‘I think now that Trump is shaking up the world, our geo-political strategists should return to the drawing boards and rethink a new world with a mapped-out new network of relationships.’
TWO months into the second and last term of Donald Trump, not only is US society being shaken to the core, but so is the world.
Financially, his announcements of tariffs applied to these or those products coming from this or that country have had economists scratching their heads, economies reeling, and stock markets on a roller-coaster ride. It’s a great time to be a profit taker with a lot of cash and perfect timing, as there is money to be made when things are roiling. As they are.
On the one hand, shaking things up is not, by itself, a bad thing. Whether it’s an organization, a government, or yes, even a society, it helps once in a while to have something happen that shakes things up, turns things on their head. This is because one of the biggest problems of mankind is complacency, which can mean that things stay the same for a long time into the future because this is how things are and have been.
Complacency breeds a lot of problems, including loss of drive and imagination. And when that happens, that is in effect the start of the decline. Of careers. Of companies and other organizations. Societies too.
So yes, it pays to give the system a jolt once in a while. To wake people up. To remove the cobwebs in our heads. To stretch and flex those muscles that may have atrophied over time.
But the shakeup must have a clear purpose or objective and maybe even a timeline. It can’t be a shakeup for a shakeup’s sake. Otherwise, it’s a fine line between the unease brought about by new things, disorder and chaos. Especially since a lot about our daily lives operates on the basis of trust in the system and trust in the rules and trust in the way things are done. Damage that sense of trust and you damage confidence, you damage optimism and throw hope out the window. Which leaves an opening for doubt and fear, the equivalent of termites to a house.
Unfortunately, given his personality, there’s no saying what Trump is really up to and what he will do next. Observers have opined that someone with Trump’s personality is difficult to handle because he is difficult to control and his actions are difficult to predict. The only thing that seems to work on him is flattery – shower him with that and you can get what you want. Or get away with murder, for as long as you’re a loyal ass-kisser, that is.
It’s a new world and even after Trump, things will never be the same again. Which is good, I think, even for the Philippines, for we have been so complacent for so long due to our “historic” relations forged in the battlefield of World War 2, Korea and Vietnam. No more. I think now that Trump is shaking up the world, our geo-political strategists should return to the drawing boards and rethink a new world with a mapped-out new network of relationships.
It’s going to be a wild ride.
