Musings …

Why does Donald Trump tweet, not just tweet, but tweet so often and so OFFENSIVELY! Ayn Rand has the answer.

Ayn Rand identifies as a “Second Hander,” an abysmally weak personality, exemplified in the extreme by Donald Trump.

A “Second Hander” is a person whose perception of themselves does not exist from within, but from what they imagine is going on in the minds of others. If someone is thinking of THEM, they must be alive, otherwise NOT!

This characteristic is shared by everyone to some extent. Not of course by Howard Roark or Hank Reardon, but they are characters in Rand’s books. When her syndrome is manifested in the extreme, you get a Donald Trump, who shares company with more infamous pathological power mongers, at least more infamous so far.

Ayn Rand is not alone. In a story, Ray Bradbury – I think it was Bradbury – wrote about dead people on Mars who came alive whenever someone on earth had them in mind.

Talk about an inferiority complex: How about a non-existence complex!

This kind of person has so little sense of self-existence that they have a pathological need to be noticed. In the case of Trump the craving resulting from that need is so extreme that he needs to be forcing people’s attention on him at all times, and in the most extreme ways. The most extreme ways, to assure that the most brains are on him, and at all times, because he can’t live without it.

Ayn Rand’s “Second Hander” concept explains a lot. It answers questions about his targets. Why women for example? Or why the media? If we ask, “What outrageous statement or target will engage the most minds and tongues for the most amount of time?” we understand his choices.

The media for example. The media is, after all, his conduit to as many people as possible.

There are, presumably, deep seated reasons for his misogyny, but even here, for someone who must be alive in someone else’s mind to sense their own existence, women would be obvious targets, even without having personal animosity towards them. Think about this: If he actually had no animus towards women, a sickness, but attacked them, or groped them, just to commandeer at his convenience his presence in their minds, it would be worse. Instead of his carnage resulting from illness, a mitigation, his victims would simply be “road kill!”

Being a “Second Hander” explains why Trump can’t control himself? Question: Which has more power, some ideological principle of self-control, or self-existence. The latter clearly trumps the former.

I myself also suffer some from her syndrome. It sometimes causes me, not to force engagement, but the opposite, to disengage.