The actions of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, are described by many as ‘shameless’. Nothing could be further from the truth. We stumble over symptoms that are characteristic of shame. Americans chose Trump to confront the shame that plagues them aggressively.

By Aart G. Broek
A creation story was recorded about three thousand years ago, and it forms the beginning of the book of Genesis, with which the Bible opens. It sheds an illuminating light on how President Trump reacts, including to Europe and organisations such as the European Union and NATO.

God created heaven and earth, then man: first man, then woman. Adam and Eve. This is what we read in Genesis. After the creation account, the Bible tells of two powerful emotions: the intense need for security and the intense pain that humiliation causes. When security is fulfilled favorably, this brings with it a heavenly satisfaction. As the drawing of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden shows, when humiliation comes, it immediately means the loss of that earthly paradise.

Shame
We rarely realise this, but in the Bible, God is the first to be humiliated. Adam and Eve do not keep the agreements they made with Him. They prove themselves untrustworthy. They betray His trust. The security that has been built up is broken open by the man and woman; God is pushed aside and thus humiliated. There is no reason for God to assume that this will be the end of this one humiliation.

More humiliations could follow. This humiliation affects God with an unparalleled outburst of anger and violence: man loses paradise forever. When ‘respect’ cannot be aroused by good means, it is forced by bad means.

This reverses the roles. The relatively powerless people are rejected by the almighty God, fear what else threatens, and, as we are then explicitly told, are ashamed. The shameful behaviour of the first humans shows familiar mechanisms of neutralisation: shifting the blame for wrong actions onto an even weaker other, labelling themselves as helpless victims, and adopting a distinctly submissive attitude—the attitude that we usually associate with ‘shame’.

Power
In contrast to the ashamed God, the embarrassed man does not experience an outburst of anger. On the contrary, people behave very meekly. Outside of paradise, people still seem to expect some protection from God. The hope for security of some permanence and, above all, the skewed power relations force us to behave obediently towards God.

In short, depending on our possibilities and position of power regarding the (supposed) perpetrators, we will either hit back as aggressively as possible or behave very submissively. Given a position of power, such as God or the United States, shame is the fuel for (violent) aggression.

Truly Humiliated

No country has been so thoroughly humiliated since ‘the fall of the wall’ in 1989 – the collapse of the communist Soviet Union – as the United States. Little to nothing has come of the expectation that the entire world would embrace a liberal-democratic system as a ‘paradise’ in the thirty years that followed; on the contrary.

This humiliating practice was outlined with a nod to the story of creation. Russia ate fruit from the forbidden tree of knowledge of good and evil – in this case, the capitalism that had been despised for decades – and submitted to a dictatorial oligarchy. As if it were Lucifer, China developed into a power as great as the divine America itself, but without any say, let alone opposition, from its population.

Europe refused to actively help maintain the paradise built and protected by the US. It systematically insulted the US with fierce criticism and by selling, among other things, sensitive IT knowledge to the aforementioned ‘Satan’. Many an Islamic-backed dictatorship has proven to be a hopeless quagmire, and numerous extremist Muslims have managed to pierce the heart of the US violently.

History Rewritten
It turned out that there was no ‘end to history’ at all, as Francis Fukuyama put it, the dominant idea in the American world. On the contrary, history was rewritten. This was done mainly by ‘worlds’ that also, however different, ​​each had to deal with a shameful past and associated shame: Russia, China, Islamic dictatorships, as well as Europe.

This ‘rewriting’ inevitably involved (violent) aggression. Above all, it was at the expense of the once all-powerful United States. The decline was experienced as such; hence, the slogan ‘Make America Great Again’.

Experiences of shame and their violent consequences are not a blind spot, as the thousands of years old Bible story makes clear. In the world of great powers, ‘aggression’ is the answer to the experiences of shame that the inhabitants of countries must deal with. There is indeed an alternative, albeit more specifically on a personal level. American singer Frank Sinatra summed up that alternative in one sentence: ‘The best revenge is massive success.’

Indeed, success and the accompanying admiration are an important – and relatively peaceful – way to compensate for experiences of shame. Within Europe, a country like Germany has tried to give substance to this after the Second World War. This could also be said to some extent of China (so far).

Egocentric and Ruthless
However, the United States seems so ashamed in recent decades that this alternative will not be pursued. To reverse and compensate for this shame, the country has taken a decidedly aggressive stance: Make America Great Again.

In addition, inherent to the scope of shame, the persistent reproach that the shame suffered can be attributed to ‘the other’, including Europe and (labour) migrants. Taking stock of one’s situation is at odds with shame. The guiding principle is exclusively: “What’s in it for me?”

In other words, shame undermines understanding empathy, fuels egocentric behaviour and shows no hesitation. It is inevitable in line with decidedly decisive behaviour: better to err completely than turn back halfway. A third additional characteristic of shame experiences is that they cut deeply ‘into the soul’ and are indelible. As a result, the desire to alleviate the pain suffered is as ruthless as insatiable, which we note.