American presidents and the "Year Zero curse"

As we have already observed elsewhere, among the anthropological peculiarities of the United States is that, more unique than rare in the world historical panorama, of having developed in its short history a completely profane modern folklore and mythology, in which the religious element disappears in favor of a sense of the marvelous completely secular and at the same time remarkably superstitious. The "year zero curse" concerning American presidents fits perfectly into this order of ideas.

di Alfonso Piscitelli

Cover: Shawnee chief Tecumseh confronting William Henry Harrison in Indiana, reproduction of the XNUMXth century

Joe Biden, this affable gentleman of a certain age, has been successfully pitted against the cyclone Donald Trump in the last presidential elections. Against the volcanic populist leader, Biden appeared during the 2020 election campaign like a well-to-do ministerial retiree with an ancient familiarity with the strongest powers: Trump screamed in his Tribune of the Plebe tones, Biden smiled showing perfect dentures and the disenchanted air of someone who has seen so many.

In recent weeks, however, the new president has appeared in a less reassuring light: a dialectical slip was immediately followed by a physical tumbling. Now some, perhaps hastily, are already whispering about a replacement in the most important chair on the planet. In this case, a centrist president, almost center-right in some respects, would be succeeded by a figure belonging to the liberal left such as the Indo-American Kamala Harris. Certainly this eventuality does not appear close. Changing president due to senility would mean for the USA a very strong backlash of image precisely in a delicate historical moment. The eventual resignation of Biden would appear as the secular version of the resignation of Ratzinger, exponent of a tired papacy struggling with epochal problems. 

Hinting at the hypothesis, for now political fiction, of a Biden retirement, however, a contemporary legend comes to mind which over the years has acquired a certain strength: that of "Curse of presidents" or "year zero", which concerns precisely the presidents of the United States elected after twenty years and in years ending with the fateful zero figure.

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According to legend, the presidents' curse would have been thrown by an Indian chief: recurring situation in American horror films, in which an Indian cemetery often acts as a ground zero of a usually bloody paranormal event. È the ancient wound of the clash between ancestral inhabitants of America and Europeans that occurred in the modern age that bursts into the collective unconscious and into the imagination.

The curse of the shaman who annihilates presidents also represents the opposite and complementary pole with respect to another situation which also belongs to the shadow zone of American power: it is said that the powerful brotherhood Skull & Bones secretly guard the skull and bones (in fact skull e Mesh) of the Indian chief Geromino. A real fetish to found the fascinating power of a secret society which - according to probably exaggerated interpretations - has provided most of the exponents of the highest part of the American management pyramid, starting with members of the Bush family. 

But who are the illustrious victims of this anathema? Sequentially: william henry harrison elected in 1840 and died of pneumonia; Abraham Lincoln elected in 1860 and assassinated as James garfield elected in 1880 and killed the following year; William McKinley elected in 1900 and assassinated in 1901; Werren Harding elected in 1920 and died of apoplexy a few months after the end of his term; FranklinRoosevelt elected (to be precise re-elected at the time of the Second World War, of which he was the protagonist) and died of cerebral haemorrhage after having beaten all the records of permanence; so John Kennedy elected in 1960 and of which everyone knows - albeit with a thousand doubts - the sad end. 

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In particular, the gory deaths of the two most important presidents of the series, viz Lincoln and Kennedy, seem to intertwine in an intriguing game of analogies and specularity. Stefano Graziosi writes on Focus History: 

beyond the political issues, the disturbing elements in this story of the curse are not lacking. Especially in terms of similarities with the JF Kennedy case. Both Lincoln and Kennedy were shot in the head and both were replaced by a deputy named Johnson. Both were killed on a Friday at the hands of a southerner. Booth (Lincoln's killer) was born in 1838, while Oswald (Kennedy's killer) was born in 1938. Booth was captured in a warehouse after escaping from a theater. Oswald was captured in a theater after escaping from a warehouse. Just a series of coincidences? 

Some experts on the subject have increased the number of coincidences between the two attacks, while others have aimed to relativize (and even ridicule) this plot with a somewhat CICAP-style analysis. 

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There is, however, a distinguished president who has managed to escape the curse: it is about Ronald Reagan, who was elected in 1980. On closer inspection, nonetheless, Reagan spent endless hours between life and death after suffering a attempt. The motive that would have pushed the bomber to attempted assassination is bizarre to say the least (but, after all, if you are not strange you cannot be a bomber of heads of state, considering the inevitable consequences ...): John Hinckley Jr. claimed to have acted to impress Jodie Foster. Particularly striking, Hinckley was a family friend of the Bushes at the time George Bush father he was vice president of the Republicans and therefore Reagan's possible successor, with a past as head of the CIA. Singular stories on which fans of dark plots have built thick webs of hypotheses. 

After Reagan the curse seems to hang again: the very son of Bush, George W., elected in 2000, undergoes the colossal attack of the Twin Towers, but in first person he risks little: among the dangers he runs, he remembers a boot thrown at him by an Iraqi journalist during his visit to the Middle East, among the smoking ruins of the Second World War. Gulf. And now what will happen to the elected president in 2020? Trump, who notoriously does not like to lose, will be able to say that he has achieved yet another personal success by avoiding the curse of the year Twenty. What will Biden say in turn? To posterity or the after-effects the arduous sentence.