Being unable to read is illiteracy. That is tragic but something even worse is being able to read but choosing not to. Of course, you know who I am talking about.
We have never had a president in our history who was proudly illiterate until now. He claims he is a genius and graduated first in his class at Wharton College. A reporter recently found public records of those who made the Dean’s List during those years and Mr. Trump was never on the list. So how could someone who graduated at the top of his class not make the dean’s list? Of course, that is impossible. But if pushed to it Trump would probably give another conspiracy theory about how the dean didn’t like that he was so much smarter than him that he erased his name.
This all brings to mind a personal story. I have let it be known here on RJsCorner that my mother, like our current president, was an extreme narcissist. Some of her regular fabrications were about her occupation.
- She proclaimed was a college graduate when in fact she very likely never graduated from high school. She was pregnant at the age of fifteen in the 1940s and then had a second child (me) at 17. Preganent girls did not attend high school during those years let along college.
- In another part of her life, she proclaimed she was a nurse when in fact she only worked as a receptionist in a doctor’s office for less than a year in her early twenties.
- Later in life, she proclaimed she was a doctor. This came about when she volunteered once a week for two months at a local medical center and they let her wear a white coat. After that, she added “Dr.” to her name everywhere she could.
- After her fourth husband died and I had to take over managing her life, I insisted she stop saying she was a doctor. Reluctantly she did so, but then she started telling all the assisted-living and nursing home folks that she was the head nurse at a major metropolitan hospital.
I don’t think she really consciously knew she was constantly lying. She was probably convinced in her own mind of each of the fabricated occupations. Her narcissism dictated so many lies in her life. The same thing is true for Mr. Trump and his fabrications. He claims he is a genius so there is nothing else he needs to know. He proclaims he is a billionaire but hides possible proof of it and calls it a “red line” if anyone should access his tax returns.
The primary symptom of Narcissism is that they make EVERYTHING is about them. There is no meaning outside of themselves. Sadly that proved to be true yet again when he recently tweeted about the latest school shooting. His point wasn’t about empathy, of which he likely has none, but instead about how investigating him made it happen. Everything has to be about him.
In closing, the trouble with compounding one lie after another is that it becomes impossible to keep them straight.
I still remember the words in this blog’s title coming from each of the cigarette company CEOs while testifying before a congressional committee in 1994. They all stood up and swore that cigarettes addiction was a fallacy. About that time I had been free from cigarettes for about two years after 25 years of use. Breaking that addiction was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. To hear those seven guys tell me that lie shocked me but it wouldn’t by any means be the last time that happened
But then again it also reminded me that even though it seems worse, things are not that much different than they were then.