In this episode of Editorial, Mr. Sujit Nair discusses U.S. President Donald Trump in the context of ‘ancient virtue magnanimity.’ He references an article by David Brooks in The New York Times. This episode takes an esoteric approach, leaving it open for viewers to guess the names of world leaders whose characteristics align with those of an ‘ancient virtue magnanimity’ leader.
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[00:00:00] Namaskar! Welcome to another episode of Editorial. My today's editorial is a bit esoteric which means it's more so for people who likes to analyze. It's an editorial that would actually require your participation. You need to interact with this editorial. If you are not then actually this editorial may not be worth it.
[00:00:32] your time. So if you like to interact and you like to think and you like to analyze then go ahead watch this editorial. That said I'm going to talk about an article in New York Times it appeared a couple of days back. An angry little boy on a great white horse. That's the title of the article. An angry little boy on a great white horse. This was written by a gentleman called David Brooks. Brilliantly written.
[00:01:03] He is talking about Donald Trump. I intend to take it beyond Donald Trump. That's my editorial today. Let's get right into the show. Okay, so like I said, let's do this editorial differently. Now, like I told you I'm going to talk about basically I'm inspired with this article called an
[00:01:36] Angry Little Boy on a Great White Horse written by David Brooks in New York Times a couple of days back. I'm going to take some points from this article. I'm going to explain that points to you. And while I explain that points to you and while this article is meant for Donald Trump in totality, this is what this actually defines Donald Trump according to the author.
[00:02:04] While it defines Donald Trump. What I would like you to do is think of other leaders who you know, who you have read about, who you understand. Think of other leaders and let me know if are there any other leaders that fit this bill. So here we go. Okay, we are talking about ancient virtue of magnanimity.
[00:02:30] Now, the reason why this author writes this entire article is because he had a friend and this friend used to be working with Donald Trump in his first tenure. And this friend of his was a great admirer of Donald Trump. And he or she felt that, you know, Donald Trump had this ancient virtue of magnanimity. Now, magnanimity.
[00:02:55] Now, magnanimity, if you see, if you see the meaning of magnanimity, magnanimity is being generous to somebody who is smaller than you are, who is lower than you are, who you feel is not as tall or as big as you are. So, showing generosity to somebody who is smaller is what you call as magnanimity by definition.
[00:03:24] Now, the author uses this concept of ancient virtue of magnanimity as a character clause, as a character archetype. And he defines this particular archetype of ancient virtue of magnanimity.
[00:03:47] That's what it is. He says, the first thing that a leader who has this ancient virtue of magnanimity would talk about is greatest of his country. He would always want to believe that he is the one who is going to make this country great, his country great. Trump says, make America great again. We are one people, one family and one glorious nation under God. We will never give in.
[00:04:16] We will never give up. We will never back down and we will never, ever, ever, ever surrender. We will fight, fight, fight and we will win, win, win. And we will make America great again. Hitler said it. This are the people who would talk about making country great again. Country first.
[00:04:46] Nationalist. That's where this archetype starts. Its leadership profile. From talking about making the country great. They talk about conquest of regions. Conquest of region. This was our region.
[00:05:08] Like Trump talks about conquest of Greenland, conquest of Gaza, conquest of Panama Canal, conquest of Canada. Conquest may not necessarily be through bullets. Conquest may not necessarily be through war. Conquest could be of anything. But the fact is a character type of this magnanimity or magnanimous leader is always the concept of conquest.
[00:05:37] More than what I have. What belongs to me. So that's point number two. Point number three is magnanimous people, according to David Brooks, does not believe in equality. Which is fact. Because the concept of magnanimity itself comes from the fact that I am big, you are small. So I am generous to you because you are small. That is the meaning. That is the dictionary meaning of magnanimity.
[00:06:05] So the fact is a magnanimous leader doesn't believe in the concept of equality. There is a superior person and there is an inferior person. There is a superior soul and then there is an inferior soul. You are not equal to me. That is the concept of magnanimity and therefore stems the fact that magnanimous leaders are not really pro-democratic.
[00:06:29] Because democracy stems from the fact that you are equal to the other. Equality is the basic foundation of democracy. So a lot of these leaders who are, as they call it, ancient virtue of magnanimity may not necessarily be somebody who promotes democracy.
[00:06:57] The author here talks about Trump. You think, if you can think of other leaders who has the same character. Now, a very interesting factor that the author talks about is a magnanimous leader extracts tribute from his enemies. Extract tributes from his enemies.
[00:07:25] He meant the way Trump wanted to extract minerals from Ukraine. Ukraine came asking, came begging, asking wrong word, begging for help, begging to save their people. That is what Ukraine, Zelensky went there.
[00:07:47] Trump was very keen on talking about minerals which was available and how they could extract the minerals from Ukraine. So, a typical character of magnanimous leader is they extract tribute from their enemy. And he says that they bestow gifts and accolades to people.
[00:08:12] They bestow gifts and accolades to people not because they think that they are great people and they require gifts, they deserve gifts. No, it is to show how superior the magnanimous leader is. That is why the gifts. That is why gifts are offered to people. So, gifts are something that's given.
[00:08:39] It is not something that the person deserves, but it is offered to them as a benevolent favor by the magnanimous leader. The author here talks about Donald Trump. You decide if you can think of other leaders who has the same character. Let me go further.
[00:09:00] You see, a magnanimous leader has a very typical way of looking others or making others look pathetic, weak. Pathetic and weak. Absolutely pathetic and absolutely ineffective. And that is something that a magnanimous leader feeds on.
[00:09:28] If the leader finds anybody who matches or comes close to his level of power or his level of status that he is in, he or she would want to put that person down, make him feel pathetic. The author talks about Trump here.
[00:09:51] Like I said, you decide if you can figure out other leaders who have similar characteristics. The author talks about fake talks, fictitious talks. Talks that has absolutely no base. Baseless talks, baseless statistics, baseless numbers.
[00:10:17] No reverence for numbers, no reverence for statistics, no reverence for facts. That's, according to the author, a very strong characteristic of magnanimous leader. That is what the author says. The author goes on to say something very interesting. The author goes on to say that a lot of these magnanimous leader has a god-like feel.
[00:10:44] They feel that they are not ordinary human being or biological being. They feel they are beyond that. So, there is a god-like feeling. And that particular feeling makes them very convinced that they are the only people who can do everything. Nobody else can.
[00:11:12] Only they can do everything. I can. I will. It's me. I do it. That's the thought that comes through. So, this god-like feeling is very interesting. And mind you, the author here was talking about Donald Trump. You decide if you've heard this before.
[00:11:37] One of the most important things and the last point I want to make in my editorial is a very quintessential characteristic of a magnanimous leader is that he or she builds walls. The author talks about the walls that Trump has built between the Democrats and the Republicans.
[00:12:05] The author talks about walls that Trump has built through tariffs. The walls that Trump has built between them, U.S. and Canada and so on and so forth. Build walls. Create enemies. Create enemies. They are the enemies and I will protect you from those enemies.
[00:12:28] Creating new enemies is the best way to lead the flock. That's very characteristic. Like the author says of a magnanimous leader. Now, this is what broadly the 10 points that I wanted to take you through from the article. It's a very interesting article. I have put the link below to this article.
[00:12:58] Like I said, it says an angry little boy on a great white horse. And the author was talking about Donald Trump. You decide, like I said at least 10 times in my editorial, you decide which are the other global leaders you think fits the bill. Till I see you next time. That's tomorrow at 10. Namaskar.