Two powerful men who used humiliation as a political tool are in trouble. That they despised the humanity latent in people whom they treated as things. Both Donald Trump – prosecuted – and Silvio Berlusconi – suffering from a serious illness – are embarking on dark journeys, now in the hands of a chain of small human gestures, the only ones capable of comforting them.
I think of the sick man's gown – that green cellulose that makes us all equal – once devoid of his rings and chains, with sad leggings instead of the good leather that ennobles his feet. And those words of Lagerfeld come to mind, the last ones he uttered according to his trusted man, Sébastien Jondeau, who was watching him at the elitist American Hospital in Paris: "It's stupid to have three Rolls and end up in a rotten room like this" . I can't imagine the Cavaliere pulling off such lucid sarcasm.
How must the cascades of impotence fall on those who not only had it all, but used the power that the ballot box gave them to debase the world with more falsehood, corruption and violence? Trump, who always despised women, has ended up shooting both for his misogyny and for multiple falsehoods.
He exposed both of them in the Access Hollywood tape: he was able to separate migrant mothers and daughters at the border, while laughing at the multiple accusations of sexual abuse that, until now, he has successfully trumped. “You know, it doesn't matter what the media writes as long as you have a beautiful young ass next to you”, he allowed himself to say.
His style, like that of the veteran Italian politician and businessman, has been fertilized in abusive and macho rudeness. Which, deep down, is above all a disregard for oneself, since harassing others with pleasure makes us as vile as coarse. They have been teachers.
After multiple run-ins with the law – due to corruption or child abuse – until his neo-fascist antics caused an institutional crisis from which Italy has not yet recovered, the trail left by Berlusconi is that of a buffoon.
In the case of Trump, it is difficult to minimize his nonsense, topped off by the coup attempt staged on Capitol Hill. Now, the circle of sleaze is closed because, not only he sits on the bench with his 34 felony charges, but Trumpism itself. A populism built on fake news, feverish tweets, intolerance and insults and the logic of extreme narcissistic behavior has created a school around the world.
In a 1996 essay now republished by Arcàdia and Paidós, Decent Society, the thinker Avishai Margalit delves into what he calls the paradox of humiliation: feeling humiliated is not rational. And for this he resorts to the distinction that Bernard Williams makes between red emotions (those that cause us to blush) and white emotions (those that make us pale). "Humiliation is a red emotion, but the victim assumes a response that fits with a white emotion," says Margalit, for whom the concept of a decent society is based on sensitivity, while insults always represent a social evil.
Crossing all the red lines of respect and exhibiting a vast catalog of humiliations, Trump showed a leadership based on indecency, attacking human dignity. At last he can be washed by justice, without the need for stain remover.
