Lindsay Graham isn’t stupid.

The ‘assassination tweet’ was stupid. At least in what used to be a (semi) normal world. Or was it stupid ? I argue further it was somehow inevitable.

Certainly, even before covid, even way before the pandemic experiment, the world was slowly derailing into abnormal. ‘Slowly’ is, of course, a debatable term. The ‘new normal’ expression describes specific goals pursued by the so called ‘elite’ but inadvertently fits as a depiction of already happened changes. End of normalcy parenthesis.

Why expose himself like that ?

Maybe the gloves are off. The Russian Sun Tzu-esque invasion breaks the rules. All of them. There was nothing similar since the WW2. Nothing. Colonial wars, liberation wars, proxy wars, UN sanctioned wars, even a direct clash between US and Chinese forces in Korea, missiles crisis with nuclear holocaust aria humming in the background, nothing compares to the Russian-Ukrainian confrontation. It is up a notch, into a very different category.

Maybe. Very probably the events of the last week stressed Graham’s psyche, the subconscious started to boil.

The invasion may be only the opening move, though chess comparisons are too static, too old fashioned, too tame to describe the geopolitics of today. As is game theory, for that matter. Hypothesis which also adds to the poor (poor!?) senator’s stress level.

That being said, we still find ourselves in familiar territory, complexity may very well have increased and existence gets increasingly cluttered to an unhealthy degree, yet these aren’t reasons enough to justify the debauchery we witness in politics, international affairs and general conduct.

A super computerized human society shows signs of reverting to overtly emotional, individualist ‘I don’t give a damn’, uninhibited politics. Hypocrisy still reigns supreme, but it embraces egoistic, self-centered, immediate personal needs or moods. Raison d’état ‘s dark majesty, diplomacy mandatory politeness, especially when the smile and deference hide the threat aimed at other states heart, the gravitas are all gone. The exhibitionism we observe embraced by other times covert, occult, shadowy areas, now turned into braggard groups of tweeterati is funny, but worrisome. The media has gone that way for far too long now and is obviously part of the reason we are where we are so I won’t waste time mentioning its abysmal degeneration.

Fact is the pandemic of extrovert-ism spares no one, not even a mushy senator from South Carolina who tried so hard to project an image of balanced, soft spoken (although somehow greasy) politician.

I think he couldn’t resist the illness.

He revealed his innermost secret. He dreams of being Brutus.

Toiling behind the scene, getting close to power, grabbing it through a murder. Fleetingly noticing Brutus’ love for money. Subconscious identifying with notorious characters from history or literature that reflect his hidden personality. Graham’s being that of Brutus.

And, in a way, he already proved it as part of the gang of senators who stabbed to death the Trump Caesar. He may not have had the starring role, but he craves for it. Hence the outburst.

The story of Brutus didn’t end well, he ultimately assassinated… himself.