A few days back, a reader suggested that this site’s perceived antagonism towards America’s incoming commander-in-chief may end up marginalizing a portion of the Heisenberg Report’s audience.
The implication was clear: if the site wants to maximize clicks (i.e. make money) and expand its readership (i.e. make more money), the author (me) should adopt a more conciliatory tone towards Donald Trump.
That’s nonsense. And not the part about giving Trump “a chance.” I’m happy to give him his due. I’m certainly not going to be leading a picket line in front of Trump Tower any time soon. But the notion that clicks count more than expressing one’s convictions isn’t an idea I can get behind. Indeed, I doubt if readers who disagree with my position would want me to pander to them. If they do, then they clearly don’t understand that the best way to strengthen your own convictions is by subjecting them to scrutiny.
To me, Donald Trump represents an existential threat to Western democratic ideals – his bombastic rhetoric and blatant disregard for anything that even approximates decorum is an affront to Americans’ sense of civility and integrity. That’s my story and you can damn sure expect me to stick to it until the President-elect gives me a reason not to.
That said, there’s certainly a lesson in Trump’s victory just like there’s a lesson in the rise of populism and the resurgence of nationalism in Europe. Yes, there are lessons, and liberals will have to either heed those lessons or risk the destruction of a progressive agenda that very nearly relegated competing political agendas to the annals of history (where they belong).
Multiculturalism, progressivism, and a continual push towards a more globalized, interconnected society wherein individuals identify as “human” and not as “Americans,” or “Russians”, or [fill in the blank] is not just the best way forward, it’s the only way forward. If those who support this agenda fail to learn from the events of 2016, then society may well lose its way. And it’s by no means clear we’d find our way back.
With that in mind, consider the following excerpt from a great piece out Friday over at FT:
In Greek tragedy, hubris inevitably leads to catastrophe. Many fear that we are now enacting just such a tragedy, with the hubris of liberal western elites giving way to global meltdown.
Since 1989 elites in the west have come to believe in the “end of history” narrative, according to which liberal democracy and free market capitalism have won over all rival social systems, and the world is therefore bound to become a global community managed through free markets and democratic politics. Pockets of heresy may endure – but, because they will suffer from poverty and violence, they will eventually see the light, open their borders, and liberalise their markets and politics.
However, since the global financial crisis of 2008 people all over the world have lost faith in the liberal recipe, and in 2016 even voters in the UK and the US rejected it. No wonder western elites feel disorientated. A bit like the Soviet elite in the 1980s, they do not understand how history deviated from its preordained course, and they lack an alternative prism to interpret reality. Disorientation causes them to think in apocalyptic terms, as if the failure of history to come to its envisioned happy ending can only mean that it is hurtling towards Armageddon.
H you forgot the part were the multi nationals are constantly on the hunt for cheap/ child labor, the corps through their paid off politicians/governments are all about making all the money for themselves and investors at the expense of emerging economy’s human and national/ local resources, but hey it’s the business of doing business as long as it’s not in your back yard, it just don’t matter right
Yes, the meltdown is more likely at this point. Trust in any kind of government is fading rapidly and I think Trump will just add to that distrust. We are in a huge historical moment as dominoes fall. One by one the pinions of the status quo’s control over people’s lives are threatened for the misrepresented lies they are. The perfect storm of over-population draining resources, which start wars (Syria), debt which pushes unemployment levels in all countries, which leads to the creation of someone to blame. It’s their fault those progressive, elites who think they are better than you. Why do people vote time and again against their own best interests.
I would have added strengthen “..or change ..” your own convictions; otherwise well said.
Heisenberg—JUST KEEP WRITING WHAT YOU ARE WRITING and HOW YOU ARE DOING IT. Since stating the weaknesses of BOTH of these two opposing sides will piss half of us off, you can’t win a total popularity contest.
A distinct human POLARIZATION has been occurring over the last several decades. I made a large and long move myself to prepare for the ‘Clash of the Titans’ when these two distinctly different groups become outright adverse against the ‘Other Side of Blue Meanies’.
But in fair argumentative prose, you did a great job here ‘VALIDATING’ an opposing side. That is admirable. In such blogs as this, I (and hopefully, we) really want to know not only the ‘Other Side’s’ weaknesses, but OUR OWN. No one is EVER all RIGHT, and No one is ever all WRONG. Sometimes, we need to be exposed to some constructive criticisms to keep ‘Growing Up’. Human Growth sometimes, is as painful as Change Resistance in business.
And in this discourse of the GREY AREA, we are seeing both the admirable sides of each, as well as the dark sides. But, in the gleaned knowledge and many ideas we glean from your writings, we are also better-prepared for what we face ahead. For me, I need that.
One thing that I am VERY SURE OF, is the fact that that it is going to GET REALLY UGLY before it again, gets NICE and EASY ahead.
As Peter, Paul, and Mary, sing in ‘Where Are all the Flowers Gone’, it is a story of the merry-go-round of repetitive discourse in man’s history of repetition. Whether it be a cycle of one year, five years, ten, or 100, or even 1,000 it will repeat—maybe, for some real different reasons; but it will repeat. If one were to ask folks what the name, ARCHDUKE FERDINAND, or NEVIL CHAMBERLAIN, or NELSON ALDRICH means, only ONE in TEN THOUSAND would know at all. And even fewer care to know. So, in his/her ignorance, mankind is destined to stumble and repeat and repeat.
Not ONE SIDE but BOTH opposing SIDES do this. Some of us are simply too polarized and too proud to admit any wrong or mistake. (That’s why I LOVE those National Car Rental ads on TV with that DOUBLE ALPHA MALE character in them. Too bad for us all due to this. And it is in our STUMBLING TIME AHEAD into humility that we will gain wisdom.
When young, I knew that I knew. When I grew into my maturity, I knew that I did not know it all. And in old age, I know that I don’t know very much. By the time that I take my last breath, I will not know much of anything at all. But in truth, INSIDE is may be the exact opposite going on in growing humility.
In the meantime, my quest for The Truth is insatiable and I enjoy my hunt for it.
That’s why I am here in the first place; her with Heisenberg and the rest of you.
“Pockets of heresy may endure – but, because they will suffer from poverty and violence, they will eventually see the light, open their borders, and liberalise their markets and politics” Give me a break. As long as the collective unconscious continues to identify with the god within, which forever it will do, your so called “heresy” will forever endure.