“Power and money of course do drive people crazy. So why shouldn’t people gain power and wealth through being crazy?” – Saul Bellow, 1915-2005.
America is in the grips of two absolutely crazy men who have acquired power and wealth by being screw balls. The entire world, America included, will pay a heavy price for the re-election of Donald Duck, sorry, Trump as the current President. Millions will die prematurely globally in the four years the American leaders are in power.
Surprisingly, that is exactly what the two of them want. When Trump campaigned on the promise to Make America Great Again, the Americans the rest of the world thought were intelligent were not asking questions and did not take a proper look at the man who was making all those promises. Hitler also vowed to make Germany great again. Germans failed to ask the right questions; and they did not pay attention to the pledge to implement a final solution to all German problems.
They heartily elected Hitler; and at the end of the Second World War, Germany was in ruins, over 70 million people died worldwide and the Holocaust terminated the lives of 6 million Jews – all in the bid to make Germany great again. When Trump packed people into Air Force transport planes to be deposited in various countries, sometimes not their own, as those forcefully sent to Panama, the US President, like Hitler, knew in advance, what would be ultimate fate of those people – DEATH.
“Power tends to corrupt; and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Great men are almost always bad men” – Lord Acton, 1834-1902.
Most people quoting Lord Acton seldom go beyond the first line. The second line is just as potent. Human history always ascribed greatness to the most heartless butchers of people – Alexander of Macedonia, Catherine of Russia, Napoleon, Elizabeth I, Frederick the Great of Prussia, Genghis Khan of China etc. There are very few monuments erected for peacemakers. Our world has always rewarded mass murderers. Kill one person and you are a criminal; gas 6 million to death, and a Musk will sooner or later show the Nazi sign of approval.
The minimum to be a killer is one; there is no limit you can get killed to be a hero. When Trump ordered the closure of the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, established on November 3, 1961, through the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, by the Kennedy Administration, he and Musk had the data with which to plan legalised genocide on a scale even Hitler would envy. They knew how many people were employed, directly and indirectly, by the agency; they were aware of the over 200 million individuals worldwide benefiting from the programmes administered by the USAID. A
bove all, they have a rough idea how many millions will die very soon, without firing a shot or building a gas chamber, merely by deleting USAID. They went ahead and did it because that unprecedented calamity is precisely what they want – DEATH. When Trump took steps to drastically cut US support for Ukraine, including sharing of satellite gathered intelligence, he knew what would follow. The first country which was part of the dismantled Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, USSR, seeking freedom, Trump was not only repaying the Kremlin for favours extended to him in the past; he knew what would follow in Ukraine – DEATH.
Morning Shows the Day
“Having power destroys the sanity of the powerful. It allows their irrationalities to leave the sphere of the dream and come into the real world” – Saul Bellow
Bellow, of all the writers, whose books I read, out of over 3,000, while collecting materials for the VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, was the one who most explored the linkage between great power, political or monetary, corruption and sanity. It is almost impossible for someone who holds ultimate and unchallenged power not to abuse it. Everywhere in the world, the most dangerous people seek ultimate power; and tyranny results when the most powerful individual is certain that no other power can challenge their own.
To that extent, all dictatorships are alike. Some tyrants are just more blood thirsty than others. Human life invariably means nothing to them. Most of them incidentally don’t want to be ruled by others; they want to rule. Experience globally indicates that it is more likely for a democracy to become a dictatorship than the other way around. It starts with a candidate winning an overwhelming majority in an election. With a comfortable majority in the parliament, the new leader embarks on “political reforms” aimed at accumulating more powers in the Presidency and weakening the right to dissent. In Africa, virtually all the first leaders elected into office, when the country gained independence from the former colonial powers, became dictators – Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyata, Sekou Toure, Hastings Banda, William Taubman, Mugabe, Milton Obote etc.
Very soon after deliverance from Europeans, Africans found themselves enslaved worse by their own leaders. Most of them were eventually replaced by military regimes. DEATH. Americans might be harbouring the illusion that “it can’t happen here”. They only need to reflect on the fact that most Germans never imagined that Hitler could turn out to be a monster. In his book, Mien Kampf, My Story, Hitler had outlined the drastic measures he would take if elected. Few Germans believed that any sane person would go that far. Hitler was elected and he proceeded to do exactly what he promised.
With the full powers of state in his hands, he turned the country into a slaughter house. DEATH. Trump is another clone of Hitler in some respects. By nature, he wants to do what he promised – rightly or wrongly – without worrying too much about the consequences. Like all macho men, he strongly believes that might is right; bullying others to submission is allowed or even expected. Not surprising, he had, on the first day back in office, set in motion certain programmes aimed at forcing the entire world to submit to his wishes – irrespective of their views on the matter. Every nation’s policies will be dictated by the US and there will be hell to pay by any nation which failed or refuse to obey instructions. DEATH.
“Those whom God wishes to destroy, He first makes mad” – Euripides, 480-406 BC.
To actualise his dream of ultimate global power, Trump had, as in professional wrestling, acquired a tag team partner – Musk. Together, they invited the President of Ukraine to the White House; staged an unprecedented television show in which a foreign Head of State was publicly mugged by Trump and Musk and Vance. They must have been enjoying themselves thoroughly. They were sending a powerful signal or warning to other Presidents or Prime Ministers summoned to the White House. For those not trained in the language of diplomacy, there is a distinct difference in intention and meaning between being invited and being summoned. In the first instance all the welcome mats are laid out.
In the second, no mats, no handshakes, no smiles are offered. The victim is in for a roasting. In a government run by leaders not requiring strait jackets, the arguments and tough words are uttered behind closed doors, sound-proof walls and no microphones or cameras to allow the two parties to remain dignified. Trump dispensed with good manners in his last encounter with Zelensky because the US President is a brute. Everything was televised; especially the assault. That was what Trump wanted. He wanted every world leader coming to the White House to read the hand-writing now on the front gate – “Enter here at the risk of your self-respect”. He made his point and more. DEATH.
“Sometimes unintended consequences are catastrophic, sometimes beneficial. Occasionally, their impacts are imperceptible, at other times colossal” – William Sherden, in Best Laid Plans: The Tyranny of Unintended Consequences and How to Avoid Them.
Everybody, leaders and led, falls into the trap of unintended consequences when steps are taken. For national leaders, the unintended consequences of their actions can be catastrophic for others – in their countries and sometimes in other nations as well. Considering the repercussions of what we do is what draws the line between ordinary people and the insane. At least we try. Those whom the God wants to destroy seldom care about all the possible outcomes of the measures on which they embark.
Welcome on a massive scale is DEATH. Two examples of self-destructive actions taken by Trump and Musk will help illustrate my point about money, power and lunacy. One, Trump promised and imposed tariffs on goods from several nations and they retaliated. In less than two months the US is heading for a recession. Two, Musk bought the election for Trump and was rewarded with a powerful position created just for him. As at today, he had lost over $200 billion of his wealth and Americans trillions of dollars; and that is only the beginning. The entire world will suffer; so will Americans. They voted for it. We didn’t.
The post Trump, Musk, Power, Money and Madness, by Dele Sobowale appeared first on Vanguard News.
