“The Emperor Has No Brain”

Stupidity has power because it ignores rules built on reason. But even the reptile brain has limits. Otherwise reptiles would still rule the world…

Ofri Ilani in #Haaretz uses a Stanisław Lem story to explain something analysts keep refusing to say plainly: the world is run by an idiot.

In Lem’s “Idiota” (in “A Perfect Vacuum”; OM), parents of a severely disabled infant convince themselves he is a superior being, freed from language, morality, and limits. They build a cult around interpreting his drool as metaphysical insight. Eventually they abandon reason entirely to imitate him.

Ilani observes correctly that this is exactly what Israeli public opinion does with #Trump. And not only Israel. The “best analysts” at Foreign Policy and Foreign Affairs do it too. They can’t admit the conclusion because it means accepting an arbitrary, absurd world. So they manufacture strategy where there is none.

[…] But at a certain point the stupidity just screams to the heavens. You have no choice but to acknowledge it – unless you belong to a particularly fanatical cult of believers. And the war against #Iran is one of those moments. This is simply a stupid, absurd, and destructive war. There is no point looking for any hidden logic in it.

He concluded: Napoleon also smashed the old order violently, but claimed to replace it with Reason. Trump replaces it with stupidity and ignorance. Supporting Trump is therefore explicitly nihilistic – not a political position, simply the desire to watch the world burn.

Hebrew: https://www.haaretz.co.il/magazine/underthesun/2026-04-08/ty-article/.highlight/0000019d-670a-db3c-a3df-ef8fbe7d0000 or https://archive.ph/JAI5R

Don’t forget about #Gaza and the #EpsteinFiles #uspol #bookstadon