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Don Wooten
I’m told it’s good for me, but the same thing is said about kale. The latter is simply bitter and quickly dismissed, but the exercise seems to continue indefinitely, with endless and mind-numbing repetitions. I can pass up the kale, but I’m stuck with the exercise.
Riding the NuStep – originally acquired for Bernadette’s rehabilitation – pumping my legs up and down, seeking to distract myself, I retrieved a small paper book acquired years ago as a bonus for purchasing more ‘others. It was one of many visual reference guides: concise, richly illustrated books devoted to academic subjects. This one was Stephen Law’s excursion into philosophy, a subject I had abandoned years ago for science.
I began reading it as a NuStep distraction, starting with the last section: brief sketches of the major philosophers and their central ideas, revisiting names and theories not encountered since college. As I tackled the topic, I went back to the beginning and followed the flow of thought until the end.
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This inspired me to take a deep dive into Richard Tarnas’s incomparable work, “The Passion of the Western Spirit,” in which I still linger, searching for philosophical answers to contemporary problems; particularly the ongoing conflict between faith and reason. The tension and interaction between the two seems to be at the root of our current politics.
I started with Augustine, a man who helped shape Western civilization at the turn of the 4th and 5th centuries. He incorporated Plato’s teachings into our understanding of the world, dictating the limits of our reasoning for a millennium. He said, “I have faith to understand. » Which, to him, meant that new ideas contradicting scripture and theology were wrong.
The extent to which Plato’s ideas influenced Christianity is underestimated. Plato saw the world we live in as a reflection of reality; the real world being invisible and separate. Its concepts have permeated Christian thinking about the afterlife, shifting our focus to heaven rather than our earthly existence.
Plato’s philosophical competitor was his student, Aristotle, whose ideas were largely shaped from his observations of people and natural phenomena. The contrast between the two is beautifully and simply depicted in “The School of Athens,” a magnificent fresco by Raphael in the Vatican.
Both are depicted at the center of a group of philosophers, Plato pointing to the sky; Aristotle, grounded. If you don’t know, call it online. It’s worth seeing.
In the 13th century, Aristotle appeared in the writings of Thomas Aquinas and the Scholastics, and his reality-based reasoning has survived to support our secular scientific age. but Plato remains in the picture.
All this is only a prelude to solving an enigma: how to explain the controversial division of public opinion around Donald Trump? How can we explain the adulation of his supporters and the contempt of those who oppose him? Is it really just a matter of faith versus reason? This hypothesis seems too simplistic, but it can give the beginning of an answer.
Perhaps you’ve seen television reports in which Trump’s admirers refer to him in almost reverential terms. A man was filmed with his face lit up saying Trump was “Christ-like.” It was as if he had not just attended a political rally, but had experienced divine intervention. The man spoke with deep-rooted faith; a situation that hardly seems credible, especially to anyone who has closely followed Trump’s – let’s say – “colorful” career.
How can we explain such a reaction? We usually talk about faith in a religious context; a personal experience can be somewhat akin to the sudden and moving conversion of Saint Paul on the road to Damascus. This event transformed him from a persecutor of Jesus’ disciples into a fanatic who spent the rest of his life creating Christianity as we know it today.
Faith can also operate on a less exalted scale. Think about the Cubs fans who “kept the faith” despite decades of disappointing losses. Or the trust we place in our friends. Even in such minor examples, it takes something deeply disturbing to shake such a strong emotional connection, let alone break it. Reason alone cannot achieve this. As Augustine’s commentary suggests, the only reasons accepted by faith are those that are consistent with belief.
But where does this deep-rooted faith in such an imperfect man come from? It’s true that he was a tireless self-promoter, using the New York tabloids to convince people that he was a billionaire, a business genius and a sex symbol. This made him something of a local joke, but it fixed his name in the public consciousness.
Two factors probably explain its current position.
His first dramatic change in fortune came with the publication of “The Art of the Deal,” a long-running bestseller written for him by Tony Schwartz. Suddenly, Trump gained a national reputation, which was shadowed by six bankruptcies four years later. Fortunately, his tax fiascos received little attention.
Next up, a crucial lifeline. He was offered a television show; a “reality TV” show, “The Apprentice,” in which he plays a role he was never able to play in real life: that of a stubborn, decisive and well-informed tycoon. He became famous for firing people on television; something he was emotionally incapable of doing in real life.
He used that TV personality and genuine pitching talent to sell himself as a savior to a disaffected electorate, succeeding far beyond his own expectations. As he continues to dominate the news, it’s hard to imagine what it would take to shake the faith of his supporters. Reason won’t work.
It will take NuStep a lot longer to find an answer.
Don Wooten is a former Illinois state senator and regular columnist. Send him an email to: donwooten4115@gmail.com.