Politically speaking, I am an uncomfortable hybrid, something between an ostrich and an idiot savant. I don’t watch the news for daily, hourly tidbits of frustration and terror. I don’t know each incident comprising the ongoing catastrophe that is Trump’s madness, but I know what’s going on. I don’t need endless examples: in fact, I’d propose that unlimited details makes people feel helpless, anxious, beleaguered, terrorised. A certain amount of tuning out, to preserve your peace of mind and your ability to take reasonable action, is warranted.
I’ve always been a canary in the political coal mine. I become upset by “little” moral failings, such as when Bill Clinton smirked, saying, “I did not have sex with that woman.” The smirk, the technical definition of what constitutes sex, and his refusal to even say her name were three insults in one—to everyone in the country, to every woman specifically, to his wife, to Monica, to her parents who would have seen it as I did, on TV. The smirk, which said, “We all know what’s going on here, and aren’t I clever.” It was despicable.
I left the US for the first time when George Bush (Jr.) was re-elected. I knew I was in a place where people, and the government of the people by the people, could not be trusted. I went to Canada.
Last month, hearing the Canadian prime minister Mark Carney speak at the World Economic Forum, I felt hopeful. He spoke intelligently, intelligibly and with integrity about Canada’s economic stance, and without using any inflammatory language, he gave the impression that Canada will not be pandering to other countries but will be standing up for herself. He sounded educated and thoughtful; like a professional, like a grownup, like a statesman. It occurred to me that, although Donald Trump gets a lot of the press, there are country leaders who still embody statesmanlike qualities, and they are watching and waiting and trying to keep their own nations between the rails while the US veers from idiotic tweets to kidnapping other countries’ president-criminals.
The frustration I feel at seeing the growing menace of the US – the fear, even, of watching another post-Hitler madman abuse his power, isn’t only about the insanity of one man. It’s about how a system, a group of people who actually hold the power to put someone in the role of president no matter how insane he is, collude to do so, for years on end.
DT is, yes, a megalomaniac and extreme narcissist, a sociopath—but also the fruiting body of millions of people whose lack of understanding, whose own fear and helplessness have focussed on raising to power someone with whom they can identify. Someone reactionary, not too bright, but rich enough to get his way, and ruthless. Who, rather than playing by the rules of decency, mocks them and throws them away. Bullies love the biggest bully, and those disenfranchised by poverty and lack of education see in this foolish, wildly successful man the hope that they will not be doomed by their own insufficiencies.
Through DT, they can be grandiose, they can make themselves feel big by oppressing others, express hatred, fantasize about wealth and uber-privilege to the point of creating widespread abuse. As Hitler made Germans feel secure and powerful, DT has been invested with extremes of power by people in the country who haven’t been able to see themselves in previous leaders, and assisted in his delusions by the cynical, the immoral, the greedy politicians who surround him.
Trauma begins and ends in helplessness. And the mistake that world leaders are making begins in accepting that the economy requires constant increase. Looking for more and more money makes poorer countries vulnerable to the wealthy. If nations were not reliant on the US for products, for arms, for monetary sustenance, would they tolerate the craziness of DT and the crazy nation he is building? Of course not. Make an ever-growing economy an obsolete notion, and the power of the US will evaporate.
To think that an economy should always grow is stupid. Unfortunately, it’s a stupidity that’s formed the backbone of the world economy since we’ve had a world economy. Our current economic model relies on domination: it’s intrinsically immoral. A person who becomes wealthy but, becoming addicted, wants more and more, finds himself doing terrible things to increase his wealth: he marries someone rich; he steals from his employees; he murders the people living on a land he wants; he murders the land itself to pull the oil, the diamonds, the uranium from its depths. He pollutes the air, water and soil, and poisons his countrymen and women. Simply the fact of being wealthy makes people believe they are naturally more privileged than others—even when they did nothing to accrue the wealth themselves. A nation founded on greed treats the entire world as its dominion.
It seems to me that there are two ways to stop DT; one, which would only remove the fruiting body, has been tried and failed a few times now. DT is an indicator, but now that his controllers know the process of putting someone in power, it would be simple enough to put another in his place. No, the way to stop DT and the ones behind him, is through bloodless economic war.
Other countries simply must stop doing business with the US, to pressure the US to rejoin the rational world, to re-evaluate the importance of integrity and justice. If they’re worried about causing an all-out war (and that might be a reasonable fear), they can do a version of “quiet quitting”, shrinking trade relationships, finding other partners, making the most of their own resources. Making their own economies more sustainable; for example, growing more of their own food, protecting their water supplies. Exporting and importing less and using what they have inside their own country. Making tough decisions—as when Iceland managed to turn the banking crisis of 2008 into a reinvigoration of its industry by refusing to bail out the banks. In a 2013 speech detailing how the financial crisis led to Iceland’s successful startup culture, Iceland’s president Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson said,
“…in the 21st century global economy, a big financial sector is fundamentally bad news, even a very successful financial sector is fundamentally bad news. You can even argue that the more successful it becomes, the worse will be the future. That is paradoxical and it goes against the prevailing orthodox thinking in the entire Western world…”
When you stop relying on someone you know is unreliable, you find alternatives that were forgotten when you originally submitted to them. In matters of economy, very importantly, countries can help their people live in ways that don’t require ever-increasing amounts of money. Create an economy around the true needs of the people rather than the greed of the wealthy. Teach real satisfactions rather than the joys of possession. Take pleasure not in buying things and accumulating wealth, but in time, in learning, in friendship and conversation.
Leaders like Mark Carney can, if they choose, stop the chain reaction of dangerous stupidity from the US. They can do it by banding together, by insisting on doing things right, by not backing down. It is hard, dangerous, work that must be accomplished with subtlety and intelligence. I would think that for a statesman/woman, it would be the ultimate exciting challenge, to be the one who convinced a whole nation to rethink its craziness, to return to some semblance of doing, and wanting to do, the right things (even if at first it’s for the wrong reasons.)
I know, I know, I am a political naif. I don’t have a clue about finance. But I know how things grow and how they should grow. In nature, things grow to a point, then die and create the medium for the next flush of growth. The only things I know of that grow without stopping are nuclear fission and cancer. Deadly things. People who are allowed to hurt others go on hurting them until others more determined, more insistent, put a stop to it. Abuses of power need boundaries, and as the US hasn’t managed to stop itself, the rest of the world needs to step up with restrictions a money-led nation will understand, will respond to.
Ideally, the action will include as many world leaders as can stand in a group, link arms and agree on this one thing. This situation has really gotten out of hand: the world needs planful but rapid action. The sooner, the better.
