Does mental capability trump cultural coding?
Two things you might not know:
- “We found that the pattern of peoples’ mental processing could be observed in the manner in which they organized their information, or arguments, in the course of an engrossed discussion or argument. The finding was that there were only four patterns of types of mental processing that people use when explaining their position on a given matter.” – Dr. Elliott Jaques. The four processes of thinking identified by Jaques are: Declarative, Cumulative, Serial and Parallel. These are easy to understand and you can apply them while listening to anyone attempting to make a case, in particular when comparing Trump and Clinton.
- Dr. Clotaire Rapaille explains how part of the American “culture code” (the unconscious meaning applied by people) is: “We are culturally adolescent and we want our president to be adolescent … and entertainer-in-chief.”
Synopsis
Applying the findings of two renowned scholars and authors: Dr. Elliott Jaques and Dr. Clotaire Rapaille we ask:
- Does Trump have the mental capability to hold such a powerful office?
- Does Trump represent what the majority of Americans really want in a president?
“Imagine a nation in which all citizens were able, given enough encounters, to evaluate the level of potential capability of each and every one of the candidates running for election in political campaigns, by observing certain manifest features of their performances when engaged in spontaneous political debate, as for example, on television.” – Human Capability by Dr. Elliott Jaques and Kathryn Cason.
Millions of Americans are supporting Trump not because of his mental capability but because of the inherent cultural code embedded in the American culture that he appeals to.
(7 minute read)
In the last six months, Donald Trump has been analyzed, psychoanalyzed and diced and sliced by more gurus, talking-heads and so-called experts than there are people insulted by Donald. And the airwaves are a choir of perspicacious opinions singing I-can’t-believe-this-guy-has-a-chance-of-being President of the United Sates (e.g., Bill Kristol, David Brooks, George Bush, Mitt Romney, Senator Mark Kirk, et al).
And yet, more than 13 million GOP primary voters Intelligence is not always knowing the answer. It is always asking the question. – Maya Angelou We don’t have an answer to the Trump phenomenon; no one seems to. But we certainly have a few, pointy-stick-in-the-eye questions that might help on the way to November 8, 2016. Today, we pose two critical questions: Dr. Elliott Jaques (1917-2003) More than twenty years ago (1994) the book Human Capability was written by the renowned Dr. Elliott Jaques (1917-2003) and co-author Kathryn Cason (it’s still available at Amazon). Research by Jaques and Cason established a means of measuring a person’s potential mental capability, “a person’s innate capability, or intelligence, or mental capacity, or raw ability, or what we strive to measure (but fail) by IQ or other similar mental tests.”[4] The authors state that they intended to provide society with: “… a form of knowledge that would make it possible as a matter of ordinary everyday observation over a period of time (authors’ italics) for people to evaluate their own and others’ current level of potential capability.” And relevant to today’s realpolitik, they also state: “Imagine a nation in which all citizens were able, given enough encounters, to evaluate the level of potential capability of each and every one of the candidates running for election in political campaigns, by observing certain manifest features of their performances when engaged in spontaneous political debate, as for example, on television.”[5] I worked with Dr. Jaques who is listed in the book, The Ultimate Book of Business Gurus: 110 Thinkers Who Really Made a Difference by Stuart Crainer and he’s also acknowledged in many papers and articles such as the Economist (2009) by Michael Raynor: “For my money, the most undeservedly ignored management researcher of the modern era is Elliott Jaques (pronounced ‘Jacks’). The Canadian-born psychologist’s work on the nature of hierarchy spans half a century and is based on extensive field data on how people behave at work and how they feel about their roles.”[6] We wonder, if Elliott were here today what his assessment of Donald Trump’s “level of potential capability” would be. Unfortunately, he isn’t here, but we can apply the Jaques-Cason research, theory and methodology on behalf of Elliott, and all Americans. Briefly, Jaques and Cason explain that it works like this: “We found that the pattern of peoples’ mental processing could be observed in the manner in which they organized their information, or arguments, in the course of an engrossed discussion or argument. The finding was that there were only four patterns of types of mental processing that people use when explaining their position on a given matter. They are summarized as follows:”[7] Thanks to wall-to-wall television coverage, most of us have had an opportunity, as a matter of ordinary everyday observation over a period of time, to evaluate Donald Trump’s level of potential capability based on the Jaques-Cason thesis. To the first question: Mental capability? Removing ideological bias and political correctness, at what level would you place Trump’s pattern of mental processing capability: Declarative, cumulative, serial, parallel? The obvious follow up question is: At what level of mental processing do American’s want the President of the United States to be at? This question is anchored in the work of the internationally renowned cultural anthropologist, Clotaire Rapaille who is retained by dozens of CEOs and fifty Fortune 100 companies. He’s that good. And his national bestselling book, The Culture Code (2006) provides a well-established theory for assessing how Donald Trump “fits” the American culture. In The Culture Code, Rapaille explains that: “the culture code is the unconscious meaning we apply to any given thing”[8]––a car, food, relationships … a country, a president. And these unconscious meanings that we assign have much more to do with our decision-making than our normal intellectual rationale. You will want to read the book to get a full understanding of how instrumental cultural coding is, but for our purpose here, we have extracted a few insightful quotes.” There’s much more. And we recommend it as requisite reading, particularly for Hillary Clinton. From Chapter 11, “Parting of the Red Sea Optional: The Code for the American Presidency:” Rapaille’s methodology explains a lot about why Trump has been successful, so far. He is appealing to deep, unconscious, cultural and foundational needs in Americans, which have little connection to peoples’ intellectual reasoning, and perhaps not to the question of the candidate’s intellectual capability. At the nexus of these two questions is the power of IQ (intellectual) versus EQ (emotional), and which will prevail in tumultuous times. Will America’s need for their president to be of high mental processing capability trump (couldn’t help it) their need for an “entertainer-in-chief,” a Moses, to fulfill their adolescent dreams of a promise land? Think about it. Footnotes:
To the second question: Does Trump represent what Americans want as assessed in their “Culture Code?”
“People are the worst”
Coming 2026
My personal history is the stuff they write books about. And that's what I am doing. The working title, "Chains of My Father: Marry White."
"The ghostly image of the tragic mulatto trapped between two worlds." - Barack Obama
This perspicacious line from the Prologue of Barack Obama's "Dream from My Father" wrenched my aspiration into action. I started writing, furiously. Unlike Obama's perspective, my pain had been for the opposite reason: I was not seen by whites as a "tragic mulatto," rather I lived every day of my childhood hoping whites were not "searching my eyes for some telltale sign" that I WAS mulatto. This is my story.
It's historical fiction because I cannot find enough records to substantiate all facets of the story. I've combed the genealogy, traveled to my father and grandmothers' birthplace, walked the graveyards, searched the churches and ... well, all the facts aren't there. I have written three books based on the genealogy of other families but my ancestors emerged from a journey that left too few records – slavery.
My paternal, great grandmother was a "freed slave." My grandmother, Amelia, was born to a mixed race slave named Mary (we do not know her last name) and a white, French plantation owner, the Count de Poullain, in Grenada, West Indies. Amelia was raised in the "Big House" and in adulthood, in an attempt to escape her black heritage disowned her mother, telling her, "Get out and never come back." Amelia, as a mother of twelve children, enshrined into the family commandments, "Marry white." Many did, including my father. My mother was a lovely, white, Anglo-Saxon protestant born in England. They met in Canada where my dad studied and became a doctor.
It has taken five generations for the descendants of Mary to free themselves from the stigma of their black heritage but today my children embrace it. Unfortunately, the past 250 years have been a wasteland of bigotry, racism and bullying. But, on closer look, we see not only the brutality, fear, violence, and murder but also the self-respect, dignity, love, kindness, perseverance and indomitable spirit.
As of the spring of 2025, the depth of historic perspective and the sweeping inspiration of oppressed people has created a two-volume duology of which I have only arrived at the middle of the 19th century. 1840 is the year my great grandfather was born, the beginning of Volume II, and he's pushing me to make sure our story is published by the summer of 2026.
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