06-11-2023, 02:22 PM
Whether this site is or is not moribund, I must take another swipe at Donald Trump. Maybe some time in the future a site like this will seem entertaining or enlightening. I cannot say that I will be one of the enlightening or entertaining people, as such would be arrogance.
As the case around Donald Trump and classified documents slips into the zone of a criminal indictment I notice that Donald Trump, a man infamous for both abuse of power and bad taste, seems to have kept his classified documents in a bathroom -- a bathroom containing a chandelier.
It is appropriate to have a commode-room as a comfortable place, but to have a chandelier?
As I think of it, bad taste often connects to inadequate learning in which one does not know the norms. This would explain the bad taste of gangsters who have little formal learning or people whose formal learning is a waste. Also possible is mental illness. As the early part of this thread may suggest, people of modest background who achieve the power to murder and steal at will develop extreme narcissism, if not also insanity. They may love gaudy display and symbolism, but it is all about themselves.
This is not the adoption of aristocratic taste. I have not shown hereditary monarchs and nobles. As an example, a member of the aristocratic Esterhazy family hired the great composer Joseph Haydn to write entertaining music for him. Yes, Haydn is known for some deliberate humor... but he is Haydn, one of the greatest composers of all time, a master of form and tune. The prince had good taste in music. Domenico Scarlatti did much the same for Spanish and Portuguese nobles. He was also great.
The bad guys that I mentioned could demonstrate pride of ownership or the exercise of power. Their individuality is primitive and obnoxious. Self-awareness is lacking, and such is characteristic of narcissism. To have empathy for others one must at the least have awareness of oneself. Then and only then can one recognize that a world with eight billion people is not all about oneself.
As the case around Donald Trump and classified documents slips into the zone of a criminal indictment I notice that Donald Trump, a man infamous for both abuse of power and bad taste, seems to have kept his classified documents in a bathroom -- a bathroom containing a chandelier.
It is appropriate to have a commode-room as a comfortable place, but to have a chandelier?
As I think of it, bad taste often connects to inadequate learning in which one does not know the norms. This would explain the bad taste of gangsters who have little formal learning or people whose formal learning is a waste. Also possible is mental illness. As the early part of this thread may suggest, people of modest background who achieve the power to murder and steal at will develop extreme narcissism, if not also insanity. They may love gaudy display and symbolism, but it is all about themselves.
This is not the adoption of aristocratic taste. I have not shown hereditary monarchs and nobles. As an example, a member of the aristocratic Esterhazy family hired the great composer Joseph Haydn to write entertaining music for him. Yes, Haydn is known for some deliberate humor... but he is Haydn, one of the greatest composers of all time, a master of form and tune. The prince had good taste in music. Domenico Scarlatti did much the same for Spanish and Portuguese nobles. He was also great.
The bad guys that I mentioned could demonstrate pride of ownership or the exercise of power. Their individuality is primitive and obnoxious. Self-awareness is lacking, and such is characteristic of narcissism. To have empathy for others one must at the least have awareness of oneself. Then and only then can one recognize that a world with eight billion people is not all about oneself.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.