Durkheim and the Sacred Ear: Trump as a Totem

Durkheim and the Sacred Ear: Trump as a Totem

 

Looking at this photo, you might be wondering how four people could have possibly been injured in the exact same place on the exact same day. The astoundingly large bandages that cover their ears would normally be a reason for someone to stay home or seek immediate medical attention. But for these individuals, the bandage is a chosen accessory and one they wear with pride. They are not actually hurt under the white gauze. In fact, the tape pulled tight directly against their skin is likely causing them a physical discomfort that did not exist before. Yet that seems to be the entire point. By wearing the bandage, they are choosing to feel a shadow of the pain experienced by their sacred god, President Donald Trump.

One of the most confusing things for me in understanding today's political climate is that Trump himself does not represent the claimed values of his followers. He is a twice divorced billionaire who has openly mocked his own base and said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue without losing a vote. He does not exhibit traditional Christian values and he often treats his own base with cynicism.

However, Durkheim explains this phenomenon when he explains that the source of the cult is elsewhere (Durkheim 1912 209). He argues that the totem is not worshiped for its own nature, but for the social force it represents. The totem is just a vessel for the group's energy. This means it is not really about Trump as an individual. Any man who arrived with that same masculine and all powerful energy could have captured this movement. Jeffery Alexander describes Trump as an uncontrollable force. He was godlike in the sense that he could get away with anything. The followers have projected their own sacred white Christian nationalist identity onto his physical person because he was the most effective, unstoppable force available.

I attended Jeffrey Alexander's talk about the way Donald Trump reshaped the civil sphere. While Alexander focuses on movement construction, I think the most interesting part is the actual social phenomenon of the followers. This image of people wearing bandages over their ears is a visual demonstration of the sacred and the profane. It is bizarre to the outside yet, affirming to those in the cult. 

These MAGA followers have turned a piece of pharmacy gauze into a sacred emblem. In The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, Durkheim explains that a totem is a sign by which a clan distinguishes itself from all others (Durkheim 1912 113). By taping these pads to their own ears, these followers are signaling that the leader's body and the group's body are one and the same. This explains the energy seen on January 6th. Durkheim states that in the midst of an assembly, a person becomes capable of acts of which they are incapable when reduced to their own individual resources (Durkheim 1912 211). Whether it is storming the Capitol or wearing a fake bandage, the collective effervescence of the movement makes the absurd feel mandatory.

The weirdness of the ear bandage seems to be a mechanism of the ritual. Durkheim argues that the more a ritual sets the group apart from the rest of society, the stronger the internal bond becomes. When the profane outside world reacted with mockery to the bandages, it only reaffirmed the position of the followers. To the group, the fact that no one else understood the ritual was proof that they were the only ones who truly belonged to the sacred circle.

By wearing something so visually strange, these followers are intentionally making themselves different to the rest of the world so they can be one with each other. They are creating a thought loop where the more they are mocked, the more they feel they are fulfilling their religious duty to the totem. The obsession is not with his policy but with his persona. His wounded ear became a site of prayer where followers mirrored the suffering of their god to prove their status.

Ultimately, this image shows that the followers are the ones truly building the authority of the movement through these bizarre physical acts. Though this phenomenon affirms my position as a collectivist, it forces me to question if modern politics is actually about leadership at all or if it is just a form of extreme groupthink. 

References

Durkheim Emile 1912 1995 The Elementary Forms of Religious Life Translated by Karen E Fields Free Press

Alexander Jeffrey C 2019 The Civil Sphere in America Oxford University Press

Bellah Robert N 1967 Civil Religion in America Daedalus 96 1 1 21

The Guardian 2024 Trump fans wear bandages on ears to show support in pictures July 18 2024