It is an axiom of business, and pretty much any organization, that the management sets the tone. When you enter a restaurant, the demeanor and efficiency of the host or hostess, and the attitude and competence of the servers, are telling indicators of how well the place is run. A corollary of this principle is that the badness of a bad boss is betrayed far down the chain of command.

It’s also true psychologically that one sociopath in a group of people is likely to infect everyone else, even the most mentally healthy, with their conduct. This need not be manifest in extreme behavior or physical aggression as much as in speech, in language contaminated by gross exaggerations and distortions, gratuitous threats and impulsive commands, lies and provocations. So when the boss is a sociopath, look out below because, as ancient Chinese wisdom has it, the fish rots from the head down.

The president of the United States, a democratic republic, in the George Washington model is a servant of the people, and most presidents, however self-important, at least make a gesture in that direction. But when the president imagines himself a monarch and speaks recklessly without thinking and randomly changes his mind depending on his mood, throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks, entangling others in his confusion, that makes for a dysfunctional mixture of bad management and sociopathy, pitching the nation into mass madness, a collective nervous breakdown.

This happened to an extent in his first term, but less than two weeks into his second he is already exceeding his previous achievement in driving the country crazy — beside itself with incomprehension at the strangeness of his cabinet appointments, the chaos of policy contradictions, the self-destruction of government and its replacement by an organized-crime ethos: the mob boss calling the shots and underlings executing executive orders, however cruel, brutal, illegal or unconstitutional.

All that is very bad news, but policies can eventually be reversed by legislation when new legislators are elected. What worries me more is the corruption of language and the lasting damage of a standard of speech and behavior it could take generations to correct. If the role model in the Oval Office is an unreliable narrator, an erratic personality with delusions of omnipotence, a dictatorial bully far more dangerous than a mere jerk; if his iconic images are a mug shot, a raised fist and a defiant call to battle after being bloodied by a would-be assassin’s bullet; if nothing he says can be trusted no matter how grave the subject or its possible repercussions, imagine the effect that has on the formative psyches of boys as they begin to navigate adolescence and young adulthood, the permission they are given to be as mendacious and mean and aggressive and obnoxious as their surging testosterone demands.

The “Golden Age” invoked in the president’s inaugural address already appears to be that of a nation caught in a torrential downpour of executive urination, and there’s no telling how high the flood will rise. When language is befouled by authority figures so that nothing they say can be believed, and routine lying becomes normalized, reliable human relations are fatally compromised. The loss of credibility means the breakdown of rational communication and the erosion of ethics.

What is a citizen to do in such conditions? The internet is a cacophonous morass of information and disinformation; you must use your most acute critical intelligence to discern what is credible and cross-check with reliable sources what you think you know. It helps to have trustworthy interlocutors, friends, colleagues, who can provide a reality check or at least be able to discuss with reason the unfolding phantasmagoria.

For me, this means trying to mobilize meaningful language as an antidote and an offering of temporary relief.

Stephen Kessler is a Santa Cruz writer and a regular Herald contributor. To read more of his work visit www.stephenkessler.com