America will never be great again, as its president understands greatness, and there are historical and contemporary reasons why it won't be.
The last time America was great in this sense was almost a hundred years back, in the decade of the 1920s. The circumstances in which American power and riches experienced phenomenal growth in this decade were unique. Europe was weakened socio-economically by the consequences of the First World War. But in contrast, America, due to its geographical distance from the arena of conflict as well as because of the size of its land, the enormity of its resource supply and its burgeoning economic and military power, almost immediately replaced European colonial powers as the world's new leader.
The factors that made America first among the nations of the world during this time, i.e. from 1920 to 1928, were the following:
America had only about 106 million people, i.e. three per cent of the world's population, while it produced about 46 per cent of the world's industrial goods. It was the world's manufacturing hub for mechanized domestic appliances, cars, airplanes, and several major and minor industrial products and finished goods.
It harvested about 40 per cent of the world's coal for domestic use and for exports. There was then no law that restricted America's use and exploitation of coal.
It was the world's leading oil producer. America alone harvested 70 per cent of the oil on a global scale.
It was one of the world's leading agricultural producers and made a lot of money exporting grain, fruit, meat canned food, especially to European countries.
America lent billions of dollars to a devastated and impoverished Europe and was in a sweet position to dictate terms of trade to countries that sorely depended on American help.
America's banks, defense services, and spy agencies were all over Latin America controlling the economies of these nations, making one-sided deals that eventually weakened the Latino nations and boosted American wealth at home and American control on those nations.
Similarly, the rest of the world was too weak and poor to challenge America and its exploitative trade deals and other manipulations. Such was the situation in a world that was unipolar; an America First world.
But the chaos of the economic collapse that followed this brief time from 1929 to 1932, and the spiraling effect it had on the nations that directly depended on American gratuities, leading up to the next world war, the second devastation of Europe, the show of Russian military strength in the winter wars with the Nazis and the rise of the ComIntern (Communist International), the collapse of European empires - all contributed to the emergence of a bipolar world, which continued nearly to the end of the 20th century.
Later, with the gradual ascendance of China on the global scene, the economic performance of the oil-producing Arab states, and the development of regional political and economic bodies, geo-politics became increasingly diverse and somewhat equal. No one country has, for some time now, been able to ruthlessly dominate the global scene.
The rise and descent of nations and empires is an inevitable phenomenon in world history. There is nothing new or peculiar about it. Hence if America is feeling the pain of its diminishing fortunes, it is to be expected and borne with dignity. If America compulsively seeks to perpetually remain number one in the world, then the only good way to do so would be through exceptional education and effort that continually surpasses these capacities of all other competing countries in the world.
One got a feel that America was on the ascendency during Obama's tenure. But not so with Donald Trump. Trump is determined to make America First, but his plans do not show a decent and civilized approach to the goal.
Reflecting on how he seeks to make America First, this is what Trump said in his inauguration speech: "The Bible says, how good and how pleasant it is when brothers are united. When America is united, it is totally unstoppable." Americans, in spite of their extraordinary fallenness, are in the great habit of speaking of God as their own and the rest of his creation as the alien and hostile world, or at least as the inferior and secondary other. Making America an unstoppable conqueror and exploiter is likely to be the new administration's plan, because economists will tell us that for one country to be super rich and to consume more of the world's resources disproportionately, others must yield and become poor.
Whatever messianic self-assumptions Trump and his team might have, they are unlikely to make America first among the nations of the world. That won't happen. The world has changed, and Americans are not the only humans who have ambitions, seek privilege and empowerment. There are many others now who don't just dream of it; instead have found it and will not let it go. America must hence eat humble pie and allow others to be in the game and expect even more in the years to come, to join the game.
We must all hope that America will do well under this new administration and will be more concerned about peace and prosperity for all on earth and not just for the American nation. Yet should the final blessing given by the bishop, Wayne T. Jackson, at the inauguration come true, then the scenario for the future does look rather bleak. The bishop prayed that God would give Trump "the spirit of Solomon - Solomon who kept the peace between many nations."
But how did Solomon keep the peace with many nations? By liberally marrying women of nobility from all those nations. To keep his many wives happy and satisfied, Solomon was forced to build palatial houses for each of them and provide them all those exquisite necessities princesses are used to. He taxed his own people to fulfill the demands. By the end of his reign, the people were so burdened and upset that the northern ten tribes rebelled against the incoming new king Rehoboam, Solomon's son, and permanently separated themselves. Solomon's follies forever reduced the nation of Israel to just two southern tribes, Judah and Benjamin.
America hopefully will not go that way in the next four years of the Trump presidency.
- Reuben Gabriel is an instructor in philosophy and history at CNC's Prince George campus.
