My Impression of the POTUS

I wrote the following over a year ago when I began my current work-in-progress. At the time I didn’t actually know of anyone who fit this description, but after watching Trump over the last several months, I believe this describes the kind of man I see in him.

Throughout recorded history, many humans were labeled monsters. Some were born physically misshapen, no legs or arms, enormous heads and spindly bodies, crooked backs, joined twins, no sexual organs or both sexual organs. The list is endless.  These corporeal abnormalities were once considered God’s retribution for the sins of the parents, but now they are thought of as nature’s accidents, an unlucky roll of the dice, no one’s fault.

There is, however, a different breed of monster, where the deformity is hidden from the eye. The face and body may be faultless, yet a twisted gene or benevolent drug with devilish side effects taken during pregnancy results in a malformed psyche.

 Monsters are deviations from the traditional norms. As one child is born without legs, another can be born lacking empathy and a conscience. The child born without legs eventually learns he is handicapped, and struggles to overcome his physical abnormality. But the child born with no compassion goes through life unaware of his defect, because he has nothing visible to compare with others. He wrongly assumes everyone is like him, coldblooded, calculating, unfeeling, self-absorbed. To this kind of fiend, a soul-stricken man seems weak, even comical, in the same way that to a criminal, honesty seems pathetically ludicrous.

This means, of course, that to an inner fiend, integrity and simple human kindness seems abnormal, dishonest, and perhaps even monstrous. They will, therefore, do everything possible to expose the monster in everyone around them, and they will interpret that as an act of righteousness.