense of community. Community is defined by geographic boundaries, not by the quality of humans relationship! We have politicians and plantation owners because we want them and yet we see the insanity of it all and have few discussions about alternatives.
It was said there was a small group of wise, elderly women who had the final decision. If this group of women felt someone was trying to gain influence for a personal reason, that person was disqualified for life for these women knew this person seeking influence did not have the well being of the entire group or tribe. If we had these wise women, we wouldn’t have ANY of these bandits and perverts who wear ugly suits and neckties!
One cannot lie to oneself; but one can justify lies in the interest of necessity (the higher good), in which case, lies and the lier become “virtuous”. When such “virtue” also align with one’s political and financial desires and needs, it becomes even easier to self-justify.
And so it comes that the death and destruction of children, women and men becomes not only acceptable, but needed and worthwhile. Indeed, as the late Ms. Albright put it re the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children (a number Nutty and Trump will hopefully not approach), such mass death was apparently “worth it”. She did not explain what was the it that justified that sacrifice, of course, nor why the innocent children of Iraq were the appropriate agents of accomplishing “it”.
So, yes, absolutely, Mr. Nutty and his fellow travelers Trump and Biden consider themselves moral and virtuous: they are doing God’s work, after all …
Please meet the servants of Satan –
https://crushlimbraw.blogspot.com/2023/05/who-are-daservants-of-satan-does-it.html?m=0 – who exactly are they? It will get exceedingly clear when we look in the mirror.
We can be sure that these two and their ilk have never known Love.
That, is their HELL on Earth.
David Griffin gave me a draft of a paper he titled, “9/11 and Demonic Consciousness.” All my archives burned in a Caifornia fire. there is no copy of that paper on the web, that i could find. Just a mention of a talk he gave on that subject. do you have the paper per chance?
I’m sorry to say I found this article superficial. Like asking the question “what is truth?” the question “what is virtue?” is not easy to answer when presidents are picked by oligarchs for their malleableness (mal=bad) and servility to banking oligarchs and symbolically serving to deliver votes from target constituencies whom they are expected to double cross (Epstein scandal and MAGA). Oligarchs pick presidential candidates on their capability to generate hate from the opposite party not virtue, indicating how rigged elections are.
Four presidents have been assassinated who resisted the bank-sters and there were failed assassinations attempted on two presidents. What would you do if you and your family were to be wiped out if you crossed the banking cartel? Easy to pontificate they had no virtue.
Moreover, at the macro level, leaders often must do things that are bad to save their countries, a point made by Niccolo Machiavelli. Churchill did not disclose he knew when London was going to be bombed because to do so would have tipped the Nazis their intel codes had been broken.
Machiavelli (no he was not a teacher of evil) said leaders must be willing to do penance for such actions, but in a non-conspicuous way. To Machiavelli, losing one’s soul for their country was the highest form of virtue partly because one would lose glory and the appearance of virtue.
There is also the problem of the law of unintended consequences, especially in war. There is no way to guarantee a virtuous outcome in foreign affairs.
Conversely, the public does not understand that political leaders operate by facilitation and enabling not blatant murder. The (fictional) King David stole his top general’s (Uriah’s) wife, Bathsheba, by sending Uriah to the war front. He didn’t violate the 10 Commandments in so doing. Neither did California Gov. Newsome cause the Pacific Palisades Fire, but he facilitated it. The 10 Commandments are for the proletariat and there is no moral or virtue code for the ruling class who are never indicted or prosecuted (e.g. COVID crimes). The Christian Apostle Paul called the law a curse because it created deviance and was never binding on elites. What is virtue to a hand picked puppet politician with a gun to their head? Machiavelli was a Christian who the media and academia has portrayed otherwise as demonic. But he is the only one I have ever found who has asked these hard questions. BTW, Machiavelli did not write the ends justify the means but that an unvirtuous actions may be justified but only in a valid not false flag emergency such as war, rooting out corruption, quelling insurrections, stopping weaponized immigration. Machiavelli’s role models were religious leaders like Moses or military leaders like Lorenzo di Medici. This is why Kierkegaard said that once Christianity was institutionalized, it became an illusion. Don’t expect Trump to reveal some Epstein list (the notion of which was created by London bankers to taint Trump) and his campaign promise to his political base to root out crimes on children.
With the collapse of neoliberalism the morphed, demonic face of Hobbes’ Leviathan is once again unveiled. Its leaders and champions are unmasked. Media will follow the self-destruction and dish out the chaos to addicted consumers who are clueless to what is building in the wings: another demonic face, techno-fascism, disguised by national security, health security, efficiency, convenience. All independent cultural, religious, political, economic elements are swallowed and subject to the all-embracing technocratic state. If there were ever a time for a true Christian message to the world, now is it.
I am also an admirer of Patrick Lawrence – for a quarter of a century – he wrote the best book on Japan (“Japan: A Reinterpretation” pub. 1997, I think) that I had read by any foreigner (many celebrated writers) on Japan during my own many years living in that land. I think that were he to read your point he would likely agree.) Bravo, E.C.
I think he would. He is a highly rational man and this is a highly rational argument.
The Enlightenment also lacked a moral foundation, which is why we struggle with these issues. Confucius provided a foundation for China: compassion, ren, and made it the fundamental criterion for assessing government. It’s working better than ever today.
I’ve said and will say it again, we are engaging in a battle for the Soul of the World. I do not believe Nitwityahoo is even human. What “it” is I don’t know, but “it” has no soul. Likewise his followers, enablers and most of Israhell.
Ideology and Utopia
‘‘Napoleon went forth to seek virtue, but, since she was not to be found, he got power.’’ –Goethe
Did Napoleon believe his actions virtuous, RFKjr?
Perhaps.
I know of no one who epitomize the face of disaster Capitalism better than Trumpy, of disaster Zionism than Bibi.
Disaster Capitalism breeds genocides; go hand in glove with fascist ideologies: the Modern Western Epoch of which French Revolution, its historical birth,
Goal of philosophy is to free the student from the chains of fragmentation that Nietzsche warned about when he said “I have forgotten why I ever began.” (Ich habe meine Gründe vergessen)
Chains of Fragmentation represent the concrete and actual foundation on which Modern Western Epoch sits.
In less than 250 years this edifice — its horror filled contradictions exploding all over — arrived where it was always headed.
Do not say you are a victim of fate: Everyone who takes a road arrives at its destination. . . .
https://dn790005.ca.archive.org/0/items/ideologyutopiain00mann/ideologyutopiain00mann.pdf
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I don’t think virtue enters at all into the mindset of this ilk. They believe they are supreme and have the might, and might makes right in this mindset.
Thanks Kim, yeah, I think these bums are nothing but bar-room bullies, drunk, stupid, violent. This does not require what seems like a sophisticated dialog.
And so most of the world’s people, still obedient, complying with just one or a handful of criminals. We need to transcend this stupidity. Tell the single head of, boss of, dictator, who ever to go find himself!
So, what are we to do ? We can go shopping for nothingness. We can walk around staring at our iPods. We can watch commercials for strangely named drugs. We can buy a new car with crappy software. We can read something that will bring no value to our lives and will not help us understand who we really are and how to change our lives. We can pretend to be someone we are not. For example, we can buy a horse and pretend we are a black smith or famous jockey. We can embrace our fear and continue lying to ourselves.
We can help each other so to learn how to and be able to help each other.