Just under one month after Donald Trump has assumed the Presidency of the United States, the old order has been turned upside down. Most of us thought that an electoral candidate would rise to the occasion on winning, seeking reconciliation between the contending parties, smoothing ruffled feathers and then get on with the serious business of governing.

Here we have the new US President coming out with all guns blazing, changing not only policies by the tweet, but also saying that the US legal system is broken, taking on his intelligence agencies, the judiciary and his closest neighbour. The result was the judiciary firmly rejecting his travel ban, and the firing of his National Security Adviser. 

As comedian Cecily Strong of Saturday Night Live (SNL) said to Trump, “You’re doing too much, OK? I want one day without a CNN alert that scares the hell out of me.”

Time out, please.

The hit TV series West Wing is nothing compared with the Trump Reality Show, which is more like a Morality Play.  

The Trump players are so righteous in what they believe in, that they are 100 per cent sure what they are doing is right; as Presidential Senior Adviser Stephen Miller said, the President “will not be questioned.”  For the first time in world history, we have one leader connected directly and 24×7 to the whole world by tweets, so that we can all gasp at where the United States is going as a country.  

We are now in a global media feed-back frenzy that does not know how to stop.  The reason is that the President clearly tweets vigorously in response to all the media reports, and his close advisers respond with such vehemence and moral indignity that the media shoots back immediately with barrages of stories, dressed as comedy or refutation of lies and conspiracies. CNN, Saturday Night Live, New York Times and Washington Post never had such spikes in viewer ratings, all because of this feedback loop.  In between, the Trump Administration is supposed to get on with the business of governance, which was a “steady-as-she-goes” routine until he appeared.

Surprisingly, the financial markets are shrugging off all the nervous political energy with the Dow Jones reaching an all time high.  Even Janet Yellen’s hint that higher interest rates are approaching as the US economy begins to recover is treated as good news.  Furthermore, the outgoing Fed Governor in charge of pushing through the major financial reforms like Dodd-Frank is himself admitting that the regulations have inadvertently hit the community banks.  So, either the serious and smart money thinks that what is going on in Washington DC is only a blip, or they are aiming to push the market up and pull out before it all comes crashing down.

“Stop the World. I want to get off!” was a British musical first staged in 1961, becoming a Hollywood movie in 1996.  In my humble opinion, this musical is a light-hearted but important supplement to George Orwell’s book, “1984”, published in 1949 shortly before the author’s premature death. The book has become hot-selling again, as people are trying to think through how to deal with the theme of government as Big Brother.  

“1984” was influential because Orwell was ruthlessly honest about the powerlessness of the small man within big government.  He introduced new words like “Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them”.   Orwell was the author also of the famous satire, “Animal Farm” which introduced the phrase, “all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”

Sounds familiar?

“Stop the World” is about the whole life story from beginning to end of a man called Littlechap, who starts out poor and then becomes rich and successful, eventually becoming elected to public office.  In between, he gets involved with various women – Russian official Anya, German domestic Ilse and American blond cabaret singer Ginnie. 

The songs in this musical by the British award-winning team of Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley are eerily evocative of what is happening before our very eyes.  They were responsible for the music and lyric for famous movie theme songs such as Goldfinger, You Only Live Twice and Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory.

After an introductory ABC Song, the second song is “I want to be Rich”, followed by “Welome to Sludgepool”, “Gonna Build a Mountain” and then “Glorious Russian” and “Family Fugue”.   Act II starts off with “All-American”, followed by the hit, “Once in a Lifetime”.

The lyrics of the last song, entitled “What kind of fool am I?”, made famous by the hit singer Sammy Davis Jr. say it all.
 
What kind of fool am I
Who never fell in love
It seems that I’m the only one
That I have been thinking of
What kind of mind is this
An empty shell
A lonely cell
In which, an empty heart must dwell
 
What kind of clown am I?
What do I know of life?
What can’t I cast away this mask of clay
And live my life
Why can’t I fall in love
Like any other girl
And maybe then I’ll know
What kind of fool am I?
 
What kind of lips are these?
That lie with every kiss
That whisper empty words of love
That left me alone like this
What cant I fall in love
Like any other girl
And maybe then I’ll know
What kind of fool am I?”

A morality play is unfolding before our very eyes.  Whether it is satire, comedy, farce or tragedy, we simply have to watch it with our eyes wide open.
 
The writer, a former Central banker, comments on global affairs from an Asian perspective.

Special to ANN.