NOTHING truly fundamental has changed in humanity. Sure, we traded skins for suits and spears for smart bombs but at our core we have remained largely the same, especially when it comes to the dynamics of power, arrogance and empire.

There is nothing new under the sun; watching the Trump administration, flushed with victory after its kidnapping of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduros, exult in the admittedly unmatched military might of the US army, one cannot help but recall what Thucydides wrote in the Melian dialogues some 2,500 years ago. Speaking from the perspective of the arrogant Athenians as they threatened the small island of Melos: “the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.” Considered the cornerstone of ‘political realism’ the quote encapsulates the mood prevailing in Washington, D.C., where power is the ultimate arbiter and appealing to morality, norms and law (as the Melians did) is to be despised and mocked. The ultimate arbiter of what is right and moral is now the US president himself, and only him. “The only thing that can stop me is … my own morality. My own mind,” says Trump. This is instructive, given the state of both his morals and his mind. But while we can be appalled, perhaps even a bit terrified........

© Dawn