An analysis of the Trump campaign from a Boydian perspective. (“Boydian” refers to the views of the fighter pilot and military theorist John Boyd, who emphasized the importance of the “OODA loop”–observe, orient, decide, act)
Desperately trying to be one of the Kool Kidz:
…the increasing number of voters who do not make their decisions on who will create the most jobs, build the most infrastructure, save the environment, strengthen the economy or even keep citizens most safe. These people don’t care about that. And while they do vote based on what they think is in their own self-interest, their regard is not for what they view as the path most likely to improve society’s lot. It is, curiously, motivated entirely by their sense of what is most socially fashionable – in other words, the fundamental high school desire to be one of the cool kids.
Claire Berlinski has a thread on Churchill quotations
Thanks for the links, I’ll have to get back to the Churchill piece when I get more time. There are more references cited in the comments of that article. And now I know about a religious event I’d never heard of attended by 30 million people with remarkable related construction/logistic efforts. One of the best books I read this year was “The Story of My Assassins”, a novel by Tarun Tejpal. The author is a long-time editor of an Indian news magazine, and the story presents a well-written narrative of different levels of Indian society, but especially of the difficult lot of the lowest, violence-plagued strata.
The OODA piece on Trump was interesting but seemed to be based on the NYT value system. The author seemed to deliberately ignore the content of Trump’s appeal and looked at it all as a game. Guess that’s fair given the focus on tactics.
However, he seemed to completely ignore the core of Trump’s appeal.
I read the Federalist article on Trump (all of it). While it was indeed interesting, it seemed a gross over-analysis of something that really doesn’t require it. Trump’s appeal isn’t all that complicated or mysterious…..many, many people are angry with the government, both it’s actions and apparent willingness to simply ignore the laws it doesn’t like. He’s the only one who seems to understand the level of that anger and to voice it in terms that sound like he does understand it. As the others dither about, he moves from one topic to another, voicing the concerns of a huge segment of the population. I don’t know if he can be nominated, if he can win, or if he would make a decent President, but I do know that he has changed the narrative and has the establishment politicians, the media and the big money people in disarray…..and that’s a good thing, given the fix the country is in.