The Nursery Calls

 

“The Little Man does not know that he is little, and he is afraid of knowing it. He covers up his smallness and narrowness with illusions of strength and greatness.” Wilhelm Reich

Donald Trump is that ”Little Man” and perhaps even he has reached the limit of his illusions about his strength and greatness. Even before the recent events on Capital Hill, his niece, Mary Trump, spoke of her uncle as being, “criminal, cruel and traitorous” and that he should be indicted and put on trial.

But what of his red-capped MAGA followers? Mary has said that her uncle’s state of mind is mirrored in society and that the US “is looking down the barrel of an explosion of psychological disorders.”

The Capital Hill insurrectionists stand out with their disorders. They included not only a lieutenant colonel and off-duty policemen, adherents of QAnon who believe the government is run by a cabal of Satan-worshipping paedophiles and Confederate flag-wavers who refuse to believe the American Civil War is over. There was also a buffalo-horned shaman from Arizona with face paint who, at 32, still lives with his mother.

More ominously they included men with T-shirts reading ‘Camp Auschwitz’ and ‘6MWE’—(6 Million Weren’t Enough)—a reference to the mass murder of Jews in the Holocaust.

Their gun-toting racism, bigotry and warrior-worship is, of course, fascism. Their targets include those perceived to be enemies of their leader, Donald Trump.

One Trumpist I happen to know has, for some years, devoted his Facebook posts to uploading photos of USAF fighter jets – a new jet posted every day.

As the president’s incendiary character became dangerously transparent, and we moved towards the end of his Presidency, this particular Trumpist changed his posts from “patriot” pilots in thundering war jets to pictures of 1940s propeller model airplanes, adorned with Rita Hayworth pin-ups.

As Trump slinks off to his golf links, it would seem his followers are retreating to a childhood they never left. A longing to buy DIY model airplanes with plastic parts and decals. Armchair warriors, equippped with anger and Trumpian mysogyny, buzzbombing their sisters. They are seeking the comfort of the nursery at a time when reality is too tough to be faced.