The Fallacy of Greatness

IT is quite unimaginable to fathom an America that is on its knees and for all the wrong reasons. A country that at one time was hailed as a superpower, the harbinger of democracy, the upholder of the free world and a country that cherished freedoms of all kinds is today but a parody of itself.

And to blame Donald J Trump alone would be ridiculous. That blame needs to be shared by all the Americans who voted this man to power, who believed that this man would be the panacea for all their ailments and that Donald J Trump would change the face of America.

In less than six weeks, Donald J Trump has recalibrated the global order, polarised more and more Americans and made a mockery of international diplomacy. But this isn’t going to stop here. What’s worse is that this man and his country which, at one time, created a furore over oligarchy and capital cronyism, today has a bouncing dodgy DOGE upholder in the form of Elon Musk who, by the way, is using arbitrariness and proximity to the White House to cut side deals for himself and his ridiculous business ventures.

I, for one, cannot understand how our government, the Government of India, is even thinking of allowing this man and his Starlink businesses to come to India for free, where he doesn’t have to pay spectrum charges, where he doesn’t have to bother about the rules and regulations of the country. Or, for that matter, about the laws that Indian companies in this sector have been compelled to follow.

Are we so weak-kneed that we are willing to crawl when asked to walk as a nation? A lot of people have asked me and have conjectured what is the quality of relationship between Narendra Modi and Donald Trump.

There is no question that Narendra Modi is far more astute, is a wiser politician and understands the vagaries of global diplomacy. So, for people to believe that Modi will ever be in even remotely a position as a Zelensky, they need to think again.

What we have seen today is the rebalancing of power, but equally tragic is the elimination of America from the global order. Because what Trump has done is that he has given Europe the freedom that Europe has always yearned for, to be taken seriously, to be taken as a political entity, and for its voice to be counted.

I have never been a votary of Zelensky, or for that matter, Putin. But here’s the harsh truth: everyone loves a war, just like everyone loves a famine.

Wars make governments rich and people poor. Wars strengthen puppets and dictators and destroy innocent families. And the people who engender these wars are all to blame, whether it is a Zelensky or a Putin, or for that matter, even a Donald Trump.

For America to now wash its hands of, much like they did when they pulled out of Afghanistan, leaving the country in tatters, is a bit rich.

Americans today must recognise that what Donald Trump is doing to them is going to be long-lasting and more torturous than they can even imagine.
Because when you tinker with the DNA of a nation, when you tinker with its value architecture, and when you believe that you can get away by having all arms of government compromised, be it the Supreme Court or the Department of Justice, or for that matter, law enforcement agencies, be it FBI or CIA, what you are causing is a level of distress that America will find hard to recover from.

And I’m not even talking about the pain of the thousands and millions of workers who will be fired by Elon Musk, who can continue being on top of the world’s rich list.

I don’t know how America is going to handle Donald Trump. But I do know for a fact that Donald Trump will use America as his plaything. And as he always does, it will be a plaything to make him more famous, to make him at times the subject of ridicule, and at times the subject of envy. But always, a person will also find a way to enrich his own family.

And that’s why we should be worried. We should be worried not because America is ruled by a person who is totally unhinged. What we should actually worry about is an America that doesn’t know right from wrong.

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