In an April 24, 2025, op ed in the New York Times titled “Trump’s Single Stroke of Brilliance”, David Brooks, opinion writer for the Times and PBS pundit, expressed admiration for Trump’s “energy” and the “tremendous tempo” in taking initiative in so many areas. (1) This “spirited”, “assertive man” is possessed by “a burning core of anger, a lust for recognition,” always attempting new conquests “despite repeated failures and bankruptcies that would have humbled a nonnarcissist.” This initiative is motivated by “resentment, the desire for power, the desire for retribution.” Trump’s administration has a focus with clarity and simplicity of messaging because of a “consuming hatred for the nation’s establishment and a powerful conviction for the nation to survive, it must be brought down.” Add to this Trump’s “reckless audacity” like declaring “a trade war against the entire globe, without any clue about how it will turn out.”
Brooks sees what is happening as a “revolutionary vanguard” like the “Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution...and Castros’ 23rd of July Movement in Cuba”, movements with “superior boldness, decisiveness and clarity of purpose.”
Trump’s brilliance is in recognizing the importance of initiative as described by “military grand strategists like Sun Tzu” and others. Sun Tzu mastered the military science of ancient China and created the military doctrine of asymmetrical warfare. Taking initiative forces the opponent into a reactive mode, unprepared for situations they didn’t anticipate. The purpose is to leave opponents with “a sense of disorientation, defensiveness, disruption and mental overload.” The leader must be constantly initiating so opponents can’t “shape the landscape in ways that will block alternative paths.”
The opposition to Trump is weak because his opponents jumped through the hoops set up by the elders, hoops that weeded out spirited Trump types while getting to leadership positions. The educated elites “tend to operate by analysis, not instinct, operating cautiously and believing “if they say something or write something...they have done something.” Since the 1960s they are ambivalent about being in the establishment having “been taught that establishment is bad” and are therefore tenuous about defending institutions. What is frightening is that establishments attacked by a revolutionary vanguard often “crumble like an empty shell...[and] rarely recover.”
Brooks believes people are sensing in their hearts “that something sacred is being trampled here—democracy, rule of law, intellectual freedom, compassion, pluralism and global exchange... We must fight for what has made America great... our judicial system, great universities, compassionate aid organizations, great companies and scientific genius.”
In the end, “Trump’s greatest strength, his initiative, is also his greatest weakness.... He does daring and incredibly self-destructive stuff—now on a global scale.”
Brooks references the German, Carl von Clausewitz, writing about the philosophy of war, argued “that anybody who tries to do big things encounters ‘friction’: unpleasant surprises, tension in the ranks, unforced errors, unlucky breaks.”
Sun Tzu offered one perspective and we can turn to another philosophical source from the East for complimentary takes on Trump’s revolution, namely the Chinese book of wisdom-- the I Ching. None other than Bob Dylan in a 1965 interview said the book was “the only thing that is amazingly true, period.” (2) The I Ching has shaped the Chinese psyche akin to how the Bible has shaped the Christian dimension of the Western psyche, helping the Chinese to think in terms of complexity, interconnections, timing, and long-term strategies. Carl Jung, who wrote a profound introduction to the English translation of Richard Wilhelm’s German translation, recognized the Book of Changes (I Ching) as a book of archetypal imagery. (3) Presented in terms of hexagrams, which are combinations of solid (yang) and/or broken (yin) lines, the book is a distillation of the wisdom of China going back to 1050 BCE when King Wen doubled the trigrams (three lines) to produce the first hexagrams (six lines) and provided the initial commentary on the hexagrams. (4) This, coming from a country where many dynasties lasted longer than the age of the United States, is what the Chinese sages have to say about the Archetype of Revolution, Hexagram 49. Bear in mind Brook’s words as you read this.
Political revolutions are extremely grave matters. They should be undertaken only under stress of direst necessity, when there is no other way out. Not everyone is called to this task, but only the man who has the confidence of the people, and even he only when the time is ripe. He must then proceed in the right way, so that he gladdens the people, and by enlightening them, prevents excesses. Furthermore, he must be quite free of selfish aims and must really relieve the needs of the people. Only then does he have nothing to regret. (Wilhelm 1967, pp. 189, 190)
When change is necessary, there are two mistakes to be avoided. One lies in excessive haste and ruthlessness, which bring disaster. The other lies in excessive hesitation and conservatism, which are also dangerous. (p. 191)
Radical changes require adequate authority. A man must have inner strength as well as influential position. What he does must correspond to a higher truth and must not spring from arbitrary or petty motives; then it brings great good fortune. If a revolution is not founded on such inner truth, the results are bad, and it has no success. For in the end men will support only those undertakings which they feel instinctively to be just. (pp. 191, 192)
Since consul from the I Ching has been important to Chinese emperors through the millennia, it is interesting to imagine if Chinese leaders are using this hexagram to understand at an archetypal level what is likely to happen with the Trump regime and how to deal with it: bide your time until it crashes?
With reference to timing, Syd Barrett, a founding member of Pink Floyd, sang “Chapter 24” in 1967 on the group’s debut album,The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Barret took words directly from Wilhelm’s description of Hexagram 24—Return (The Turning Point). The 60’s were a revolutionary period as is the present, and Hexagram 24 offers insight how to go forward now. The moment of reference is just after the winter solstice, the darkest night of the year, metaphorically represented by Hexagram 23—Splitting Apart.
After a time of decay comes the turning point. The powerful light that has been banished returns. There is movement, but it is not brought about by force...The old is discarded and the new is introduced. Both measures accord with the time; therefore no harm results. Societies of people sharing the same views are formed. But since these groups come together in full public knowledge and are in harmony with the time, all selfish separatist tendencies are excluded, and no mistake is made. The idea of return is based on the course of nature. The movement is cyclic, and the course completes itself. Therefore it is not necessary to hasten anything artificially. Everything comes of itself at the appointed time. This is the meaning of heaven and earth. (pp. 97, 98)
An important psychological dimension is added that could be interpreted as not “othering” and projecting our shadow side onto another person or group.
When the time for return has come, a man should not take shelter in trivial excuses but should look within and examine himself. And if he has done something wrong he should make a noblehearted resolve to confess his fault. No one will regret having taken this road. (pp. 99, 100)
My favorite hexagram and what I consider to be most appropriate for the times is Hexagram 42—Increase.
A sacrifice of the higher element that produces an increase in the lower is called an out-and-out increase: it indicates the spirit that alone has power to help the world. (emphasis added)
Sacrifice on the part of those above for the increase of those below fills the people with a sense of joy and gratitude that is extremely valuable for the flowering of the commonwealth. (p. 162)
Again, thinking of Brook’s words about Trump, we have this comment by Confucius expounding on the statement, “through renunciation those in high places should be increase to those below” (p. 165):
...If a man is brusque in his movements, others will not co-operate. If he is agitated in his words, they awaken no echo in others. If he asks for something without first having established relations, it will not be given to him. If no one is with him, those who would harm him draw near. (p. 165)
Hexagram 42 is a fractal about every type of inequality—that of political power, income, race, class, education, the human’s relation with the natural world---the Anthropocene Era. These are foundational issues underlying Trump’s appeal especially in the Rust Belt states in America such as Wisconsin where I live. The American dominance after WWII in all areas—political, economic, cultural--has evolved into a more balanced global position. A working man reared on America being “the greatest” and losing his job to globalization makes him vulnerable to a promise to Make America Great Again (with no concrete or realistic proposals), especially when delivered by an archetypal Trickster and Mana personality (“I alone can fix it).”
In the end, it’s an open question whether our species can deal with major inequalities on a planetary scale. Case in point: all nations will have to work together to deal with climate change. That is a political issue in deeply polarized America. And both parties know that the ever-increasing American debt is headed towards a disaster about which the politicians can’t be honest with the voters: it would take too much real dialogue to do so. Trump is symptomatic of a shadow side in the American psyche that has always been there but never had a champion in the highest office of the land to amplify it. He is bringing things to a head. Will the establishments attacked by his revolutionary vanguard “crumble like an empty shell” from which they “rarely recover?” Can we get from Hexagram 23 to Hexagram 24 without an absolute catastrophe? The jury is out. The Times They Are A-Changin’—again.
Dennis L. Merritt, Jungian Analyst & Ecopsychologist dennismerritt4@gmail.com
1. Brooks, D. April 25, 2025. “Trump’s Single Stroke of Brilliance.” New York Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/opinion/trump-administration-energy-strength-weakness.html
2. For a cover outtake, a photo that wasn’t used for the album cover, for Dylan’s Bringing It All Back Home album, go to this website and scroll down to the fourth photo where you will see Wilhelm’s I Ching on the floor next to Dylan. https://www.vintag.es/2022/10/bringing-it-all-back-home.html
3. Wilhelm, W. 1967. The I Ching or Book of Changes. Cary Baynes, trans. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
4. For my seminar on the I Ching, “The I Ching—Oracle and Book of Wisdom” see
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SO3s8bGtV7E
The lecture portion has been translated into Chinese and is part of the video library for the five centers in China developing into Jungian training institutes.
Copyright April 29, 2025
