Oh, America! My world is also your world

Opinion. Back to the Future?

Four years ago I wrote the following article and now as my final opinion piece for 2024, I am repeating it verbatim.

Why? I suppose as I proceed along the age that recognises my vocal opinion matters less to today’s dismissive society, writing such as I’m doing, remains the one vocation that still allows me to express my views lucidly and without hindrance.

Four years ago, in 2020 I wrote, “There’s a well-known quotation by the American writer Eric Hoffer. ‘Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life.’”

I said, at the time:

Among the lives of people, individuals and cultures there are some who maintain that the best thing for a man or woman to strive for in this world is to take revenge on their enemies. The satisfaction of thirst for revenge cannot be clearer than it is today. And since the US Presidential Election of November 2016, America must accept ownership of being at the forefront of adding a venomous fire to hatred and intolerance.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the words of Trump, who, in a recent tweet said:

“Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump Joe Biden is a PUPPET of CASTRO-CHAVISTAS like Crazy Bernie, AOC and Castro-lover Karen Bass. Biden is supported by socialist Gustavo Petro, a major LOSER and former M-19 guerrilla leader. Biden is weak on socialism and will betray Colombia. I stand with you! 2:38 PM ·Oct 10, 2020·Twitter for iPhone”

It was a tweet of a desperate man attempting to hang on to the vestiges of power. The tweet is right out of the 1950s pro-Senator McCarthy era and his House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).

Trump embellishes all that is repugnant in an individual. He is the archetype of a destructive lost soul whose aim in life, as president, has been to put a culture of fear into American society. During the past four years, he has exceeded his expectations.

Trump, who has repeatedly declined to condemn far-right groups, has ignited the fuel that many of his antisemitic and anti-black extremist supporters see as an acknowledgement of their racially inspired innate hate and intolerance of all that is good in America.

With just thirteen days before the U.S. Presidential Election, we are watching a president whose political thirst for power and revenge is so repulsive by many that it goes far beyond the pale. And, as it’s been said: “His actions are outside the bounds of morality, good behaviour or judgment.”

The great ninth-century Jewish philosopher Saadia Gaon commented that the thirst for revenge affords the pleasure of seeing the discomfiture of its enemy, assuages the vehemence of its wrath and puts an end to excessive brooding. Saadia said that the man who is consumed by the desire for revenge gets into a frame of mind of refusing to accept intercession or entertain any feeling of compassion or pity or listen to any plea for clemency.

This is where we are today.

My world is also your world

Over one thousand years later Saadia’s comments still reflect the attitude that we have learnt nothing. As we observe the hatred and intolerance between America’s Democrats and Republicans and political elites, we find very little is based upon the two-way acceptance that my world is also your world.

Many gloat over people’s misfortune, and falsify historical evidence, Holocaust and genocide deniers abound with their wish to instil hatred in other cultures and religions that no civilized government has a hope in hell or will to stop. It is a hatred that has its own direction, its own time and space, egged on by the perverse nature of extreme fanatics including the Jew-hating Hizb ut-Tahrir, utilizing the services of the ten-second clip, satellite dishes, mobile phones, photos of children flourishing guns and Internet web sites. It is hatred and intolerance also spurred on by educated societies to the masses of the uneducated and their educated children.

Lighting the match of hate and intolerance

Today, as many of us dream of the return of news commentators such as the Walter Cronkite of our world, we attempt to compare the difference between America’s fake news and the flag-waving, drum-rolling entertainment news programmes thrust upon us by many TV networks. Lighting the match of hate and intolerance is by no means a right of the privilege of our politicians, who are in direct competition with much of our media.

It’s been said that because today our media have very little moral fibre left, they have enhanced the egregious display of open prejudice pervading our society. The days when media were supposed to spread enlightenment have vanished. We have crossed the red line. It’s an utter travesty!

The ‘Trumptwit’ is riding high on top of a vicious heap of dirty rags that put many peaceful and decent Republican and Democrat voting citizens to shame.

Encouraged by the ‘Trumptwit’, we are experiencing a frightening infectious disease that contains no borders. ‘Trumptwit’ is now the primary language common to many Americans who have become unable to differentiate between ignorance and conscientious stupidity and the ability to make intelligent decisions.

Has civil society today lost the will to react firmly against hate and intolerance in this topsy-turvy world we live in? Yes, probably it has. Is civil society in America, prepared for the future? Probably not.

‘Trumptwit’, the American, has lit the destructive match of revulsion unseen in modern-day U.S. history. He falsifies credible and substantiated information with downright bullheadedness and utter ignorance. Simply put, he makes President Warren Harding look like a genius!

The little ‘Trumptwits’, in their eagerness to please their leader, are making every effort to subscribe to what they believe is their leader’s wishes.

Many in America believe in their great country, as they should. They believe their country is strong enough to ride out the wave of the toxic ideology pervasive in the ‘Trumptwit’. Living in Canada, I’m not so sure any more of our neighbour’s peaceful election outcome. Battle lines have clearly been drawn. The aftermath has been plainly defined.

Irrespective of what political U.S. party you may or not support, we are experiencing a damning and sick indication of America today. America’s enemies surely couldn’t have wished for anything better to happen to their adversary. What is happening in the U.S. goes far beyond civil societies’ understanding of shared interests and values. This has now become nothing more than pure hate and intolerance towards one’s neighbours, concluding with the post-election result imploding into what might become a frightening scenario.

A few days ago, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau in an interview said he is committed to keeping the border closed [with the U.S.] until the U.S. gets control of COVID-19. He said, “The U.S. is not in a place where we would feel comfortable reopening those borders.”

Reading between the lines, I suggest he was also implying something else, and it wasn’t related to COVID-19.

It was Benito Mussolini who said, “This is the epitaph I want on my tomb: Here lies one of the most intelligent animals who ever appeared on the face of the earth.”

If this isn’t a Trumpism, I know not what!

And as a Canadian, in my country with all the political and economic ramifications we are witnessing today, December 28, 2024, coupled with the next four years of Trumpism, nothing leaves a satisfying taste in my mouth. ●