From Moby-Dick: "Human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline thing. When you think it fled, it may have but become transfigured into some still subtler form."
The Study: In the lines above, Ishmael recalls the aftermath of Ahab's lost leg. Ahab was crazed. The sailors tied him to his bed as he raged in pain and anger at the whale and his injury and the world. Then, suddenly, Ahab recovered. He assumed his leadership position. Still, his madness had transformed into revenge against the whale. As the lines above show, poor leaders can seem quite rational as their madness transforms. I saw that in the actions of pres _rump this week. He behaved, for a second or two, with false compassion, then belittled a person who had been a victim of sexual assault. _rump exemplifies this disastrous form of leadership Ishmael refers to, albeit with less subtlety than one could imagine.