boasters in politics and American Trump

‘I am the smartest; I am the wisest; the man who thinks so is really a fool’, quoted from the lyrics of Victor Ratnayaka’s song ‘Rattaran Kendiye’

European countries are supposed to hold parliamentary and presidential elections before the end of 2024. Sri Lanka too is preparing to hold a presidential election in three months from now if everything goes fine and smooth and if something cynical does not happen in between, which is not improbable when tracing the events of the immediate past. 
However, if elections were held this year, it would not be because the rulers are democratic but because the constitution forces them to do so. All probable candidates (Ranil, Namal, and Dhammika) and already confirmed contestants (Anura, Sajith, and Dilith) are involved vigorously in election campaigns through spoken, written, and electronic media, hoping that an election will be held soon. 

Boasters

Some express their views calmly and with incredible and exemplary sobriety, while others just prattle and, as a result, become nonsensical. There are some others who avoid all media and instead go around the country, boasting about their capabilities, their achievements, and their wisdom. According to popular jargon, they are ‘boasters’, ‘blow horns’ or ‘braggarts’. 

We are familiar with the Sinhala words ‘Kayiya’ and ‘Kayiwaru karaya’. We have heard such words often. We have seen and met ‘boasters; perhaps we ourselves have been ‘boasters’ or egotists at some time or other in our lives. We can hear the word Kayiyanayaka coming into vogue these days as it is being used by politicians frequently. ‘Kayiyanayaka’ is the Sinhala word that is closest to the English word boaster or braggart. Out of all presidential candidates, these self-centred pompous characteristics are clearly seen in presidential aspirant Sajith. It was probably Sajith himself who used for the first time the word ‘Kayiyanayaka’ for boasters in politics. This is a word that was not much heard in our politics. If it was heard, that could be in the speeches of Sajith’s farther, assassinated President, R. Premadasa. It is apparent that Sajith pastes the label ‘braggart’ particularly on his chief political opponent, Anura Dissanayake. Nevertheless, during the past few months, Sajith has demonstrated that the person most suitable for this label is no one else but Sajith himself. 

Before quoting Sajith for examples, it would be instructive to quote Trump, who was the President of the United States during 2017–2021 and who was labelled as the biggest boaster in American politics, so that the readers could easily understand that my referring to Sajith and Trump as boasters is quite appropriate.
 Trump: The ‘Boaster’

Q1. “Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. ‘‘ I am a very stable genius’’. (Trump wrote on Twitter in 2016)
Q2. “There’s nobody that’s done so much for equality as I have.”
Q3: “I can be more presidential than anybody, with the exception of the late great Abraham Lincoln’ (July 2017)
Q4: ‘Not all can serve the country as I do. (Trump 2016)
Q5: ‘I am very clever and have been so throughout. Believe me. Running the country as president is simple for me’’ (at a rally in Texas, 2017)
Q6: ‘I have a fantastic mind; a stable one’’ (at a rally in Iowa, 2017)
Q7: ‘My intelligence is so smart that even I myself cannot think about it. It is superb.’ (2018) 

Trump has continually bragged that he has the highest IQ (intelligence quotient). He said: ‘My IQ is one of the highest, and you all know it. I am a genius’ (at a rally in Michigan in 2017). As quotes evince, Trump’s breathtaking self-admiration is crystal clear or pretty glaring. Trump has been a grade ONE braggart and a master of the art of exaggeration. (So is Sajith.) 
We will take an example from Trump himself. The net worth of Trump by May this year was $ 7.4 billion (Forbes). The net worth of other billionaires around was twenty or thirty times greater than Trump’s. Ellen Musk: 251 billion; Mark Zuckerberg: 167 billion; Jeff Bezos: 161 billion; Larry Ellison: 158 billion; Bill Gates: 130 billion; Warren Bush: 121 billion; and Larry Page: 114 billion. This shows the position of Trump and the positions of others. This is a plain example of Trump’s egomaniacal pomposity. This brings to my memory a line from one of our former poets: ‘The drop of water lying on the Lotus leaf addressing the lake said, “You are only a drop of water larger than me’. (K.Jayatilleke-(Vyanga)

Sajith: The Boaster  

Sajith, the opposition leader and a contestant for the presidency in the upcoming presidential election to be held in September this year, has proven from what he has been saying during the past few months that he is a bigger braggart than American Trump. Sajith has proven this not only once but on several occasions. Here are a few quotes. 
Q1. ‘Nobody can work as hard as I do.’ None of them possesses the creativity, agility, and philosophical intellect that I do. Only Sajith Premadasa has the ability and heart to face every blow aimed at and bear it up.’ (Sajith at a recent meeting)
Q2. ‘The hero of the people living in this country is I, no one else but Sajith Premadasa.’ Are there any other heroes superior to me?’ (Source: Swarnavahini News Broadcast).
Q3. ‘It is only I who can develop the education of forty-two hundred thousand people. Others cannot do it’. (News First at 7 p.m., April 29th).
Q4. ‘My only complex is the superiority complex. I have superior trust and pretty good confidence in my knowledge and abilities. There is no one else who can compete with me. None of those can even get close to me’. (During the 2019 election, source: Derana).

Analytical comment: If someone, degrading the inferiority complex, says he himself is representing its other extreme, the superiority complex, this behaviour has been diagnosed by psychologists as a form of mental disorder related to inferiority complex. The reason is that what is called the superiority complex is not only a strategy some use for covering their inferiority complex (Sigmund Freud), but as Alfred Adler subsequently identified, it is also a protective mechanism. ‘Superiority complex’, as Freud interpreted, ‘Is intense thinking about one’s own capabilities and achievements and surfaces often as a result of failing to live according to internal aspirations or re-actions to it.’ In 2018, American psychologists analysed Trump’s self-exultation adopting a theoretical frame-work similar to Freud (Psychology Today 2018–2020 Issues).

Back to Sajith 

Q 5: ‘My body carries the genes of my father. Now everybody is scared of us’ (at a meeting in Ampara in May).
Researchers, who studied the psychological foundations of ‘art of boasting have found out that people who are stating in public that ‘other people are scared of them’ is an expression of ‘narcissistic syndrome’, including perhaps its somatic variety. 

Not only to genes; the psychiatrists diagnose giving superior value to one’s body parts (e.g., muscles, eyes, hair, buttocks) as a symptom of narcissistic disorder. Sajith did this once. A few years ago, we recalled that Sajith gave sacred status to his mouth by referring to it as Sri Mukhaya, the Holy Mouth. We can identify this as a symptom of somatic narcissism, as it embodies superiority par excellence. This shrunk after he begged for forgiveness from the Buddhist Sangha and the laity. However, the fact that he related his mouth to the Buddha’s remains intact.

Psychologists who have studied the behaviour of boasters or braggarts have found a number of reasons that cause such behaviour. 1. They blow up their egos because they feel they are not safe. 2. They have no other option within the vicinity. 3. They are excessively obsessed with their capabilities. 4. Talking aloud is a striking feature of such people. All four traced by psychologists could be found in Sajith.

It is natural for mental disorders to occur a few times in one’s life, but if they happen too often, that could be a symptom of a disease, says Professor Susan Winterborne, Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts. This is recognised in clinical psychology as a symptom of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). People with NPD tend to consider themselves grand, important, and better than others. They are bragging about personal achievements and skills and are exaggerating or lying about past accomplishments. This is narcissistic and could become at times grave and even dreadful. 
Let us end this article with a quotation from the Hebrew Bible: ‘God has said, ‘The wise man should not boast about his wisdom’. A strong man should not boast about his strength. A rich man should not boast about his wealth’. (Jeramia 9’ 23)
Be aware of boasters and braggarts.

 (The writer is a former Professor of Philosophy,  University of Peradeniya)
 [email protected]