I HAVE been asked to provide my reactions to the elections in America, but to be fair, that is only one of the more noteworthy developments. For the sake of perspective, let’s look at what has been happening around the world, along with some thoughts on where it all might be going.
United States: The midterm elections revealed the utter failure of the two major political parties. Neither has a strong, unifying leader with a vision, let alone a plan, to lead his group forward. And forget about unifying the country. There are Trump conservatives and anti-Trump conservatives, Biden liberals and anti-Biden liberals. Americans have not been this divided and hateful toward each other since the Sixties. There is no middle, only extremes, and those that shout the loudest get the most news coverage. The country will continue to wallow aimlessly until new leadership emerges. Where art thou, Lincoln?
Russia: The war in Ukraine is an epic disaster, there is no other way to put it. An invasion that should have taken weeks has turned into the worst campaign for Russia since Afghanistan in the 1980s. We are past talking about how long it will take for Russia to win, and on to how long before Putin is overthrown in a coup. The Russian people have lost interest, the Russian military has thrown up its hands. Only the communist party continues to back this train wreck, and only because they must. Putin sees no way out that does not cost his job, so he pushes on, stupidly.
China: The person most excited about the two previous paragraphs is Chinese President Xi. Always the Other Guy, China wishes to assume its place on the world stage. Xi looks forward to the Chinese Century, just as the last one was the American Century. He has a plan for getting where he wants to be, the trouble is, the world rarely behaves according to a plan. For the immediate future, it looks as if Xi is willing to use superpower confrontation, a la Cold War, to accomplish his objectives, but that path is rocky and strewn with collateral damage. Was it inevitable that the United States and Soviet Union square off in the past? Historians and political scientists continue to debate that. Is confrontation with the United States unavoidable for China? Xi seems to think so. What a shame.
Philippines: The jury is still out on the return of the Marcos family. At first, I was saddened by the lack of historical consciousness by the Filipino voters. But so far, Marcos has not done anything to earn scorn. In fact, he has behaved, well, normally. Perhaps he knows he has so many eyes on him. Perhaps he is deciding how best to clean up the mess left by Duterte. Time will tell what kind of Pacific leader resides in Manila.
United Kingdom: Your guess is as good as mine as to what is happening in London. Other than his crazy hair, I never really had a problem with Boris Johnson. Then the country lost confidence in his leadership and the British went into political freefall. The two months of Liz Truss was followed by the dawning Rishi Sunak age. How long will he last? The UK is as leaderless as the US.
The Covid pandemic was not the only crisis the world has faced in recent years. Political extremism is on the rise. Universities are competing for new students by promising no books. Yes, that’s right. You can earn a college degree and never read a book! What do you think one those degrees will be worth to an employer? Yet, students will rack up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to obtain one, because, well, you are supposed to go to college, aren’t you? If this is the world our children are growing up in, is it any wonder they tune out and stick to their phones? The scene of the world is changing, and not for the better.
BC Cook, PhD lived on Saipan and has taught history for 20 years. He currently resides on the mainland U.S.
BC Cook
