I think proud is an attribute that strengthens a false idea of oneself. And the idea 'my' country as well. Trump suffers from both a lot. I experienced in life to be proud of something creates the idea to be superior to another defined group by diminishing it. And Germany is not my country. I am a temporary guest here. I belong to it and live there and not the other way around. To be 'simple' creates far more joy and happiness in life. Old cultures already have got that proud is poison. To answer the thread title: Trump suffers from mental disorders and megalomania. But almost every 'president' does. You only have to look at Erdoğan or Putin or Kim Jong-un....
@Yen: The alternative is to be ashamed of your own heritage. And I've seen people who try very hard to hide who and what their are, simply because they are "different". That's sad, and they end up only hurting themselves. If you allow your ego to tell you that you are superior because "you're Italian", or "you're German", (or: because you're white) then it becomes a bad thing. Then, you try to take more than you deserve and justify it by stating "Well, It's owed to me by those people". So the oppressed become the oppressors. Myself, I built my own individual persona based on the people around me when I grew up. I was surrounded by Italians at home, and I lived in a racially diverse place. (Williamsburg, Brooklyn) I learned to lead with love, and discard the things that I didn't need. (No hate. No fear. Just love.) As far as my Italian heritage goes, I make a pasta sauce that has made Gourmet chefs ask me for the recipe. And that's Italian. The key to life is love. Love conquers all. Love makes every good thing happen. So if your pride in heritage manifests love, then it's a good thing. As far as Trump is concerned, Yeah he's crazy. But He's also a man with an agenda. And He seems to be what a large enough group of Americans want. Or thought that they wanted. With that said, I've yet to meet a "normal" person. I'm not even sure that they exist any more. I don't think that I'd like them though, because they might make me feel inferior. But I'd give them a chance. We're all varying degrees of crazy. The sooner we accept that, the sooner we can focus on finding happiness in our lives and peaceful coexistence with others.
The funny thing is that I do completely agree with your post even though I have disagreed with to be proud should be a good attribute. I know what you mean, but I don't know if we can speak then of pride anymore. Oh yes crazy. Well it has no medical definition. I would consider myself also as crazy. But there is craziness in sense of 'different, uncommon, off from adult/average' and in the sense of disorder / sickness, loud, heroic. Trump belongs definitely to the latter while we belong to the former. But it's right the same cause (a mental illness) resides in almost any human only degree of appearance varies. One of the evidence that this cause exists is the fact of human's fear of losing existence / of the time where one is nothing anymore (fear of death)..means an issue with self-identification. Such 'crazy' people want to cry out loud: I am somebody! Have a look! I make changes to the better! They search for adherents by promising to realize their interests. In fact all they care about is their poor ego. The other crazy people are just 'different' without pronouncing ego.
@Yen: You're right. It's not pride, but a form of positive self-affirmation. And that leads to self-love. When you love yourself, you don't project the negative aspects of your persona onto others. The result is like that of throwing a stone into still waters. The ripples travel out and affect countless others in various degrees. If you project inner peace and joy, then all those who you encounter will reap the benefits of your joy. Conversely, if you project your own insecurities and / or negative traits,others will feel that and project discord towards you and possibly anyone else that they encounter. You also draw that type of person to you. They're looking for someone to affirm their own neuroses. In western Religion, Pride is considered to be a deadly sin. In the purest essence, it erodes your psyche and can destroy you. Greed, Lust, Pride, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, and Gluttony. In my heart I believe that we all realize this, regardless of our spiritual beliefs. (Or lack of...)
What kinda B.S. is that? You live your life on your choosing, and learn to live with those decisions. period!
@gorski: You ground yourself in a place where you feel most comfortable. You keep the emotional stimuli you like and adopt it into your own psyche. Discard those traits that do not affect you in a positive way. Well...this works for me. YMMV. Of course we understand that this is a "double-edged" sword. If you enjoy destructive behavior, you will learn to destroy yourself for the sake of the pleasure in that behavior. Ask any recovering AA/NA person and they will affirm that to you. It all comes down to self love. If you truly love yourself, you wouldn't even think of hurting yourself. @Joe C: It has been said that we "choose" our own destiny. I remember a discussion about GOD being omniscient where we all touched on that.
That's right. But not only western Religion. All of the three religions I know something about presume a basic 'issue' with current state of humankind (current= last 2500 years and now) and the reason for it is not to establish a person=god/leader above them and 'the favored few'. Subject at all three is self-awareness. That applies more and more and will increase. In fact no real communication happens. A neurotic leader shouts and a neurotic mass responds. This also includes opponents of Trump. You can say the neuroses are communicating not the people. "Bad news are better than no news"... If we don't humankind will destroy itself. ATM current trends rather will distract humans even more from this awareness.
You haven't studied Kant, Joe, so serious questions seem BS to such an untrained mind, that's obvious... Sometimes your surroundings "chooses" for you, in a variety of ways. For instance, Oklahoma (home grown) or Twin Towers ("foreign")... Terrorists may choose many great words for themselves via their deeds - but they can not say they were rooted in themselves. They truly are pawns. Equally, during, for instance, WWs - similar BS circulated as if it is one's duty to go kill and/or be killed in the name of nationalism, domination, expansion and whatnot... Or another example, during ex-slave suppression, whites discriminating against blacks in every possible way, "down South", as if it is "common sense"... In Germany under Nazis, it was "common sense" to "out" Jews, Gypsies, Commies and whatnot: "To gas chambers in an orderly manner, please, SCHNELLL!!!!" It wasn't much better in Italy, in many ways - and some attitudes remain in great chunks of the population, to this day... So, any clearer or should I simply and wisely give up?
One could, indeed - as I have and now you tried, too - make a few distinctions in such notions... Lust is natural. It is not possible not to "lust". It is inhuman not to lust. For as long as we live - we lust. It is life-affirming! These fleeting thoughts come and go as they please, depending on what we experience and many other things, most of them perfectly "normal". But Jews had a "better idea" - via "thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife" - and so they really foisted a bad 'un onto the rest of us, whomever was mercilessly exposed to such BS... Suddenly, we were all "sinners", feeling "guilty" all the time, for no particular reason... No other major (at least monotheistic) religion did (or tried to do) this! This is a request that is possible to ask only of non-corporeal beings, i.e. Angels. But not of Humans, given the fact we have bodies, we are mortal, we must procreate and all that follows... What can and what is required of Humans is not to ACT on every fleeting thought and this we CAN and by and large we do control, most of the time. Other religions and many philosophies do ask this and insist on this and teach how to deal with such thoughts and urges etc. But I urge caution re. this "idea" that "lust" is somehow "bad". Seriously!
@gorski: We must not mistake the desire to procreate with lust. Lust describes the abuse of sex, and allowing yourself to be consumed by the desire of obtaining sexual gratification, whatever the cost may be. The urge to reproduce is as natural as can possibly be. Besides...I only quoted the 7 deadly sins for reference to 'Pride'. Many people are aware of them. They've even become Hollywood icons.
No, MJ, "lust" is a wider notion than "sex". And neither is "bad" in itself. But you grew up in a country made by Puritans, so... Look: And once more, no, MJ, lust is a "normal" phenomenon with Humans, if and when reduced to "sex" - we do not do it once a year or so, in order to procreate only. One could continue but...
R2DeeToo: there is a helluvalot of that (creativity, imagination, freedom-loving etc.) around and ever more, I would argue, with more and better education, however the Masters of the Universe in charge of it (gearing it to "usefulness/utility" only) try to narrow it down... In fact we continuously keep "stepping over, above and beyond" our present boundaries, even when the times look like we're going backwards, generally...
Sir the majority don't step anywhere but into the boredom and mediocrity line to facilitate their continued existence ! That, rising above and beyond, requires commonsense and if you didn't get the memo, commonsense is not very common these days.
While that appears to be true, there ARE 12 references to the word "crazy" in the DSM-V. The majority of which refer to the "fear of going crazy" as yet another mental problem... In fact should one read the DSM-V thoroughly, there is no one who does not suffer from some type of labeled mental illness. I believe that was done by design, and "normal" obviously is not. http://b2.ifrm.com/309/115/0/p706356/DSMV_1.png http://b2.ifrm.com/309/115/0/p706357/DSMV_2.png http://b2.ifrm.com/309/115/0/p706358/DSMV_4.png
R: Common sense is the only thing going with about 60%+ of the population, sadly. So, you are right, majority does not use their own brain (i.e. Reason, as the highest critical capacity Humans have - but only the lower common denominator, which is the common sense, or chains of common consciousness) and it will possibly take quite a few more generations to get a majority that does that on a day to day basis. But look at it from a historical perspective and it may look a bit different in previous epochs, where it was much worse than today, for sure... So, maybe, just maybe there is still hope for us, as a species...
Yes I know, actually I know it very well. 'crazy' is no medical term, mental disorder is. I had been involved in research of to fight against CNS related diseases such as Alzheimer and epilepsy by developing synthetic agents. To get evidence for relief you have to determine the current state and the state after medication. Therefore classified scientific tests are established. But there is no 'un-crazy' state, only probabilities. You cannot determine 'uncraziness' only factors off from average 'normal' condition. All you can get is: normal according to test/classification X.
It depends how you are looking at it. If you consider how many people have been killed by the hand of others since WW1 until now.... The 'side effects' of technology such as pollution of nature, death by starvation of kids in poor countries, imbalance of capital/wealth and the limited resources, potential of stored weapons... We will be forced to a change and the change will cause a lot of more movements of entire peoples and many institutions will break down to get new places for hopefully better ones. ATM it's rather quiet...but there are already such signs, IMHO.