We are Trump and Trump is Us

Justin D. Henderson, PhD
12 min readOct 16, 2020

Trump is the outcome of an unexamined life in an unexamined culture.

Image by Tibor Janosi Mozes from Pixabay

“Man is the cruelest animal.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

Sitting crossed-legged on a meditation cushion, I conjure up three distinctly different people. The point of the practice is to extend compassion to others, and the challenge, quite frankly, is to see how I resist such efforts to certain others. It’s a three-part process where you first focus on a loved one that you care about, then a neutral other, and wraps up with a difficult person.

For each of these folks that enter my mind, the practice instructed me to connect with their wish to be happy and contemplate their capacity to experience suffering. It is usually easier to offer someone you care about compassion than offer it so freely to someone you find difficult.

The point of the practice is to settle into a place where you can appreciate the common humanity of these three people with which we have different relationships. Then you extend your vision to the whole world and offer compassion to all people. It’s quite a powerful practice.

Compassion for Trump?…yikes

When attempting this meditation, my mind wanted to fixate on Trump as a difficult person. It makes a great deal of sense to me. First, I’m not too fond of…

--

--

Justin D. Henderson, PhD
Justin D. Henderson, PhD

Written by Justin D. Henderson, PhD

Dr. Justin D. Henderson is a psychologist, professor of counseling, and organizational consultant. He’s a Medium Top Writer in Leadership and Business.