With Baited Breath
By Devika Brendon
Does anyone else feel like we are all being baited by an individual in Pennsylvania Avenue?
I’ve just read an article by an astrologer on FB attempting to explain current decisions made by the current leader of the so-called ‘Free World’ in terms of his birth date and the placement of the planets in his astrology chart. The author of that article said we are all waiting with ‘bated breath’ - the correct term is ‘bated breath’, but in the current context, ‘baited’ is a pretty apt typo.
We find ourselves being recruited into the narrative and relational dynamics generated by an archetypal narcissist. Having been charmed, lied to and cajoled into this situationship by a show biz performer, we have woken up to find ourselves feeling desensitised to terrible acts that are being committed, in which we are complicit. A storm of abuse, of degradation and devaluation, is being rained on whoever is the designated enemy of the hour. We keep being told the unfolding words and actions are ‘unprecedented’, a euphemism which signals that we have been trafficked into unknown territory.
We see how people who have been employed by him are used as scapegoats and fall guys, to deflect from his own shortfalls and violations. See them all lining up, praying for God’s blessing on this unholy war, their mouths like machine guns rat-rat-tatting the prescribed litanies. It is unclear whether anyone participating in these grotesque performative rituals of public loyalty believes in anything more divine than an increasingly dwindling hope of personal reward. Are any of the people in the metaphorical ant farm actually serving the country or furthering actual justice? Will they be left with any cover or shield when they too are inevitably devalued and demonized and discarded? The real war has been on the structures and values on which previous systems of conduct and leadership have been built. The public are so dissociated from the decisions made in their name, and funded by their resources, that they are forced into the cheap seats in a giant performance arena.
This is narcissism on a flamboyant and brazen scale. Nothing has changed at all since we were told that the man felt entitled to grab and manhandle any woman in his vicinity. Witnesses and victims of his grabbing hands have made their collective testimony over and over again that the excitement this person derives from his interactions with people is the sadistic glee he gains from their fear and shame and humiliation, of making them do what they do not want to do, of making them feel powerless. Feeling the power of life and death and control over them. Making them wait with bated and baited breath.
In this man’s mind, the world is a vast pageant, and he is a judge who is entitled to grossly finger and fondle and sample the contenders, who are all vying for his favour. He has been messing with the structures of the society which unwittingly enthroned him for a decade now. Shouting louder than anyone else, mocking the ‘losers’, and expressing contempt to everyone who is other than him. And only now people are starting to call him unpresidential and questioning his fitness to hold office.
His impact is like an acid storm, beating on the doors and windows of a fortified house, showing that it is not as strong as those who inhabited it thought it was. Like the outrageous acts of any marauder, his aggression shows us where the weaknesses are, in our structures and our view of the world, which need to be dealt with pronto, so further incursions can be pre-empted.
How do you deal with this crazed, demented conscienceless old puppeteer? You starve him of attention. You withdraw your gaze. You isolate him, and you construct alternative pathways for your life which relegate him to a minor place. You withhold supply. For a narcissist, supply is the attention his victims give him, whether it’s fear or hatred or admiration. It makes him feel affirmed and powerful, to see his victims begging him for mercy which will not be forthcoming, with breath that is taken from our lungs by the shock and the trauma of the indecency that is being continually normalized. Keep in mind that these dark lords in their misshapen towers are all still part of a wider world, subject to universal laws. They are only as powerful as their cruelty extends, and the compliance of those they use as instruments to achieve their objectives can be withdrawn at any time. The over-reach is their downfall, every time.
The marauder sets the timeline. The people of the besieged nations are lining the bridges and energy stations of their homeland, being described as people whose lives and culture have no value? Facts are being described as fake news, to amplify the obscurity caused by the fog of war. Many former systems of interpretation and communication have been compromised beyond repair. After the storm is over, the damage can be assessed, and rebuilding begun. But now we see the true face of the perpetrator, and the threats and delays and lies and malicious framing of events which characterize his inflammatory campaign is all part of the process that was started years ago, of dismantling democracy and disempowering the country from within. Breathe, everyone. Get oxygen into your brain and see through all this spin. Don’t let your breath or anything else essential to you be taken away.
