Olympus has trembled and its tremor has left the entire globe in bewilderment. Uncle Sam is the unchallenged winner of the cold war, unipolar powerhouse, champions of democracy and leader of the free world. The world is asking to know what is happening to the house of Uncle Sam.Olympus, the house of Uncle Sam did not just crack; it has shown cracks before now as Ian Bremmer observed in his work, ‘Every Nation For Itself’. Some of those cracks lie in the humungous debt burden that threatens American’s economic resilience which is the country’s biggest Trump card. The vampire of war has effectively sucked America’s resources to the extent that it took priority over spending on education. Primary and secondary education no longer prepare students for Sciences and Maths; college enrolment is on decline.
Physical infrastructures like airports, ports, bridges and hospitals are no longer top-notch as they used to be. But for me, the most dangerous warning sign came from the voting pattern that brought Obama and Trump to power; it showed that Americans do not only recognise their traditional differences, they were ready to assert those differences.
The Obama voters voted to have their voices heard and the humanity dignified they were mostly voters from the political left, supporters of movements like #MeToo and #Black Lives Matter and the general democratic demography. Trump resonated with conservatives who were concerned with social and religious issues or traditional values. However, those who wield the most significant influence among the several grouping of conservatives are the business elites who were psyched to have their white privileges defended from the political left where attention was initially paid; it has moved to the right and taken root.
The pattern has reinvigorated the conflict cast by identity long ago. Instead of having one nation, groups seeking recognition has fragmented America into self-regarding groups and defensive tribes. The decision about whom to vote is then not propelled by higher ideals such as freedom and the collective well-being of the society at large and America’s greatness but by identity.
Religious faith which Professor Appiah identified as being one of the causes of rifts are based on paradoxical doctrines and contradictory religious texts. Faith and other considerations are standing toe to toe with democracy and may yet undo the later. Keen observers knew what is to come if attention is not paid to Olympus’s cry for help, it will crash. Just like that, often when you least expect.
What identifies Americans’ identity
Americans are civil; the citizens are specimen of global citizens that the whole population of the world should aspire to be like. Unlike Nigerians, they channel their grievances through the many outlets and institutions made available by their government to ensure their discontents are never left unaddressed. At least, this is what we believe and why we discredit our country and call it a mad house.
Yes, we always say ‘in saner climes, in the USA particularly, this or that cannot happen without consequences’. All impunities that happen in Nigeria cannot happen in United States. American citizens can never drag their country into disrepute, why? Because the US will risk resources both human and material to save one American citizen as can be seen in the epic rescue that took place in the North-east of Nigeria a few months back.
What then happened in Capitol Hill? But for the Caucasians and American flag, we will say these are African hoodlums exhibiting what they truly are. The election results and the reaction of Trump’s ardent supporters forms the core of headlines plastered across world media. But they are mere manifestations of certain realities that have been brewing beneath the veneer of civility that Americans carry like a second skin. Identity have been rearing its head and demanding to be acknowledged. The historical contradiction upon which the United States is laid cannot be willed away, but calling to be addressed.
What propels this identity for which so much energy has been exerted in discourses and lives lost in its defence? It is generally how people see themselves and how the society at large perceives them.
Plato viewed the human soul from three perspectives; reason, egos and thymos. The last is what we now see as the struggle for recognition, megalothymia that generates the feeling of being special. It is latent in all of us; humans are paying more attention to their undeniable communal nature and manifesting it through collective identity, because it attracts more attention and gives more power in a world where numbers have become a powerful determinant of critical issues, the world in all of its facets is looking for a critical mass to direct the course of influence towards them.
Populist and personalities have found beds of roses upon the prevailing circumstance. Trump is only a manifestation of deep rooted and organic human anomaly that characterises the American society; it is an aged anomaly that the country have struggled with.
Contradictions in American history
These contradictions dates back to President Jefferson, who declared that all humans are born equal and had unalienable rights to be free and pursue their happiness at a time he had slaves in his home and black people were in bondage under masters in the US. The only way he could simultaneously uphold and violate this declaration is if he had considered humanity extended to the black people held in captivity.
The contradiction was apparent in President Lincoln’s struggles; he said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently with half slave and half free citizens.”
Lincoln equated equality to the victory of the better angels of our nature. The contradiction is echoed in how President Lincoln pursued not the abolition of slave trade but curtailing its spread to newly independent states. He was privately a proponent of inferiority of the black race as he was remembered to have said he will never marry an African American and just because he thought slavery should be abolished does not mean he thinks white and black people of America should intermarry.
Biden not different
On the day Capitol Hill was breached by American protesters, Biden with tears in his eyes said that would not be the treatment #Blacklivesmatter protesters would have received if they took this action. From antecedents, this may not amount to policy change to make Black Lives Matter in America.
While America championed the embedding of human rights in its constitution, the foundational prosperity of the country was laid on enslavement of black people whose intellectual properties and labour were exploited for free in all its documented and untold violence for 400 years. The more America tries to renew itself, the more it is trapped in its old suite of oppression and marginalisation of its own citizens. Those citizens who live in decrepitude, want, destitution and poverty amid staggering wealth.Justice wise, a poll in 2019 by the Pew Research Centre, revealed nearly 9 out of 10 black adults say Black Americans are treated less fairly than their white counterparts. This differential treatment can be found in all the processes of policing the society. From punishment to bail, conditional release and liberation.
Respondents and experts drew inferences from their experiences.
Migrants have had their own fates to contend with in this struggle as well. America seeks to attract the best from around the world and give them less than they deserve. Ordinarily, those who have become downtrodden in their countries are only too happy to ignore the incongruity because their societies treated then far worse, but the children and decent of those people didn’t experience the weaknesses of their original societies to compare with.They have the waiting army of discontented American citizens happy to welcome them into the fold of forces antagonistic to the shackles imposed by the champions of freedom. The fight for equality and recognition is not a discontent that would be resolved by political correctness but by measures that would save the downtrodden from the cycle of poverty, injustice and institutional frameworks.
It is unarguable that Biden has inherited a divided country. As a Nigerian who has lived under the daunting challenge of polarisation, I dare say Americans should be prepared to see little in terms of policies and campaign promises. He must give far more priorities to domestic policies. Because now, more than ever since Pearl Harbour, Americans are weary of their country’s involvement in world affairs.
Research shows that they would prefer the country minds the business of Americans. This is another reason Trump resonated with certain Americans on the job protection policies and dependence on foreign goods and security through strict migration policies. As crass and unrefined as Trump’s policies sounded, Biden will have to adopt some of his ideas under a different banner like democrats tend to do. The fight the left is putting up is getting more potent and yielding results. From one election to another, a Black American of Kenyan origin and a female migrant of Jamaican origin have found a place in one of the most coveted pages of history. There is room now for a movement that would divide the house into a civil war, but thankfully identity is a cumulative and fluid process and as it have been used to create antagonistic collectives, it can be used to create harmonious communes that strive for the single purpose and vision of greatness.
