Mythomania is a term to describe an abnormal or pathological tendency to exaggerate or tell lies.
We immediately imagine Donald Trump's picture next to this word in the dictionary, but while he may be the poster boy for this pathology, many of his supporters display the same character flaw.
The November Presidential election provides a good example of how this inability to accept disagreeable facts is manifested.
In Trump's mind, he is a winner. He never loses, even when he loses. Forget all those failed businesses (casinos, airline, university, et al.). They were part of the winning. He is incapable of admitting to being wrong. He will never apologize for anything. Why should he?
Sensible persons recognize that all humans are subject to error (even your humble blogger), and that occasionally, we need to admit our mistakes. Generally, we subscribe to Swift's famous observation - "To err is human..." - and we can realistically forgive ourselves for an occasional error.
But what if a person cannot admit error? What psychosis allows them to be blind to unpleasant facts? I guess it is the same chemical imbalance that convinces the resident of the loony bin to maintain that he is Napoleon. Logic cannot fix crazy.
Trump followers are likewise convinced, so much so that they would support overturning the results (tossing out the legitimate votes) based on an unsubstantiated belief that the evil Democrats have committed massive fraud. That is not Democracy, folks. It's Idiocracy.
1 comment:
Somewhat serendipitously, shortly after reading this blog entry, I ran across a review of a new book on conservatism titled "CONSERVATISM The Fight for a Tradition" by Edmund Fawcett. Here's an excerpt from the opening paragraph:
"From its very origins in resistance to revolutionary movements in the late 18th century, conservatism has had two broad contrasting moods. The first is an attachment to the world as it is, and a resistance to too drastic a change in anything. The second is an attachment to what once was — and a radical desire to overturn the present in order to restore the past."
Clearly we have been living in the second mood for the last decade or more - supercharged by Trump, but not founded by him. When it will burn itself out and return to the more moderate rendition is hard to say, but let's hope it is soon - before the loonies you describe start using the substantial arsenals they've accumulated since Obama's first election victory.
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