“What we wish, wrote Julius Caesar, ‘we readily believe, and what we ourselves think, we imagine others think also”. (Commentarii belli civilis II, 27.2) And it is within this ancient national framework of self-grandeur and delusion the rest of the world looks at the United States of America as a country in the midst of a psychotically driven nationalistic nervous breakdown.  Most of the world’s population now know that ‘The Donald” is as mad as a Hatter, dangerously so, and await with baited breath for his defeat in November (just imagine the global street parties celebrating his demise!) It is worth living that long and surviving the Covid-19 pandemic just to be a part of the celebrations.

However, just when we thought it would be safe to go back into the water, another fiction unfolds: Kanye West running for President of the United States of America. Now, I must admit I had never heard of this guy until recently. I understand that he is an entertainer, a singer who has made a lot of money. A billionaire in fact (not that we need more of them) but it is a fact that counts; after all money always buys the American presidency-democracy left the US when its courts ruled that corporations are people, and that the purveyors of predatory capitalism are above the law.

I had not heard of his wife either; someone called Kim Kardashian I think?  She does some tax break lobbying philanthropy work, and has also recently become a billionaire, through selling make up and having remote cameras in her house so everyone can see and understand her a bit more (why else would you have cameras to broadcast your life to the world?).

Well enough I thought, as the US has had Ronald Regan, Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Fred Grandy, Ben Jones and Sonny Bono, to name a few, in elected office at some time or another. However, I did a bit of digging on this Kanye guy and his wife Kim to see what their views might be on the homeless crisis in the US, the lack of medical care in the US, the low taxes on the super-rich in the US, bailing out corporations and banks in the US during the Covid-19 pandemic, North Korea’s belligerence and threats to world peace, Israel’s illegal annexation of the West Bank, Pakistan, India and China tensions, the war in Afghanistan, the war in Yemen, the war in Syria, Russian meddling in NATO’s affairs, China’s rampant grab for world dominance, corruption and poverty across the African continent, the proxy wars in Libya and Syria, sanctions on Iran, the US relationship with Saudi Arabia, and New Zealand’s ban on US Nuclear ships and their nuclear weapons visiting New Zealand ports, and darn I couldn’t find anything.

However, I did find a report that said he’d put Elon Musk (another billionaire who may get over $50bn in a payout from Tesla, the company which makes electric cars for people who cannot afford to pay their electricity bills)) in charge of the US space program, and that he’d probably run the USA and the White House based upon Wakanda, the fictional kingdom from Black Panther. The Bible would be his set of guiding principles; he loves China and is cautious about using vaccines. (BBC World News, 2020).

Well, perhaps it might be an improvement on the current scenario whereby the country is a reality TV show. It would certainly help the possible future first lady who is also a reality TV show in her own right.

But seriously folks, what is it that makes brash upstart billionaires think they can rule the world? I think we’ve heard it all before but simply forgotten:

The best outcome we can all hope for is that Kanye, Kim and Elon head into outer space in a Space X rocket, and find another billionaire tax haven planet they can shaft, rule in perpetuity, and perhaps live happily ever after?

References

BBC World News. (2020, July 8). Kanye West: Presidential hopeful wants to run the White House like Wakanda. Retrieved from BBC News: https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-53332251

(Jasiński.), G. J. (2019). Commentarii belli civilis II, 27.2. Retrieved from Imperiumromanum: https://www.imperiumromanum.edu.pl/en/roman-art-and-culture/golden-thoughts-of-romans/quotes-of-julius-caesar/