As I write this short prose, India seems to be yet again on the top of global discourse, this time not due to a military conflict but rather a nonsensical folly thrust by an individual that foresees that the world will run under his whim, synonymous to the myriad of institutions in the United States.
Albeit, Mr. Trump has to succumb to the realization that despotic transgression may win him piecemeal victories with either the spineless CBS or the illiberal university administrators, yet the world and other sovereign nation-states need not by any means coalesce around a corruption-ridden administration that only finds its modus operandi to further the riches of TRUMP & FAMILY.
In the grand scheme of things, the novel epoch we find ourselves in can be characterized as mercantilism imbued with great power conflicts, which is to say, the self-defenestration of Pax Americana, or in other words, the umbrella the overarching Washington Consensus provided for furthering liberal democratic ideal around the world as a vestige of the past — a project that was confined amongst the flamboyant and acerbic chatterati, as exemplified by election after election; such a superlative (liberal democracy) does not find much resonance beyond the credentialed class.
Sadly, the political process in the United States itself has been embroiled in frivolous cacophony and watching the “envy” of the world fade away in just a mere few months is plainly unthinkable — such further gives credence to the precarity of the global state of affairs.
For the instantaneous relegation of the US being ridiculed from a state of envy, the onus lies on the GOP for its callousness and the Democrats for forgetting their voters; it’s very funny, at the moment, to go back to the now-archaic litany of op-eds in the NYTimes defending BIDENOMICS whilst overtly being disingenuous about the rising inequality of income and wealth coupled with depleting disposable incomes, or, in more colloquial language, the Affordability Crisis.
Rightly, whilst gazing at the United States from the exterior, it is easy to sound patronizing, especially with the constant pontificating of what is either “right” or “wrong”; evidently, other than the American outlets, treatises around the world, at this juncture, are levied towards ways in which the world can navigate through the hailstorm ushered by Mr. Trump.
Such a pivot, writ large, manifests the frustration permeating amongst ardent admirers of liberalism and, of course, the moneyed for whom the American market has been a gateway for astronomical wealth, numerically speaking, greater than either its Western or Asian counterparts.
Correspondingly, to literally extrapolate the juggernaut that the US is, two sets of facts, the well-known commentator Fareed Zakaria states, always ignite a sense of wonderment: that is, on the one hand, back in 2008 the economies of the US and EU were roughly on par, but, with shifting tides of the ensuing decade, such a trend did not persist; in fact, the US economy is five times greater than the latter. On the other hand, singularly, the UK, which is not a part of the customs union anymore, the mighty empire that once ruled the sea, in all likelihood, if incorporated as the 51st in the American union, would be the poorest state — even poorer than Mississippi.
Needless to say, such stats whenever insinuated do boggle my mind. That said, making a doomsday-like hypothesis seems to be so normal these days — just read the many editorials. Insofar as with each progressing day, the bellicosity postured towards countries by the US shatters the longstanding, yet flawed, ethos of goodwill — with a humanistic bent that American administrations exuded, be it PEPFAR during the Bush years or even when Mr. Biden sought his best to defend the sovereignty of Ukraine.
Still, this administration is confined to just 3 more years; much can pivot for the better — and, no, such is not just merely wishful thinking. Any student of history would be privy to the constant rupture and repair taking place for millennia; for instance, not far from our collective memory: The Great Wars. It just happens to be that we are witnessing one, maybe also sharing the sentiments of folks that would have survived throughout previous inflection points.
Having said that, surely, after a year of writing, I have found that writing treatises on the positives can be excruciatingly hard; being optimistic, or in other words, inculcating the resolve of seeing a better day, sounds baloney — although such is the case, it is pivotal to be cognizant of the contrarian facet, which is that the world has not been insular to only facing qualms day in and day out; much of the good still continues to persist. It is such that in the attention economy, sensation-laden fearmongering amounts to greater monetization.
At last, the process of sidelining the veneer of ubiquitous calamity is one’s own task. In turn, to indulge in further contemplation of our social reality will hopefully spur greater optimism — ultimately defying all the widely reverberated doomsday-like stats.
Will keep it at that. Till then, I bid adieu with a quote: “In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.” — Sun Tzu.
