Snakes, trangressions, and POTUS
What animals and Trump can teach us.
We are rounding out the first weeks of the new infernal administration and its flurry of executive orders, in its bid to aggrandize the role of this branch and diminish the tri-partite American democracy. We recently ended this interminable month of January 2025, and as we recently began the new Chinese year and are ushering in the year of the Snake, (I’m tempted to joke that we have our snake- and he lives in the White House but there is, actually, a lot of positive symbolism in the snake.)
As the 6th (midpoint) animal in the Zodiac it calls up a need for balance. Additionally, people born in the Year of the Snake are believed to be perceptive, intelligent and graceful. In Chinese culture, the snake is often linked to the element of fire, which signifies passion, energy, and transformation The year itself is considered a time for reflection, deep thought, and personal growth.
Here are some of my reflections of the first few weeks and a humbly offered guide to getting through the next four years. On page 100b (second side of the 100th leaf) of the tractate of Eruvin (I always translated Eruvin as boundaries or transgressions – turns out it actually translates as “mixtures”, as mixtures require precise measurements and guidelines. How do we mix things together without one of them being absorbed by the other?) in the Babylonian Talmud, it criminalizes marital rape and empowers women to demand sex (there is also a fairly problematic discussion of Eve’s sins and punishments – but female curiosity and knowledge seeking has always been a threat). This page also states the following-
“Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Even if the Torah had not been given, we would nonetheless have learned modesty from the cat, which covers its excrement, and that stealing is objectionable from the ant, which does not take grain from another ant, and forbidden relations from the dove, which is faithful to its partner, and proper relations from the rooster, which first appeases the hen and then mates with it.”
Studying the conduct and behavior of animals has a lot to offer us. We certainly learn a lot from and resonate with the animals in the Chinese Zodiac.
If we can learn from animals (even the supposedly less intelligent ones) we can learn from people, all people, including Trump. Obviously, it is easy to identify him as an exemplar of how not to conduct oneself- demonstrating some of the worst of human narcissism and grandiosity. Maybe we can sift through and identify other things he can demonstrate, not exclusively as a negative prototype.
Trump is an absolute paragon of tenacity- he refuses to accept a fact that does not fit his belief system. He can recover from disappointment and failure- unfailingly. He sees what he wants to see and operates from that place. It is clearly selective, delusional, and maladaptive. But there may be inspirational and useful kernels in this bombastic fluff. Perhaps if an orange faced buffoon can survive bankruptcy and find a second, third and even 17th act, we can do that too. We can recover from our own versions of setbacks and impediments. He refuses to flop, even as he is completing decompensating and deteriorating. It’s ugly and embarrassing but his shamelessness serves him, in some ways. He utilizes all the tools at his disposal in service of his delusions. What paraphernalia and utensils can we make use of?
Trump revels in his reputation as a strong man and wears his bully credentials with pride. It is reprehensible and nauseating to watch him persecute and oppress the most vulnerable as he flexes. His bluster is in support of his protean and mercurial beliefs, whose only constants are exploitation, opportunism and complete disregard of social welfare, fairness and kindness. In the Orally Transmitted Torah (the Mishnah- the Talmud is the commentary and expansion on the Mishnah), in Avot (Fathers) 5:17 it discusses various kinds of fighting. There is virtuous fighting, akin to John Lewis’ “good trouble” and bad fighting. It delineates that noble battles are for the sake of heaven. As opposed to problematic quarrels which are for one’s own aggrandizement. Trump is clearly divisive in ignoble ways for his dubious beliefs. But we can meet with our own intimidation, that which is for the sake of heaven. What is heaven or the divine? I default to Buber’s definition- “when two (or more) people relate to each other authentically and humanly, God is the electricity that surges between them”. We can extrapolate from that characterization; heaven is radical humanity and deep connection to others and their plight. That is worth fighting for. How can we agitate and aggress (appropriately) for our principles, our humanity and our divinity? Maybe we study Trump’s playbook and start playing by his rules to beat him at his own game.
Not all feral and vicious animals can be tamed, but many can be outsmarted.
Acknowledgements- Ali Feit.
Do you think stark’s relentless hope/ refusal to grieve could apply to Trump’s psychology?