The Wall Street Journal has reported that Defense Department officials will not be allowed to participate in cybersecurity conferences if such conferences are sponsored by an organization that the Trump Administration has determined doesn't "support the president." In addition, the boycott of such conferences will be extended to any organization that the Trump Administration has decided "promotes globalism."
The significance of what is being reported here goes beyond a simple observation about the president's personal preferences - and about his personal petulance about those who disagree with him, or who have different priorities. In fact, as The Wall Street Journal article makes pretty clear, our national security is being compromised.
There is not much doubt, I think, that our current president is properly categorized as a "narcissist." The article I have just linked defines and discusses "narcissism" as follows:
In analytical terms, a narcissistic personality is typified by a core self that is overwhelmingly self-referential — rather than being defined through contact with the world around it.
The narcissistic self is engaged in a constant struggle for self-confirmation. That becomes the compelling, overriding goal of life whatever pursuits the narcissist undertakes, whatever prosaic gratifications he seeks, whatever the social circumstances in which he finds itself.
With a grandiose sense of self-importance, he feels a powerful entitlement to admiration and special treatment.
Incapable of critical self-reflection
The narcissist is incapable of critical self-reflection. The only errors admitted are tactical ones, things that fell short in failing to bring the outer world into conformity to demands of the self.
Above all, there is the demand that the individual be allowed to do whatever he pleases at all times, without restraint or criticism or punishment. Everything is interpreted, judged and explained on that basis.
Unaccommodating persons are punished, places and circumstances that do not readily give approval are to be avoided (emphasis added).
I think some compassion for our current president is not necessarily misplaced. His narcissism is a terrible affliction under which to suffer, and so having some personal sympathy for the toll that his narcissism imposes upon the president is justified. The problem, however, is that the president's pathology adversely affects the nation as a whole - meaning each and every one of us. To return to The Wall Street Journal article, and to quote Jeff Moss, whom The Journal identifies as a "cybersecurity expert," the president's pathological narcissism "creates a narrative of us and them, instead of us together.”
I have previously commented that our current president acts as if "reality" is what he, personally, determines that it is. This claim by our current president, I believe, is another manifestation of the president's pathological narcissism. This disfunctionality on the part of our current president is serious. While the "narcissist" may be driven by his pathologies to believe that he, and he alone, can say what is true, and what isn't true, that is actually just not the case.
"Reality" exists independently of our wishes and our perceptions, so our current president's distorted perceptions - distortions occasioned by his pathological narcissism - puts us all in jeopardy. We are, in fact, "in this together" (in so many ways), so a distorted view that insists that reality is really just "us and them," can lead to some very bad decisions, with some very bad consequences resulting.
Let's see how those massive tarrifs work out for us, for example. Experts are worried that they will possibly NOT work out to the benefit of the nation. And let's see if our government's refusal to work on cybersecurity issues, in collaboration with those whom our current president has decided don't "support" him, doesn't end up making us more vulnerable to cyber attacks by those hostile to the United States.
It may well be appropriate to "Pity The Poor President," to allude to a relevant Bob Dylan song that uses a word not much liked by our current chief executive, in lieu of the word "president." Still, pity for the president doesn't eliminate the need for our nation to look out for itself, as a first priority.
If our current president's psychological pathologies put our nation in potential danger, we should, I would say, begin thinking about how to compensate for that.
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