{"id":281873,"date":"2024-12-09T12:00:01","date_gmt":"2024-12-09T12:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=281873"},"modified":"2024-12-04T06:46:31","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T06:46:31","slug":"beyond-trump-and-nukes-unmaking-war-remaking-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/12\/beyond-trump-and-nukes-unmaking-war-remaking-men\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond Trump and Nukes: Unmaking War, Remaking Men"},"content":{"rendered":"

3 Dec 2024<\/em> – Trump demands that the Palestinians do what he says (release the hostages) or “there will be all hell to pay<\/em> in the Middle East.” And they will be “hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied history of the United States of America<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

When President Trump promised that the threats by\u00a0North Korea’s Kim Jong Un (in year 2017)\u00a0“will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen,\u201d<\/em> many of us believed that Trump is willing to order a nuclear attack.<\/p>\n

A president who takes pride in making violent threats and appears willing to risk a nuclear war raises an important question as to the president\u2019s psychiatric status, and further brings up the question of what is wrong with the world\u2019s geopolitical system that breeds this type of nightmarish endangerment?<\/p>\n

While some pundits fret over a president who appears mentally unstable and willing to start a nuclear war, there are others who are thrilled that the president\u00a0is being \u201cstrong.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

New York Times<\/em>\u00a0reporter Richard Fausset captured conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh\u2019s excitement over finally having a \u201creal man\u201d as president. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a pajama boy who wears mom jeans who can barely throw a baseball, a first pitch, at a National’s game, as president,” Rush gushes sarcastically. “We have somebody out there who is no-nonsense, who’s not going to take this!”<\/p>\n

Trump as a macho warrior standing up against North Korea and other “enemies” and making America great again?\u00a0What\u2019s wrong with this picture?<\/p>\n

What if Trump\u2019s “machismo” is a psychological trait which vastly increases the likelihood that he will impulsively order a nuclear strike to prove to a defiant opponent that he (the U.S.) is \u201cthe boss\u201d?<\/p>\n

Sociologist Kathleen Barry in \u201cUnmaking War, Remaking Men\u201d concludes that men, due to socialization, are susceptible to the “masculinity of war\u201d which leads to psychopathic behaviors like some seen in the Trump (and Biden) presidencies. (I have quoted freely from her insightful book.)<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s many threats to use military violence puts the psychology of boastful \u201cmachismo\u201d on full display, a trait that, in combination with other psychiatric symptoms, could lead to new wars, like threats to use military force against Venezuela in his first term; will Mexico be next in his second presidential term? Will he help Netanyahu exterminate the Palestinians?<\/p>\n

Psychiatric symptoms galore<\/strong><\/p>\n

A group of mental health experts in April (2017) told a conference at Yale University\u2019s School of Medicine\u00a0that they believe President Trump is paranoid and delusional and suffers a \u201cdangerous mental illness.\u201d\u00a0Some pundits describe the president as narcissistic and lacking empathy, while others find him to be hostile, bigoted, emotionally unstable, a pathological liar, and \u201cderanged.\u201d<\/p>\n

Could it get worse?\u00a0Yes.<\/p>\n

Trump displays behaviors found in psychopaths, the most dangerous type of antisocial personality disorder known to psychiatry. A psychopathic personality disorder refers to an extreme lack of conscience.\u00a0Reporter Mehdi Hasan for\u00a0The\u00a0Intercept\u00a0(8\/9\/17) quotes Trump\u2019s strategy for defeating ISIS:\u00a0\u201cBomb the shit out of \u2018em\u201d and \u201ctake out their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRemorseless killing\u201d is a hallmark of the ultimate psychopath.\u00a0While sociopaths may lie, cheat, steal, or even kill, extreme psychopaths are capable of the same and more, of remorseless mass murder.\u00a0What if the President becomes obsessed with the idea of using his nuclear arsenal to show the world he isn\u2019t just empty talk (isn\u2019t weak).<\/p>\n

Lack of Global Conscience<\/strong><\/p>\n

Psychopaths may easily fool people as to their true nature since they can seem to be normal \u2013 just like everybody else, but sometimes a little over the top. President Trump reveals a stunning lack of Global Conscience.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s withdrawal from the Paris Environmental Accords illustrates his contempt for the world community, much as does his apparent willingness to commit genocide if he allows a nuclear first strike against Iran by Israel.<\/p>\n

Can the world community rely on the military generals to refuse if Trump orders a surprise\u00a0first strike nuclear attack to gain a decisive military advantage over one of the many so-called “enemies” that the U.S. maintains? Something to brag about making America “great” again (think Hiroshima).<\/p>\n

Should Congress intervene and take the nuclear missile launch codes away from the President, or apply the 25th<\/sup>\u00a0Amendment to remove an unfit President as suggested by John Cassidy in the\u00a0New Yorker\u00a0(8\/14\/17)?<\/p>\n

Manhood gone awry<\/strong><\/p>\n

A key lesson from sociologist Barry’s analysis is that “leaders in the White House and around the world” become potentially “remorseless killers” because “Every society makes men’s readiness to fight in combat a matter of their manhood.”<\/p>\n

Historian Alexander DeConde examines how \u201cone U.S. president after another took the military into unnecessary wars,\u201d and concludes in his study of\u00a0Presidential Machismo\u00a0that\u00a0presidential power over the military allows leaders to prove their virility.\u00a0Few presidents, he concludes, have been able to resist the temptation to use the military machine at their disposal to exalt themselves in the role of warrior.<\/p>\n

War will not be unmade without remaking masculinity.\u00a0\u201cCore masculinity\u201d is not biological but is taught by society.\u00a0A boy learns to be tough, aggressive, and unfeeling. As a man the state is preparing him for potential combat, part of society\u2019s expectation and requirements of manhood.<\/p>\n

World peace will require abandoning traditional core masculinity with its violent standards of manhood.<\/p>\n

Why a “new UN” is needed<\/strong><\/p>\n

We know that changing the macho culture alone will not be enough to stop war. We urgently need geopolitical change. At the global level bully nations mock the Law. Israel, the USA, and Russia threaten the International Criminal Court warning it to stay away even if their leaders are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity. <\/em><\/p>\n

When the world is governed by unbounded psychopathy, it is a risk that Americans and the world community should not accept.\u00a0A mentally ill leader may distort reality, but a psychopath is willing to take down the whole world.<\/p>\n

Psychopaths do not respond to reason, love, or conscience.<\/p>\n

The United Nations is needed in the event that a country is held hostage by a psychopathic leader.\u00a0But the UN lacks the tools to intervene significantly, its hands tied by the flawed UN Charter. It lacks a democratic world constitution and enforceable world law.<\/p>\n

The UN could not remove Trump from office even if he represents an imminent danger. The UN cannot protect us from nuclear war; it is sidelined when it counts the most.<\/p>\n

The UN\u2019s deficiencies are being addressed by Democratic World Federalists in a strategy called THE SAN FRANCISCO PROMISE.\u00a0An initial step is a demand that the UN General Assembly review the UN Charter which opens the door for the possibility of a \u201cnew UN.\u201d<\/p>\n

The World Constitution and Parliament Association’s Constitution for the Federation of\u00a0Earth<\/em>\u00a0(aka “Earth Constitution<\/strong>“)\u00a0can serve as the \u201cgold standard\u201d for a new Charter, transforming the UN into a democratic world federal union with enforceable world law, and given the tools needed to eliminate nuclear weapons and end war itself.<\/p>\n

_____________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Roger Kotila, Ph.D. is a peace activist and a psychologist (ret.) with many years of clinical experience with the California Dept. of Corrections doing psychiatric diagnosis and treatment with inmates. President of Democratic World Federalists he is co-editor of <\/em>DWF NEWS, and editor of <\/em>Earth Federation News & Views.\u00a0He supports a \u201cnew UN\u201d under the\u00a0Earth Constitution. <\/em>www.earthfederation.info<\/em><\/a> Email:\u00a0<\/em>earthstarradio@aol.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

3 Dec 2024 – Trump as a macho warrior. What if his “machismo” is a psychological trait which increases the likelihood that he will impulsively order a nuclear strike to prove that he (the U.S.) is \u201cthe boss\u201d? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":189940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[2307,1301,1841,1033,249,124,70],"class_list":["post-281873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-focus","tag-democratic-world-federalists-dwf","tag-nuclear-war","tag-psychiatric-disorders","tag-psychopathy","tag-trump","tag-united-nations","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281873"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281874,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281873\/revisions\/281874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}