Page 71 - Cormorant Issue 20 2017

greatest oratorical skill (a throwback to Soviet Union masters of the art during the Cold War in style and substance): layering just enough hints of possible truth between half-truths and just pure out-and-out statements of the blatantly unbelievable, aimed at preying on the weak, the poor, the insecure and other types to which such visceral populistic/nationalism appeals. Global leadership and the international community were thrown overboard in the quest for
a Great America at all costs. Jingoistic and nasty populism, dressed up as patriotism, emit from the White House Rose Garden, seemingly primarily centred on self-interest and regime self-preservation. And no greater betrayal of an international agreement contributed to by the United States has occurred since the American political leadership’s withdrawal of the US from the League of Nations. That pursuit of the American false idol of independent greatness, led to decades of international mistrust, weakness and eventually global war. Trump’s similar desire to retain rule through the manipulation of baseness within the American electorate will see that nation eventually diminished.
And yet, this will not bother many in America, who see that only if America is GREAT, and American politicians speak the TRUTH, can the world be secure and at peace. It is a fantastic and surreal combination that is at once terrifying and at the same time almost completely engrossing as a statement on the nature of the human condition. How is it that the wealthiest, most educated, militarily powerful nation on the planet can think and act like this? will be the question on many lips around the world.
What is being witnessed in American politics today is a simple, old-fashioned game of balance of power
“
positioning internationally, predicated on a populist ideology that is determined to make the American people believe in their politicians’ ability to speak
the truth once more. President Trump only thinks he needs to work with and have a sound relationship with those powers which are powerful enough to be a threat or an ally to the United States. By entangling American power with theirs, in either positive or negative alignments, the result is not important it
is simply the act of the interaction that is required. From that entanglement a club of preferred nations is created for him to operate his capitalist/imperialist world view within: the conditions are set to allow him to make the DEAL. Only their reactions, or inactions, are required for Trump, and thereby Americans to prosper in such a zero-sum environment.
Similarly, he believes his power is absolute, for
the PEOPLE have bestowed it upon him and will continue to do so as long as he simply delivers
what he said he would do during the election: balancing aggrieved group against aggrieved group to maintain legitimacy through previous inactivity
or engagement. That creation of the establishment bogeyman will now have a limited shelf-life as his time in of ce passes and the realisation that he IS the establishment takes hold in the people.
In both the domestic and the international arenas, there is a thread of pure simplicity and obviousness in both those beliefs. Truth is no doubt what people desire from their leaders. As well, powerful nations make the rules and thus are the ones that are
most important to have in uence and power over and with. However, between those two absolutes or aspirations are a whole range of realities and existences, both foreign and domestic, which
President Trump is ill-equipped to, or incapable of contemplating, let alone considering. It is in those spaces of, compromise, accommodation, sacri ce, toleration, empathy, sympathy, mercy, collectivity and community, within which most of the modern world works, even the business world. Yet, President Trump shows little time for or recognition of such concepts. For him, it is all about The Great. Without, however, those characteristics listed above, just how Great Trump’s America will be is certainly a question more thoughtful observers of the world’s greatest nation should keep in mind. Good luck America and the rest of the world as Trump’s Great America (TGA) moves through, over and around us. We are both going to need it. What, you might ask, returning to the question originally put forward, does it all mean? The answer is insecurity and large doses of it. Good thing you all can take Buzan now with you forever.
Safe travels ACSC 20 and all the best in all your futures.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author.
PAGE 69
How is it that
the wealthiest, most educated,
militarily powerful nation on the planet can think and act
like this?
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