I've lost friends because of my Trump letter in the NYT 鈥� but I'm proud
Philip Maymin says he lost friends over a pro-Trump letter in the New York Times - but far more people thanked him for his words.
Friday 19 January 2018 18:22, UK
To mark a year since Donald Trump was inaugurated, The New York Times has given over its letters page to supporters of the US President.
One correspondent, Philip Maymin, says he has lost friends because of the published letter he wrote explaining why he felt Mr Trump's presidency has benefited American society. Here, he explains why he wrote the letter:
I don't want to be fragile. Do you? Fragile things live in fear. Any moderate amount of change destroys us. We crave stability.
The New York Times recently asked Trump voters for their opinion of the President's first year.
Today, they printed my letter. As expected, this has immediately cost me some friends and brought many insulting emails. If I knew this would happen, why would I write in?
Few people talked about the content of what I wrote. People deflect from uncomfortable truths. We all suffer from cognitive dissonance, as author Scott Adams has eloquently described in his recent book Win Bigly.
So people just unfriended me or called me a moron or a racist. Surprisingly, there were far more people who emailed to agree or thank me for the letter.
The phenomenon Adams described as the "shy Trump supporter" seems stronger than ever.
:: Donald Trump's incredible first year in power
And what was in my letter? I explained what Trump has done to our country and the world: he has made us antifragile.
Antifragile is scholar Nassim Nicholas Taleb's term for things that benefit from disorder. A single candle is fragile and extinguishes with the slightest breeze. A wildfire is antifragile and needs volatility to survive.
Donald Trump is a wildfire. And he has led us all to become wildfires too.
We used to be afraid of change. Any problems, the first reaction was to run to big government and complain.
Big government regimes like Communism and Nazism are fragile.
It is like farming. For a while, things seem fine. Your government appears stable, even growing, but it is hiding the real danger. It's only a matter of time before a single rare event like a flood or an earthquake destroys everything.
:: Has Trump followed through on his promises?
Our banking system was like that. Subprime mortgages seemed safe for a long time until their true volatility came out and caused massive damage. (Our banking system still needs to be fixed).
Smaller government regimes like Capitalism and Libertarianism are antifragile. It is like hunting. We don't know when, but we know big, good things will come. And the more the animals run around, the better.
This has been the history of the greatest country on Earth for most of our existence.
But the Bush/Clinton/Bush/Obama years of big government made us very fragile.
Trump has single-handedly reversed all that. We no longer run crying to government with our problems. We solve them ourselves. We no longer fear change. We welcome it.
:: Opinion: Half of America hates Trump's guts
A year ago, I don't know if I would have had the strength to write a letter that could alienate me from half of my friends, just to get the truth out. I'd like to think I would have, but maybe I was too fragile. Now, I am not.
And I'm not alone. For example, the #MeToo movement is one of the most inspiring and courageous things ever. Could part of the reason for its success be the environment of antifragility that the President has created?
We are all antifragile now, thanks to Donald Trump.