By Kent G. Bailey, Ph.D.
In 1987, I published the first book in the field of Human Paleopsychology. This approach is premised on two basic assumptions: First, human beings have an ancient and rich evolutionary history, and second, that ancient history is thoroughly involved in everything we feel, think and do personally, politically and morally. According to famed neuroscientist Paul MacLean, the human brain is composed of a primeval reptilian segment at the lowest level, a mammalian segment at mid-level and a human or neocortical segment at the highest level. I added the notion that we human beings are constantly “regressing down” or “progressing up” MacLean’s triune brain system in the natural flow of behavior.
The concept of “paleopolitics” is an obvious derivative of human paleopsychology. Indeed, we may easily infer that humans are, at base, political animals who obey more the law of the jungle than the pieties of high culture or the moral righteousness of the godly. Politics is selfish and egoistic, tribalistic and xenophobic to its core, and will readily go to war to win at any cost. It sells itself as “progressive” and of higher things yet most often operates in the gutters of human nature. Politics is not for fops, Pollyannas or the faint-hearted; it is internecine war by another name. It is the game of war, and only the true warriors win.
In the past 60 years or so, America has become progressively feminized, and the archetypal warrior male has virtually disappeared. However, some tough ladies have stepped in to fill the vacuum including Phyllis Schlafly, Laura Ingraham, Sarah Palin and Michelle Malkin and many others. But how would any of these wonderful and strong women compete head-to-head in a private conference room with Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un of North Korea, or the mullahs and emirs of the volatile Middle East? We have seen how poorly our current girly-man-in-chief, Barack Obama, has dealt with the world of violent supermales out there. From the dawn of time, mutual respect among warrior males is the coin of the realm in these matters.
Fox News’ Megyn Kelly seems to see herself as an alpha female capable of taking on any and all opposition – male or female. Yet, when set against the unadulterated masculine intellectual powers and cunning of Donald Trump, it was not a fair fight. She was overpowered to the point of speechlessness and had to take a 10-day vacation to lick her wounds. When the ladies operate within a protective penumbra of political correctness in a highly feminized culture of girly men, it is pretty easy to win intellectual pillow fights.
In 2006, I published a column suggesting that Ann Coulter was the last of the “real men” on the intellectual right. I believe that Ann is the closest on the distaff side to the “in your face warrior hawk” profiled in that article. She may be the brightest and most courageous conservative intellectual in the country who can breathe fire when fire is needed – and that is most of the time. She has wonderfully set the stage for her male warrior counterpart, Donald Trump, who takes primal maleness to levels unseen for at least half a century. The everyday people of America long for strong warrior male leadership of the kind that has sustained the human race from the dawn of time.
Donald Trump is the prototypical, archetypal and testosterone-driven alpha male who rules by the sheer force of his personality, imposing physique, quick wit, mastery of repartee and almost hypnotic control over his gathering masses of adoring followers. He is Attila to the Huns, Henry V to the outnumbered English army, Winston Churchill to desperate allied forces, and now our fearless leader against the pagan forces of progressivism and political correctness. He is the unapologetic, quintessential warrior male of yore capable of vanquishing any and all opposition in his way.
Trump is not a clown, a bloviating buffoon, an intimidating bully, or just a really rich guy hoping to buy America as a shiny new toy. He is ambitious to a fault, relentless in his desire to control, own and build, and he has success written into the DNA of every cell of his body. Yes, he is egotistical, over the top at times, and less soft and sentimental than some would like, but I think he would do pretty well in that closed conference room with Putin or Kim. They would respect him but not necessarily like him. These are the ways of the warrior males who have ruled the world from the beginning of time.
Kent G. Bailey, Ph.D., is professor emeritus of clinical psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University and has published three books and various articles in the field of human paleopsychology.