Body Language

The hidden speech we all can see

OK, I’m not the first one to make this connection. But I made it before I notice others were making it.

What do these images bring to mind?  FYI this is the speech where Biden called MAGA Republicans enemies of the state. Studies have found that a clenched fist is a negative nonverbal cue. Researchers at the American Psychological Association found that humans tend to close their fists when they feel threatened or sense conflict.

In One Sentence: Clenching the hands or balling them in a fist is a sign of repressed aggression.

Verbal Translation: “I really want to strike out at you due to my emotional distress which is why my hands are balling up into a fist, but instead I’m going to resist because it’s inappropriate to hit people.”

When I was searching for images of speaking with clenched fists, I discovered several.  Joe is not the first or last, but the meaning we perceive from such gestures is unmistakable and universal.  It is a veiled threat, a restrained threat of violence.  It is particularly profound when used in a context such as this, a political speech where the opposition is being called out as an enemy that must be vanquished.  Nixon was talking to his critics in the context of Watergate. Clinton and Bush were talking to their supporters, Bush Sr. was talking to the drug cartels, and Obama got more coverage because the different ones are interesting. The same gesture, different message?

Such gestures given during a speech where threats are being made, where violence is being implied, take on more ominous meaning when the person using them has the means and the willingness to use violence in its various forms. That applies to everyone pictured here.  I searched for one from Trump, and this is the most unflattering one I could find.  When I tried to find out what he was talking about, I discovered that many articles used this single image in widely varying contexts, from Mueller to Obamacare, so I don’t know what he was saying.  But images of his hands in a boxing stance are common.

There are times when violence is necessary and appropriate, and it is almost always preceded by a threat of violence. From the threat a fork in the road appears, escalation or de-escalation, reconciliation, or war.

When you begin to tell your supporters that the enemy you define is beneath your contempt, is a threat to your well-being, and is engaged in undermining your values and way of life, bad things happen.  Depending on what is being said in the context of the gesture, and who is saying it about whom, we get a different perspective.  With Hitler, we have the benefit of hindsight.  With Trump, the deep state and the media were his most common objects.  Nixon was saying, “I’m not a crook!”  Biden was focused on something called MAGA Republicans.

All I’m saying is that if you feel yourself in the crosshairs of this gesture, you are rational to feel threatened. If you were a German Jew in 1939, you were rational to feel threatened.  If you are a MAGA Republican, and rumor has it there are about 75 million of them of voting age, you have a right to feel targeted.  If you are a Columbian Cartel, you would be stupid to ignore Bush Sr’s threats. Ask Noriega, who felt the sting of Bush’s threats.

When people in power threaten their own people, bad things happen, and when the bad things finally arrive, events can unfold in rapid sequence.  I could say plenty more. History has lots of stories about times like these.

Someone who knew quite a bit about war and battles said this:

“There are but two powers in the world, the sword, and the mind. In the long run, the sword is always beaten by the mind.”—Napoleon Bonaparte

I am an advocate of the mind over the sword, but as Bonaparte intimates, the victory is in the long run.  That does not mean that suffering can be avoided in the face of those who would attempt to overcome the mind with violence, whether physical or by any of its many other forms.  Violence can arise in an instant, while the mind takes its time to gain control of the situation.

Perhaps, in the years to come, such thoughts as I’m expressing here will be rendered silly and hyperbolic, evidenced by the fact that from here, peace prevails.  Nothing would please me more.  But there is a danger when the fork in the road appears.  When it comes, we must choose, and the wisdom we bring to that moment is all we will have to work with.

There is no better spokesperson for wisdom than Yogi, so I’ll leave you with this:

“You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you are going, because you might not get there.”—Yogi Berra

Or if you prefer better grammar, try this from Lewis Carol from Alice in Wonderland, a political satire of its time:

“If you don’t know where you’re going any road will get you there.”—Lewis Carrol