World News: Populism, Trump and Greenland
- Details
- Category: Haute This Issue
- Published on Monday, 13 January 2025 07:01
- Written by Olivier Longhi
What do Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jung Un and more generally all political figures labelled as populists have in common? What characterizes these leaders is a belief, much like jungle rule, that only the strong survive.
This idea that the so-called strongest, whom they see themselves as embodied, must dominate or subjugate the weakest allows them to envision a populos where their actions ultimately serve to better the population. The theory of survival of the fittest, based on English biologist Charles Darwin.
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The proliferation of populist politicians who are convinced of their domination of a planet that they believe is subject to their ambitions could be stemmed if the fundamental principles of education and freedom of the press, among other things, were defended.
This is one of the many facets of populism, to which is added the idea that whoever shouts the loudest will, once again, necessarily be right. Established observation, what can be done to limit these excesses that threaten the planet at least with a cold war, hot in the worst case.
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The Ukrainian example is the typical example and it is the work of Vladimir Putin who perfectly embodies the definition put forward above. And Donald Trump's desire for Greenland to supposedly control the passage of Chinese and Russian ships only confirms this desire for domination even more. But what this disastrous clique seems to forget is that the rest of humanity is not automatically inclined to espouse this format of thought.
Convincing and persuasive, even charismatic, all these men also use and abuse the weaknesses of Western democracies, whose flaws they exploit to rise to the summit of power. Does this mean that there is a way to thwart the rise of these despots in the making when they are not already?
A modest and unpretentious outline of a solution could therefore be put forward. And the first of these begins with a strengthening of education, a pillar of the training of citizens today and tomorrow, in order to amend their critical spirit in order to accurately appreciate the words and proposals of the various populists.
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Because populism is also the result of an education crisis. The second and not the least option is to ensure and protect freedom of the press, because a well-informed society, in the true sense of the term, is a society that thinks and reflects. Linked to this same freedom, to keep the press away from the world the tycoons and other billionaires eager to control collective thought by directing information in arid and impoverished intellectual spaces.
And finally, to limit the influence and weight of social networks as well as that of television programs carried by demagogues with a rare and dangerously precise sophistry. But for the time being, it is clear that none of these solutions is on the table, let alone put forward as a working hypothesis. It is perhaps worse than the rise of populists who are only the hidden face of civilizations that are incapable of reinventing themselves to date.
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Bio: Olivier Longhi has extensive experience in European history. A seasoned journalist with fifteen years of experience, he is currently a professor of history and geography in the Toulouse region of France. He has held a variety of publishing positions, including Head of Agency and Chief of Publishing. A journalist and recognized blogger, editor, and editorial project manager, he has trained and managed editorial teams, worked as a journalist for various local radio stations, was a press and publishing consultant, and was a communications consultant.