Let's make fun of Trump, bash him, etc. while we can!

[Bob Butler 54]

(08-03-2016, 05:56 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Pinsky noted, however, Trump's apparent narcissism.

"People want to label him with a narcissistic personality disorder — and that is a pretty tough, tough thing to do at a distance," he told Lemon.

"But let me just talk to you. Narcissism, generally, can be a good thing: If you’re a fighter pilot, we want you to be narcissist, not to have fear in extreme circumstances.

"Most political leaders have some degree of narcissism, what motivates them to go into these areas," Pinsky said. "We’ve done research on this — and it bears that out."

I've seen that narcissist diagnostic applied to Trump before, and had to look up the word.  I'm not generally one to say a politician is insane.  I'd prefer to attribute unusual political positions on unusual world views rather than invoke insanity.

But, (expletive deleted) the diagnosis of narcissism explains Trump well.

A fighter pilot is often betting his life (not to mention an expensive airplane) on his skills being better than the other guy's.  The confidence that comes with narcissism  can be a good thing...  if your skills really are better than the other guy's.  There is a pattern of a few pilots, the aces, having a huge percentage of the air to air kills.  Confidence is part of it.  Good eyesight plays a surprisingly large role.  Maintaining situational awareness, a good idea of what is going on around you, is another big factor.  Knowing what your plane can do that the other guy's plane can't is huge.  Having a plane that can do stuff the other guy's can't is big too.  Stick and rudder skills count.  Lots of factors.

But having a good fighter pilot willing to risk his life is different from having a commander in chief willing to gamble with the lives of others.  In general, at least in my opinion, the higher ranked one gets, the more the risks ought to be minimized and calculated.  Nothing is a certainty in combat.  You can't have commanders unwilling to take risks or accept some casualties.  Some of the better commanders, Patton and Montgomery come to mind, were full of themselves.

But I noted that in the Civil War as well as in World War II, the most flamboyant aggressive risk takers were kept a tier down underneath more balanced prudent superiors.  The notable examples might be Stonewall under Lee and Sheridan under Grant.  Patton under Eisenhower might be another example.  There is something to be said for giving an aggressive free wheeling commander a good sized chunk of one's force and letting him loose, but I wouldn't be comfortable with that sort of guy at the top.

I'd be nervous with a narcissist at the top.