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ZEUS AMONG MORTALS – AN ‘UNINTENDED’ CONVERSATION
Some have called Donald Trump a Trojan Horse in the Republican camp. However, that legendary analogy may only be a small part of a much bigger picture: How does Trump’s success at this week’s GOP convention relate to the Homeric tales of Troy and Sparta? What is the lesson we should learn? You’ll be amazed by this unparalleled conversation about history’s eternal parallels.
“The gods of history are trying to tell us that we are conceited to think we are fully rational actors, fully forearmed and foresighted, that we know everything, at a given point in time.” All the world’s a stage in the story told by our guest, Salim Mansur, as he connects the dots between significant historical events and ideas that have led to the Trump phenomenon, the Brexit vote, the rise of Islamist terrorism, the resurgence of racism and the various crisis‘ that face the world today.
Given the theme of today’s conversation, it should not be surprising that our discussion about history’s ‘unintended consequences‘ should similarly have led to unintended and unexpected directions in that conversation:
“History is paradoxical because none of us knows what the unintended consequences of our decision are. We always understand history in retrospect. But we live history in prospect.“
“(Ronald) Reagan‘s campaign in 1976 was an insurgency campaign – the outsider. He challenged the keystone signature item of the Nixon-Ford policy which was detente.”
“It is said that truth is stranger than fiction. But you might almost reverse it and say that truth is trying to catch up with fiction.”
“The greatest story of Western civilization is the Homeric tale: Odyssey and Iliad. Paris of Troy sees Helen of Sparta, falls in love, and abducts her. The unintended consequence was that he unleashed a series of devastating wars between Greece and Troy that led to the destruction of Troy.”
“Saudi officials in the United States were directly in touch with the hijackers of the 9/11 planes that brought down the twin towers in New York. The big question is like the Sherlock Holmes question’Why didn’t the dogs bark?’ This goes back to the entire history of the twentieth century from the end of World War I to 9/11, when the Western powers embraced the enemy – Saudi Arabia.”
“Who embraced this perverted ideology of Islam to begin with? It was embraced by the Americans.”
“Donald Trump stands in contrast to an eight-year Obama administration, which from the standpoint of (national) security has been a remarkable failure.”
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