Holy cow. By the time I wake up, there’s a decent possibility that Donald Trump will be elected to become the most powerful man in the world. And in case you’re left wondering about my personal bias, then allow me to assure you that if this happens, I’ll be quite certainly distraught. In fact, I’m already quite upset that the world has gotten to this point, where a large percentage of Americans want an elite and selfish America, where a large percentage of Brits wanted us to leave the EU and look out for purely ourselves. We seem to be regressing to an age of nationalism and pride rather than international co-operation and communication. And as the world becomes more technologically advanced and more connected, you’d expect the latter to be the safer bet.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the rapid evolution of humans in both a cultural and a technological sense, and it’s immediately clear to me that shedding our previous animal traits in preference for more civilised ones is imperative to the continued success of our species. Rape is a horrifying crime, not a fact of the mating world. Violence is replaced with communication, so we can solve our problems instead of killing each other over them. Intelligence is fast outgrowing the need for physical strength, and anyone who wants to cull the gene pool in a fit of utilitarianism is forsaking the imperative rule of human compassion for regression into the previously physically driven tribal world. And most relevantly to this discussion, we’ve evolved from hitting that other band of humans with sticks and rocks until they’re dead, to embracing our differences and working together to live longer.
Can you tell what I think of nationalism in regard to that last remark? Donald Trump wants to “make America great again”, a statement which could mean the uprooting of many of the previous decades of human evolution. He’ll make the US focus more on itself as a military power and frontier of the world, than he will care about diplomacy with other countries. Driven by a life of prejudice and power, Donald Trump is the kid who believes that keeping all the resources for himself is the right thing to do. And it’s alarming that there are enough people in America – and likely in other countries too – that agree with him enough to give him the power to see this through.
If I was to put it in a simple, insulting way, then I suppose I’d say that Donald Trump is a shortsighted neanderthal who puts prejudice in the way of diplomacy, and believes that speaking louder and blocking his ears will get him further in life. And so far, he’s not been proven wrong on that front. But that also brings to mind another point – the social media’s opposition to Donald Trump. I have seen countless posts making fun of his appearance, of his voice and his life and making many personal attacks against his character, and whilst I don’t exactly sympathise with the man and have more than likely participated in this behaviour without thinking, it’s also the kind of behaviour which validates the man. Instead of hearing a strong, ruling voice against him that’s backed by logic and genuine concern, he is – in his own mind – validated in covering his ears and speaking louder because all he hears are irrelevant insults from the anonymous majority. I’d call that the Katie Hopkins effect. When anger gets in the way of your protesting, you shouldn’t spit your vehemence at your target, as you’ll only weaken your own voice. And that’s a flaw that I’ve seen repeated across humankind day in and day out. Our anger gets the better of us, and leads us down self-destructive paths that allow men like Donald Trump to ascend the throne of the world’s largest superpower.
I’m always preaching this on my blog, but I’ll end this with the reminder that our current western culture and civilisation is not a certainty in life. Countless generations have been born into it and we have developed a complacency to this way of life and adopted it as normality. In reality, it’s a fragile construct which could be knocked down at any time by nukes directed by hatred and anger. When you’re voting for a world leader, you’re not just voting for somebody who you agree with to do the things that sounded good to you and those around you. You’re putting into power somebody who has the ability to change the very shape of the world. And that’s often forgotten in petty prejudices and hatreds.