Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-v5vhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-20T03:51:04.299Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - Coda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Arthur Asa Berger
Affiliation:
San Francisco State University
Get access

Summary

I can only wonder what Ortega y Gasset would have thought had he been able to observe the divisive and corrosive nature of contemporary American politics and read my book on crowds. He wrote his book in 1932, but his ideas seem oddly relevant today—in part because he recognized the problems generated by the emergence of the “multitudes” or what Le Bon would call the crowd. It was Trump's behavior—and the behavior of his angry followers who attacked the Capitol that led me to write this book. Bob Woodward and Robert Costa conclude their book, Peril, as follows (2021:418):

Five years ago, on March 31, 2016, when Trump was on the verge of winning the Republican presidential, we worked together for the first time and interviewed Trump as his then unfinished Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington. That day we recognized he was an extraordinary political force, in many ways right out of the American playbook. An outsider. Anti-Establishment. A builder. Bombastic. Confident. A fast-talking scrapper. But we also saw darkness. He could be petty. Cruel. Bored by American history and dismissive of governing traditions that had long guided elected leaders. Tantalized by the prospect of power. Eager to use fear to get his way. “Real power is—I don't even want to use the word—rear,” Trump told us. “I bring rage out. I do bring rage out. I always have. I don't know if that's an asset or a liability, but whatever it is, I do.” Could Trump work his will again? Were there any limits to what he has his supporters might do to put him back in power? Peril remains.

That is the situation we face now in America as our democratic institutions are in peril from Trump and the Republican Party, which has become an antidemocratic cult of Trump followers—or is the term “worshipers” more accurate?

Type
Chapter
Information
Crowds in American Culture, Society and Politics
A Psychosocial Semiotic Analysis
, pp. 85 - 86
Publisher: Anthem Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Coda
  • Arthur Asa Berger, San Francisco State University
  • Book: Crowds in American Culture, Society and Politics
  • Online publication: 28 February 2024
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Coda
  • Arthur Asa Berger, San Francisco State University
  • Book: Crowds in American Culture, Society and Politics
  • Online publication: 28 February 2024
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Coda
  • Arthur Asa Berger, San Francisco State University
  • Book: Crowds in American Culture, Society and Politics
  • Online publication: 28 February 2024
Available formats
×