On most (not all) American domestic issues, in terms of socioeconomic tradeoffs, a lot of MAGA fans still support the policies of the Trump Administration. However, geopolitically, some of them might be quite confused with the way things are going. And with the current turmoil in the Middle East, as Trump faces highly complex situations, they might be more confused by a strange comment he made to the Press on how he is dealing with such matters.
In a recent interview in the New York Times, when Trump was asked if there were any limits on his global powers, he said: “Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me… I don’t need international law.”
Does this statement have echoes of Satan’s speech in John Milton’s epic poem “Paradise Lost”? After waking up in Hell after his revolution against God had failed, Satan rallied his demonic troops by telling them that “the mind is its own place.” Let us not forget that the Founding Fathers of the US Constitution all read, and were probably highly influenced, by Milton’s poem. Even in a recent interview with Steve Bannon when he asked Jeffrey Epstein if he was the devil, to which Epstein said, “why would you say that”, Bannon replied, “the devil’s [smart] brilliant; you’ve read “Paradise Lost”, but Epstein says, “no, the devil scares me”. Are you ‘the devil himself?’ – Steve Bannon asks Epstein in newly released video
In “Paradise Lost”, Milton, a Protestant, wrote: “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven” (notice he didn’t say the brain is its own place). Samuel Johnson praised “Paradise Lost” as “a poem which … with respect to design may claim the first place, and with respect to performance, the second, among the productions of the human mind” The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: An essay on the life and genius of Samuel Johnson.
What Milton means regarding the mind is we should consider looking inward and question how our thoughts create our emotional reality of the external world. The prophet Isaiah would disagree (5:20): “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”
Writing in the 17th century, Milton seemed to be suggesting that perception is reality. Really? To quote French philosopher Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592): “A straight oar looks bent in the water. What matters is not merely that we see things, but how we see them.”
Also, surely such a concept of perception is reality would bring great comfort for psychopaths worldwide; that is not to suggest that The Donald is a psycho. Like many contemporary world leaders and those of yore, he is an enigma with a big ego (what president doesn’t have an inflated ego?).
But back to Milton’s “Paradise Lost”: In the 17th century, Europe was undergoing major transformation both spiritually and politically. The English Civil War had serious ramifications on the nation, people were questioning religious authority, and Milton’s line “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven” was discussed by the then ‘Intelligentsia’ during those tumultuous times (compared to today, such an era was a ‘walk in the park’).
At the beginning of the speech in “Paradise Lost” when Satan has been expelled from heaven, he wakes up in a fiery Hell, which becomes his eternal kingdom. He says:
Farewell happy Fields
Where Joy forever dwells: Hail horrours, hail
Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell
Receive thy new Possessor: One who brings
A mind not to be chang’d by Place or Time.
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.
What matter where, if I be still the same,
And what I should be, all but less then he
Whom Thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We shall be free; th’Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
Here we may reign secure, and in my choyce
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n.
Another strange concept regarding reigning in one’s own ‘kingdom’ is solipsism. Metaphysical-type Solipsism is a philosophical idea that a person thinks that he or she is the only existent thing. In other words, the ‘external world’ and all its contents are figments of ‘your’ imagination. By now you’re probably thinking that solipsism is the weirdest concept in the history of philosophy and theology. But here’s the problem: Try refuting it. There seems to be no way of either proving or disproving that solipsism is true or false, unless one takes a leap of reasonable faith (not blind) and believes in God or that the external world is real and contains other minds.
About 17 years ago, I was doing research on the philosopher, George Berkeley. I interviewed a Berkeley scholar who said two of his current students were solipsists. I asked him how he felt being viewed as the figment of a student’s imagination, but he had no answer. I could have also asked him, ‘is it moral to murder a figment of your imagination?’ but I didn’t want to ‘put a paranoid stone in his shoe’ or have him look over his shoulder anytime one of the solipsists entered the classroom if one of them looked like he or she was having a bad day.
A funny anecdote was told by the American philosopher Alvin Plantinga, when he gave a lecture in 2011 at the Taylor University, Indiana. According to Dr Jay L. Wile, Plantinga started his talk with a few witticisms.
He talked about the philosophical view called solipsism, in which one can only be sure that one’s own mind exists. In the most extreme view of Solipsism, the Solipsist is the only real person that exists, and everyone else is simply a construct of the Solipsist’s mind. He said while this might seem silly to many people, it is a serious issue in philosophy. He said that he once met a philosopher who was an extreme Solipsist. He was an elderly man, and everyone in his department took incredibly good care of him. They carried his books and materials when he had to go somewhere, made sure that he ate well, and generally watched out for his well-being. As Dr. Plantinga was leaving the Solipsist’s department, he told someone else in the department how impressed he was that they took such great care of this elderly philosopher. The person replied, ‘We have to take good care of him, because when he goes, we all go!
Then there was the woman who allegedly said to the philosopher Bertrand Russell, who at the time was a solipsist (paraphrase), ‘Mr Russell, I too am a solipsist, but I wish there was more of us.’
As for Trump: The President has so much on his mind these days that his odd quote might be an indication that he needs a long vacation relaxing in the sun to put his mind at rest when, and if, the current war ends. A confused mind can sometimes be in a strange place when all around is chaotic.