Trump and Putin Facing Fate

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will meet soon face to face. Two men can decide the fate of America and Russia. But they don’t have to face fate head on. They can step back and do no more than a few new deals favorable to both. Fate long ago dictated that Russia can be managed only as a bull nation. There has never been any democratic central rule in Russia. The military threat of the United States is not the threat Putin fears the most. He has a tricky problem. He wants Trump to get rid of the economic sanctions that hurt the Russian economy but he does not want American corporations to gain anything near total penetration into his economy and move around Russia freely doing what they want and making a lot of money for themselves and Russians. That was how American corporations penetrated Western Europe 50 years ago and look at the results. They paid their European employees more money than they were earning working for Europeans, bought existing businesses (often using local capital), modernized them with new business practices, began an economic boom that has never stopped, and made Europeans so prosperous using new American technologies that democratic governments alone work. Trump most likely will not demand that Putin weaken his political power by bowing to the needs of multinational corporations for an open entrance into Russia especially when he can be sure that Putin will be ready and willing to satisfy quid pro guo a new American President’s own business needs. So with this scenario only petty deals will be made and the two powerful world leaders will feel secure managing both Russia and the United States as bull nations.

   Is it worth affirming that the United  States, Europe and Russia are great Christian enclaves and that, even if they contain millions of non-believers and non-Christians, they are joined already culturally? Is it worth noting that a real serious free democratic union between the three great powers would make wars between nations totally obsolete on our planet? Nations have no future in our postmodern world. They are dangerous. We don’t need them. We need instead peace and political union among states so we can start working together to prevent the destruction of our natural environment. Bull nations are obscene. Slick deals between their leaders stink.

   In 1962 an American president and a Russian leader made a deal that saved humanity from nuclear destruction. As a result both lost power back home in their bull nations. Khrushchev was isolated to retirement in a dacha and President Kennedy was assassinated. It takes guts to make deals that benefit humanity but they should be made. World leaders should all keep in mind the advice of the Roman historian Tacitus. Inter turbas et discordias pessimo cuique plurima vis, pax et quies bonis artibus indigent. “In times of angry mobs and civil dissention, extreme power finds its way into the hands of the worst men; in times of peace and tranquility men skilled in the art of goodness are necessary.”

Daniel McNeill

Read Daniel McNeill’s complete book, The United States of the World, 12 essays on American history, at: usoftheworld.com/history
The website of The United States of the World with other writings is: usoftheworld.com