What's a Little Border Between Friends?
Lately I've been reading Jonn Elledge's A History of the World in 47 Borders. Pick up a copy - you won't regret it. And subscribe to his newsletter.
Two things emerge from this book:
The national (and internal) borders that govern our lives are often pretty much random, arbitrary, or just scribbled on a map by someone thousands of miles away. None of them are natural things, and all of them were imposed by one person or another who was given - or who seized - the job of laying them out.
Despite lines on a map, or even large walls built where they are believed to lie, the country or empire that established that border will almost certainly cease to exist at some point. Just ask Rome, or the Mongols, or the British Empire, or any of the various conquering nations that took over parts of North and South America.
Which brings us to Donald J Trump.
As a Canadian, I grew up with an innate understanding that the US was very important to us. It was richer, more populated, and its entertainment and media overwhelmed us. That dynamic has not changed, and with the rise of the digital empire that is largely controlled out of California it has been intensified. Nothing that you do with a computer is free from the sticky fingers of American tech giants.
The US today is (from any distance) a waning global superpower. With a finger in every pie, and military outposts in far more places than anyone can imagine, it believes that it is saving the world. Especially for capitalism, and for those with great wealth.
It is a country that grew up on Hollywood war movies and Westerns, and which honestly believes that it singlehandedly won both World Wars. These stories, though comforting to Americans, have never been true, and even their good buddy Canada could quietly understand that we just had to accept the self-praise as a cost of doing business.
Now of course things look more threatening. At a minimum, the US is heading into an economic recession, or more likely depression. Armed government gangs are collecting brown-skinned men, women, and children off of the streets and locking them up, or deporting them to random countries. The US military is sinking fishing boats off both coasts under the guise of "fighting drugs."
All of this is happening while large parts of the US government is deliberately shut down.
Looking from the outside, it feels as if the US is heading for another civil war of some sort. To me, it's amazing that a shooting war hasn't already started with ordinary civilians executing ICE agents on the streets. There are simply too many guns in the US, and too many people being threatened with no avenue for legal protection - this will eventually turn into a shooting war.
The cause of all of this, or at least the figurehead - is of course Donald Trump. At a minimum, he is arguably the least-educated leader the country has ever known. His knowledge of history, geography - anything really - approaches zero. His greed is unstoppable.
(OK, while writing this I paused, and Susan read me Section 1 of Stanford University's "Critical Theory (Frankfurt School)" That, especially the sections referring to mass media, really hit home, and seem to describe the time we live in pretty accurately.)
As a Canadian, I see Trump as someone who has no intention to ever step down, and the current elected sphere of the US government, and the courts, are unwilling to do anything to stop him. Either by creating a civil war, or an economic crash, or some other means, Trump will declare himself President for life. And his children, his successors.
Trump also believes in oil, in a big way, and will do whatever is needed to keep it flowing into the US. It is entirely likely that he will decide to move troops into Alberta, and possibly build a new, unasked for, pipeline.
Would Donald Trump attempt to take over Canada? Of course - he's already said so. Whether it's oil, or the West coast between Washington and Alaska, or some other invented claim, he would be prepared to send in troops, or demand that Canada acquiesce to whatever he demands. If he threatens military action, Canada has already lost. Mark Carney (much less Pierre Poilievre) "negotiating" with Trump is just ridiculous.
The problem, as always, is that Trump invents "reasons" to do things, and has no interest in whether they exist. And he has a strangle-hold on most US (and much of Canadian) media, so his crazy schemes are presented as something rational. With no reliable and honest sources of information (what newspapers used to be) the population of America is drowned in the great seas of whatever the Internet throws at them.
And because governments in both countries have been cutting funding for education at all levels, and even censoring what can be taught, the larger population lacks the knowledge and skills to even comprehend what is happening. I know that my schooling, in the sixties and seventies, was lacking, and I'm sure that in many places the situation is even worse.
So Canada, in summary: the leader of the US wants to be all powerful. There is no-one prepared to stop him. The media universe also seems unwilling to challenge anything he says, and large swathes of the population lack the education to evaluate what they're told.
Is there any reason why we shouldn't be frightened?
