The Thomas Mann Group discussion

Picked Mann's Mario und der Zauberer off the shelf after reading an astute article by American journalist Colin Campbell, describing a fascinating and quite disturbing parallel with developments in the Trump campaign.

"The evil magician casts a spell"

Well...art imitates life, right?

Rather a case of history possibly repeating itself

The magician has always had very very close similarities to Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin, and thus, of course, also to Donald Trump. In the book, Mario breaks the spell, violently, yes, but he does rid the world of the magician's threat.

Maybe my musings are disturbing and not all that "politically correct" so to speak, but lest we forget it was Trump himself who in a roundabout way (as much as he might strive to deny it) advocated assasinating Hilary Clinton.

The 2016 USA election is becoming more and more like a disturbing mirror of the last days of the Weimar Republic.

And the evil magician has cast his spell successfully.

But if life imitates art ...