"When a man unprincipled in private life, desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper, possessed of considerable talents, having the advantage of military habits—despotic in his ordinary demeanour—known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty—when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity—to join in the cry of danger to liberty—to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government & bringing it under suspicion—to flatter and fall in with all the nonsense of the zealots of the day—It may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.”
-- Alexander Hamilton, 1792
How little of that describes the Dumpster child as he has all of the vices but none of the talents Hamilton described....
Man, as in human, has tried to govern itself using differing ideologies. Chiefs, Monarchy's, dictatorships, democracy's, authoritarian, feudal, theocratic societies etc. Capitalism, Socialism and Communism were also variants employed by the various ideologies to varying degrees.
Communism is a failed ideology.
Capitalism is a failing ideology. as consumer driven globalisation is failing. We are living the end game.
What does the end of democratic Capitalism look like? It's when government stops representing peoples interest in favour of business interest. When businesses are enabled to have rights, voting rights or the ability to influence outcomes. Corruption of public representatives. Plus the fact that a consumer driven society in a finite world is not sustainable.
It was bound to happen, just another failed human ideology. We will work out something different and BRICS seems to be the vehicle of change.
Socialism looks after the most vulnerable and gives us National Parks, recreation areas, library's and museums. But it also allows Capitalist enterprise, the chance to get ahead which drives innovation, the major flaw of Communism, not rewarding initiative/ innovation. Communism treated all the same which sounds nice but doesn't work.
I like socialism as it is the middle ground between Communism and Capitalism, adopting the best features of both whilst rejecting the worse.
So to stop dribbling, Trump is a symptom of Capitalism's end game. If not him, a personality like him would have risen to the top of the shit heap. One with delusions of grandeur with fascist tendencies.
Actually, dictatorships are as old as the hills. Trumpty Dumpty is a throwback, a dinosaur.
And I would not characterize the USA or any of our developed allies as a "shit heap." Self-rule is a relatively new thing, and so far, it has been wildly successful. Witness the expanding human population, and the doubling of the average human lifespan over the last 100 years.
If you are so unhappy with your lot in life, I recommend you seek professional help.
@Flyingsaucesir I meant shit heap as the human shit pile. Our societies have become decadent and hooked on war. We have seen this before when empires, not the USA but Western European colonisers, us whities, and the nations their colonisation formed. The Western Empire, that is the one that is descending. The Romans descended into orgies and circuses. Well, we have opened up sexuality to "anything goes" and "shock and awe" festivities ourselves. Past our prime, decending into shitheapism.
So glad I grew up in our Western societies prime, late sixties early 70's hippy prime imho. I'm quite happy with life thanks for being concerned. Not into therapy in Oz, we go to a pub.
@puff Well put Andrew