Trumpism. Rules. Roles

Trumpism. Rules. Roles.

Everybody has their own America, and they have pieces of fantasy America that they think is out there but they can’t see.  —Andy Warhol

The “rash and erratic president”—as a recent Washington Post article termed Donald Trump (1)—has continued to cause consternation on the world stage. But the basic tactic of this new administration is simple: to create smokescreens on important governance issues by a constant and chaotic crisismongering. Evoked much of the time, on a pragmatic level, are the worst features of things like cold wars and “détente”—not to mention xenophobia. The Trumpist’s ratcheting up of dystopian worldviews also brings to mind Wittgenstein’s notion of language games. Wittgenstein viewed speech acts as involving conversation based on “moves.” What people say, in other words, sets up a kind of competition.

Language games also involve the well known difference between denotation and connotation, as well as the possibility of falsification and legitimation. And then there are levels of games and types of games. As Jean-François Lyotard stated, “In the ordinary use of discourse, for example, in a discussion between two friends, the interlocutors use any available ammunition, changing games from one utterance to the next: questions, requests, assertions, and narratives are launched pell-mell into battle. The war is not without rules, but the rules allow and encourage the greatest possible flexibility of utterance” (2).   We would seem to be in the presence during some of these games of what Trump is fond of terming “fake news,” although it isn’t always certain just who is faking what. Consider, for that matter, revisions regarding Silicon Valley and “the Deep State” (3). And yes, even in an age of globalism, Wikileaks, and e-democracy.

Hopefully Lyotard’s militaristic metaphors serve as pragmatic reminders of what underlies discourse per se on a sociological level—magnified obviously on the geopolitical stage. “An institution differs from a conversation,” Lyotard (p. 17) also notes. Unfortunately the Trump administration doesn’t seem to recognize this.

Notes: (1) Robert Costa and Ashley Parker, “For 14 days Trump kept his No. 2 in the dark. What does that mean for Pence?” WP 15 February 2017.

(2) Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Manchester UP, 1984 [1979], p. 17.

(3) As in Mike Lofgren. “Anatomy of the Deep State” <http://billmoyers.com/2014/02/21/anatomy-of-the-deep-state/>