I Know A Predator When I See One

A predator in the animal kingdom is defined as an animal that kills or eats other animals for food. The most successful predators are not necessarily the biggest and the strongest. They are the ones with the sharpest predatory instincts. They are fast. They have heightened senses. They have good camoflage. They can attack without their prey ever sensing that they are in danger.

Richard Heinberg has studied predators. Human groups have “preyed” upon one another via two main pathways—intragroup and intergroup—which have often intersected or run parallel. Members of a complex society can “prey” upon other members of the same society via slavery (including sex slavery and debt slavery), caste, class, taxes, rents, crime, and debt; on the other hand, one society can “prey” upon a different society through raid, invasion, plunder, conquest, colonization, or (again) debt.

Humans have been predators or scavengers throughout our evolutionary history, in that we are animals that eat other animals. But as we humans have come to harvest more and more of Earth’s productivity, we have become, in effect, “super-predators.”

Life in the Boomer Lane has read countless descriptions of Donald Trump. He is obese. He has an orange face and a hairstyle that defies the laws of physics. He has an extremely limited vocabulary. Both his written and verbal communications are indicative of someone who has not fully mastered the English language. He has a non-existant attention span. He has little ability to conceptualize. He is a child. He is a demented child. He is incapable of empathy. He is evil. He is thin-skinned. He is vindictive. He is a bully and a womanizer and a narcissist and a fool.

What he makes up for in all these failings is his instinct for predatory behavior. It is an instinct that has allowed him to survive and thrive in a real estate business that he doesn’t actually understand very well. He doesn’t need to. He only needs to decide what is best for him and to then be the scariest person in the room, someone with good lawyers at his disposal, who hurls threats that he may or may not follow through on. But you don’t want to take the chance.

As president, he doesn’t have to understand the Constitution or how our government works. He doesn’t have to know our history. He doesn’t have to read daily briefings or listen to advice. He doesn’t have to understand that others countries share the planet with him. He only has to decide what is best for him and to then be the scariest person in the room, someone with good lawyers and a vast military at his disposal., who hurls threats that he may or may not follow through on. Nobody wants to take the chance.

The country is his stalking ground. The population is his prey. There is no part of the country or of its people that serves any other purpose for him. His vision is quite simple: to stalk, to consume, to continue to feed his hunger. He differs only in one respect from a traditional predator. He demands that his prey adore him and to be grateful for being consumed.

Kamala Harris knows a predator when she sees one. Many others do, as well. Let us hope that, come November, enough people make the decision to be something other than Donald Trump’s prey.