The philosophy of existentialism is in reference with a human’s struggle of being per the writings of Kierkegaard , Nitschke, Jaspers, Heidegger, Sartre, Camu, May and others. Some of their ideas were previouslyIt expressed by Socrates, St. Augustine and Pascal. This essay applies four ideas of existential thought to Trump's America.
Years ago, Nitschke created quite a stir when he said that God’s dead. Nitschke's point was that the religion of the day had less meaning than earlier Christianity as people have less faith and a contradictory practice of morality .Today, the same could be said to many evangelicals who represented a significant number of the 77 million that voted for the felon Trump. These evangelicals have failed to incorporate and apply the messaging of Jesus and his prophets .
The early followers of Christ were poor,unemployed ,and hungry proletariats .The rural masses of population were stressed by an extraordinarily heavy tax burden and as a result, these individuals were left out economically and socially from the upper class as well as from the whole Roman Empire. These Christians suffered and were exploited. They were also revolutionaries that harbored hate and revenge against their own rulers and especially the Romans. Jesus’s message to the poor, oppressed and suffering was for a place of immortality in God’s kingdom of heaven. This message was based on the promise of a not so distant future in which the primary needs of the poor and oppressed would be satisfied per Luke 6:20 ff. “Blessed are you poor for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you that hunger now ,for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh....... in other words, there was a complete socio-economic reversal from realities on earth
Jesus said, "How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." Luke 18:24. Do today's Christians have the same degree of hatred against the wealthy rulers as was found in the early Christians? And, whom do they hate ? Another example of the hatred of the rich "Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted and their rust will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire......... You have condemned, you have killed the righteous man; he does not resist you. Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.... Behold, the judge is standing at the doors ( James5:3 ff) Trump's Christians bow down to the billionaires.
Many of today's Christians might not be well-off, but in debt . They might be hungry; they might be distressed and angry about the cost of a dozen eggs; they might hate Biden ,Harris and the Democrats but not the authoritarian billionaire authorities that have political and economic control. Early on, 1/3 ,in one poll , replied that they do not care , in agreement nor are aware that thousands of civil service workers have been fired; foreign aid to the poor and other countries have been cut off; vaccination updates for the measles outbreak and next year's flu vaccine are in jeopardy , the Constitution ignored and the lawlessness of executive actions ; medical research is in jeopardy etc . There has been a recent outrage and court rulings going in the other direction .
Love thy neighbor, and Christian brotherhood seems to be an illusion based on the massive plan to deport hard-working ,paying taxes of millions and sending them to places like Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba or El Salvador .Jesus was about love and righteousness. Certainly, rhetoric from Trump , his disciples, Fox News, and social media messaging is not about love and unity but about hate , division and malignant aggression..One recent example was the White House horror show with the President of Ukraine.
Jesus died for the sins of mankind with messages of hope and a better afterlife for the masses. Currently, this current father figure is about accumulating money, possessions,control and status. His messages are all about him and he's on his way of securing more profit and power. These are two totally different moral and humanistic models. And, all the crazy "conspiracy" irrational ideas suggest a loss of faith that has been replaced by cognitive decline, paranoia, and the pursuit of greed. Greed is good.
Impoverished thinking leads to a second existential idea - the denial of the supremacy of reason and rationality. The strong malignant impulses of hate, hostility and domination affect reason. Defense mechanisms like denial, rationalization, intellectualization, distort the hazards and difficulty of the anxiousness of reality. Also, apparent is cognitive dissonance in which algorithms are employed in providing simplistic lies and a distortion of reality . And recently, Trump is not only controlling the press corps that follow him, but changing the format to limit information regarding him and his policies. According to him , the press is evil if they report the facts.
An article titled "The Six Principles of Stupidity " was found in the February 2, 2025, edition of The New York Times.The article addressed some of the craziness displayed in the Trump administration and gave examples of his vague rhetoric without constructive implications; ideas that were not reality based; giving all the power to one person; not being aware of one's actions and that stupidity is the opposite of rationality. The article did not ask the question, how 77 million people could have voted for a convicted felon; impeached twice ; instigated an insurrection on January 6 and said he'd be a dictator on day one.
A February 10, 2025 New York Times article titled "May We Have Our Attention. Please?"made the following points: regarding social media and irrationality 1. Social media engineers how we relate to one another online by selecting content that whips up strong emotions to draw us deeper into the feed 2. More communication does not necessarily lead to more understanding. 3. Left to our own devices, so to speak, we can get vain , careless, resentful and cruel. 4 Different points of view are not seen as opportunities to learn, but as provocations to attack 5 News ,entertainment ,conversation and all other forms of human expression would from now on be in direct competition angling for both the consumer's fleeting attention and the algorithms blessings..
A neurological point of view assessing Trump voters employing a brain-body connection based on plasticity, loss of cognitive reserve and;the reciprocal mind -body interaction follows: :1.A decrease in cognition resulting in voting against their interests .2. There is an absence of significant neurogenesis in their brains occurring along with the level, if any, of cognitive reserve 3. Research demonstrates that aging brains either shrink or expand , as evidenced in neuroscientist McGuire's hypothalamus findings.4. Super agers brain functions rejuvenate and expand while the brains of the control group have decreased functioning accompanied by a shrinking brain .5. The workings of the anterior cingulate with its (cognitive,emotional,attentional functioning ),hippocampus (primary memory formation )and cerebral cortex( ( comprehension of language, abstract reasoning ,social behavior) are necessary for rational functioning Further, a February 2, 2025 article titled Think Big in the New York Times stated the following "What appears to be a difficulty with life is in fact a difficulty in our thinking about life." And, Einstein said, "Once you stop learning, you start dying."
The preponderance of physical and mental disabilities, like obesity, diabetes,cardiovascular disease ,cancer, dementia, aphasia, language, depression, chronic pain and so forth affect brain health and rational thinking . Chronic pain becomes a major factor and interferes when it comes to searching for truth and objectivity for those suffering individuals . It's no surprise that the irrational thinking and behavior of too many of these voters have become the norm and a significant variable for that population seeking safety, comfort ,relief and protection from a political leader as they are saddled with emotional pain and in a crisis of despair.about the here ,the now and future ..
This section concludes the first two ideas of existentialism. The next section completes this essay with two more existential ideas
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