Caligula

Americans are at last expressing what has proven to be a slow awakening to the offensive and incomprehensible behaviour of their president Donald J. Trump. Since his inauguration Trump’s conduct has regularly been marred by such a shocking nature that people of standard moral and social education have until recently been either unwilling or unable to call it what it is. Now however their is a very real sense among conscientious persons that Trump threatens the fabric of American society with his potential insane words and actions.

There are few surviving sources about the reign of Caligula, although he is described as a noble and moderate emperor during the first six months of his rule. After this, the sources focus upon his cruelty, sadism, extravagance, and sexual perversion, presenting him as an insane. While the reliability of these sources is questionable, it is known that during his brief reign, Caligula worked to increase the unconstrained personal power of the emperor as opposed to countervailing powers within the principate. He directed much of his attention to ambitious construction projects and luxurious dwellings for himself and initiated the construction of two aqueducts in Rome: the Aqua Claudia and the Anio Novus. During his reign, the empire annexed the client kingdom of Mauretania as a province.

Trump’s latest perversion is an indoor rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma organized contrary to the advice of the White House medical advisors.

The Trump campaign has dismissed concerns about the ongoing pandemic, moving forward with the scheduled rally despite a rising infection rate in Oklahoma. As of Saturday afternoon, Tulsa County reported the most cases — 2,206 total — of any county in the state, according to the Oklahoma State Department of Health. The state recently reported its largest single day increase in coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic.

What is disturbing – apart that is from Trump’s blind commitment – is the risk being taken by Trump’s reputed “deplorables“. It is difficult if indeed not impossible to imagine anyone  – other than those clinically insane – who would willingly and purposively subject themselves to near claustrophobic congregation during the pandemic.

There is no point recounting the many other occasions on which Trump has astounded viewers with his patently maniacal behaviour. What has changed at this particular juncture is the sudden and unequivocal absurdity of Trump’s lack of leadership.  There is no question that his priority is a fixed regard for power. He has clearly overlooked the well-being of the American population. Undoubtedly the fallout from this poisonous conduct will only enlarge its tragedy.

Chris Rock said it best, “What ever happened to crazy!