Trump and brilliance (they are not related)
6 February 2025
Brilliance is not just having a great idea but testing the idea to assess its validity and seeking the opinion of experts, which often takes a long time. If the idea requires other people’s assistance to implement, they have to be persuaded. Thus, Thomas Edison is reported to have said, “Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration” because it takes a lot of hard work to make brilliant ideas happen.
In assessing whether an idea is brilliant or even valid, one factor is NOT important - the ego of the person whose idea it is. The idea must rise or fall on its own merits.
Donald Trump calls himself a very stable genius but in reality, he is deranged if not insane and demonstrates this regularly. Consider his recent statement on Gaza:
TEL AVIV, Israel — President Trump floated two bombshell ideas Tuesday about Gaza that has Palestinians, Israelis and the wider Middle East scrambling.
The first: that the U.S. would take over the territory. "The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip," Trump said in a White House press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "We'll own it ... We have an opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal ... the Riviera of the Middle East."
The second: that Gaza's entire population would relocate to other countries. " We should go to other countries of interest with humanitarian hearts, and there are many of them that want to do this, and build various domains that will ultimately be occupied by the 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza, ending the death and destruction and, frankly, bad luck," he said. Source (NPR).
Apparently, Trump gets an idea to solve a very difficult problem and assumes that it is brilliant. He doesn’t seek the advice of his advisers or experts or those who would be affected by it. He considers himself infallible despite his miserable past with his appointees working against his election and his being called “the worst businessman in America.” Trump is dangerous, not just because he is impotent at solving problems but because his mastery at getting attention for his idiotic statements “takes all the oxygen out of the room” and prevents competent people from getting the help they need to actually solve problems.
If we want a better future for ourselves or the next generation, it is up to us to limit the power of Trump, his Republican Party enablers, his supporters, Fox News and Elon Musk. Let’s also stop telling the Democratic Party and others what to do and get to work ourselves. Here are some possibilities but you should think about what makes the most sense for you to work on and get to it:
What you can do, by Robert Reich
We should change what we buy and watch and increase our political activity
The index to my prior essays (mostly post 5 November 2024) is here.
I have another blog on Cancer and Medicine.
You can also follow me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/nat-pernick-8967765/ (LinkedIn), npernickmich (Threads and Instagram), natpernick.bsky.social (Bluesky) or @nat385440b (Tribel).
Email me at Nat@PathologyOutlines.com.
I also publish Notes at https://substack.com/note. Subscribers will automatically see my notes.