Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz

The comparison between Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz is interesting.
Both candidates make remarks, which are, by today's standards of universal values and human rights, very questionable, to put it mildly.

However, when Mr. Trump makes remarks, for example about walls and immigration, it sounds as if he does not really mean it. It is as if he is just acting like a macho, in the great reality TV show that is the US Presidential election.

On the other hand, when Mr. Cruz says something, it appears as if he is really meaning it. Which is, after all, what earnest Presidential candidates are supposed to do. However, in this case, it makes Mr. Cruz even more scary.

There is another interesting difference between Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz. When Mr. Trump delivers judgment, he seems to be doing so from his own experiences and value systems. It is an individualistic act. When Mr. Cruz says something, on the other hand, he seems to be referring to supposedly important communal values.

In sum, Mr. Cruz seems to be of a more "deep" case than Mr. Trump, especially because the candidate apparently lacks a metacognition of what he is doing.

3 comments:

ko nagata said...

It's always hard to tell how much of what politicians say are "beta (he really means it)" vs. "neta (he doesn't mean it literally)". That's especially true with Trump.

What concerns me more is the fact that a candidate like Trump---who's exploiting xenophobia of the public---has been avidly supported. What Noam Chomsky recently mentioned has a point: the frustration of the public (based on xenophobic fears) can easily attach to discriminatory myths. Noam even pointed out a resemblance between the rise of Trump and rise of Hitler.

BTW, your English writing is great but would be better if you use various punctuation marks: semicolons, colons, and dashes (having said that, I'm still struggling to improve my English writing as well).

Below is an excerpt from "Write it up" by Paul Silvia.

ko nagata said...

Commas and periods afford only a few sentence forms and hinder some elegant forms of subordination and coordination. With only two tools in the box, the writer is limited to building lowly spice racks and trivets p.38

Ken Mogi said...

Mr. Nagata, thank you for your comments. I don't like punctuation marks: semicolons, colons, and dashes, unless they are absolutely necessary. They are against my aesthetics. : - )