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Donald Trump: His opposition to wearing a mask was part of the strong leader's message
Photo: Evan Vucci / AP
Two of the big Boeings, which the American Air Force keeps ready as a command center for attacks and disasters, rose shortly before the announcement of the president's illness.
The only job of these machines is to trigger the order for a nuclear strike when there is nothing left of the USA.
The order to end the world.
They do fly around every now and then to rehearse, but the fact that two "Doomsday Planes" cross both coasts at the same time was interpreted as a bad sign and an obscure message.
In the Asterix classic "Battle of the Chiefs" there is a comparable moment of uncertainty: Majestix, the chief of the Gallic village, very overweight, is challenged to a duel by an athletic client of the Romans.
The victor rules the village.
It wouldn't be a problem, because Majestix has the magic potion, actually - only that in this story the druid fails, no rescue is in sight.
The Gauls are deeply shaken, although they actually know that their boss has little on the chest.
The so-called markets reacted in a similar way: Trump ill, that unsettles - although nothing in him offers security.
One may look at Trump with concern, feel anger or disgust - what doesn't change is the feeling that he is our concern.
Although we no longer live in tribal structures, we still think and feel like this: Power is physically founded, in the majority of cases in a male body.
A West German socialized person has no trouble seeing in the American president perhaps no longer the most powerful, but certainly the most important person in the world.
One may look at Trump with concern, feel anger or disgust - what doesn't change is the feeling that he is our concern.
That what he says and does is fundamentally important.
Few can name laws he's signed, but everyone can say some stupid line from Trump.
It is an anachronistic moment: We live in the age of media disruption, the milieus, parties and religions are differentiating themselves, cohesion is dwindling, many are doing their own thing.
But suddenly all awake spirits are preoccupied with the health of a man who, if he were a private citizen, should not be of great interest to them.
In 1957 the cultural historian Ernst Kantorowicz published his important book about the "two bodies of the king" in the Middle Ages: Like every human being, the medieval king inhabited a mortal body, but he also embodied the empire and was immortal in this function.
When the king dies, another comes.
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Today we are further in terms of the constitution, but not in terms of mentality: Trump served that - his body, he emphasized again and again, is not at all comparable to ours, he is so strong and healthy that nothing can harm him.
His opposition to wearing a mask was part of that message.
But apart from Trump, there is also the immense, irrational desire for the good American president, the head of the world, who reconciles, heals and inspires.
The knowledge of the complicated separation of powers, the questionable political practice of the USA and the sometimes unpleasant personalities who get into this office does nothing to change this emotional fixation.
Rush of feelings
The power of the president is assumed, according to a practically traditional, mentally and emotionally but highly effective model, according to the power of the
pater familias
.
You can sometimes hear that in private, when people in their prime had to suffer from a tyrannical father, but are still busy with him, hoping for a reconciliation or forgiving themselves where no one asked them to.
Because of this pattern, it is no coincidence that countries with strong presidential structures also suffer from severe social tensions.
Even a civilized republic like the French, with all the hopes and aversions, expectations and disappointments regarding Emmanuel Macron, is lost in the tumult of feelings.
In France, too, it is no longer the case that fathers rule their families - historical family research suggests that this power was written on the paper of the Code Napoléon and fortunately had little relevance in everyday life.
But the pattern, the image of power that is still effective in Germany as something that lives in the male body and is sometimes acted out kindly, sometimes brutally, and that it is a necessary, good order of things, still feeds from this Tradition.
If you look at the lists of countries with the happiest citizens, the top group consists of Finland, Norway, the Netherlands and Iceland - all of them ruled by politicians who hardly anyone outside of their home country knows.
It is no coincidence that these are societies with a high proportion of working women and a correspondingly differentiated family image.
The heads of government in all these countries could curse, stumble, or fall ill at the same time, and hardly any newspaper would report it.
Political power fits in there with life, with the diverse image of modern families.
The experience of the current American president, his wickedness and incompetence, now also his illness, opens up the opportunity to rethink power.
A project like the EU may have an advantage if it does not provide a post for such a European papa, the quasi-monarchical head of all Europeans.
With Trump, anarchy found its way into the White House, it is time to adapt this purely asserted power and replace it with structures of international cooperation.
At some point we need a transnational, communicative world politics whose political managers take their bikes or buses to the office.
And when they get sick, no military plane goes up.
Sometimes they would be better, sometimes worse, no stars.
And we citizens would finally have grown up.
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