An entertaining interview with philosopher Peter Sloterdijk in the Süddeutsche by Jens-Christian Rabe.

Sloterdijk: ‘Politics is in some ways similar to modern art. The viewer almost automatically thinks: I could do that too.’

But modern art (wherever it began and wherever it may have ended) is relatively innocent compared to politics. The discussion about Picasso is about the women he treated badly. The discussion about Trump is, where will the madness end? At the gas station, or just before another world war?

Sloterdijk about Trump: ‘His psychological development clearly came to a standstill before the anal stage. That is, before the age at which, according to psychoanalysis, one learns to feel shame. He doesn't use that register. He doesn't even have to simulate shamelessness; he embodies it.’

And: ‘Mature democracy always involves managing disappointments.’

Unfortunately, too many politicians have an incentive not to manage disappointments.

(a sf 2097)