Moonspeak

                         Moonspeak

“Moonies” is the only name that I have been able to come up with to describe the employment of synchronized thoughts, actions and words of the followers of Donald J. Trump, newly elected President of the United States of America.

The “Moonies” were cult followers of the Korean reverend Moon. Whatever Confuscianesque sayings, that the good reverend uttered daily, were immediately reflected in the thoughts and speech of many thousands of his followers worldwide. You could never argue points of theology with these disciples. They were ideologically inflexible. Whatever the latest “Moon thought” issued was the gospel truth and not subject to interpretation. In fairness, the Catholics had invented the concept with the notion of “Papal Bulls.” These manifestos were infallible too, not subject to criticism or interpretation.

And now, virtually every morning we have a pseudo-sacred utterance form the great Oz-Like one who is now the President. Sure enough, popping up on the morning television news programs and all across the nation, you hear reflections of the latest psycho-babble of the day. “Fake News” they scream. “Alternative Facts are preferable.” (Huh?) By this time, most of us are scrambling to recollect which portion of the Lewis G. Carroll fable “Alice in Wonderland” that we are now hearing. Or, is it the “double speak” of George Orwell’s  “otherworld?”  Once you start straying from the main lanes of established logic and linguistic order, you enter a virtual “twilight zone,” where decoder rings and “doublespeak glossaries“ become necessary to try and figure out what is being said. To complicate matters, a contradictory tweet might arrive the next morning and the whole order of “through the looking glass”  world can be turned upside down.

One has to wonder if this performance is all part of an elegant Machiavellian design, or simply the random thoughts of someone venting his spleen daily?  Maybe the esteemed President has one of those “magic eight balls” that lets a different answer surface every time you shake the sphere. It can be confusing, even to the most linguistically elastic of his listeners.

As to the relevance and accuracy of the message?  I am afraid I will have to leave that to the interpretation of the listener. We hear often what we wish to hear. I am mindful of the Queen of Hearts scenes in the “Alice fable.”  “Off with their heads” she screams. With Donald, it is either a new proclamation or a new firing of a former ardent supporter. And I wonder how many of Donald’s friends and allies can he throw under the bus before it all turns over on him?

At the very least, the esteemed Mister Trump has made the political arena interesting again. We have all had enough of the perfectly-coiffed, blowhards that have said much and done nothing for decades.  Maybe “The Donald” can shake things up enough to make the status quo get off its duff and do somethings that need doing in the country?

And for now, the new President has at least provided us with the most interesting television in years!

                                         -30-

                                    (518 words)

                              Joseph Xavier Martin