The Reluctant Superhero.

"You are not a drop in the ocean, you are the ocean in a drop." ~ Rumi

Photo by ‪Salah Darwish on Unsplash

Perhaps for the first time in world history, a reluctant superhero has emerged, one possessing a profound power over the reigning global superpower—the US. 

Iran, a nation often shrouded in mystery, has been violently thrust onto the world stage. 

Inadvertently victimized for minding their own business, Iran has focused on governing its ancient civilizational state. While Western powers condemn its alliances in the region as destabilizing, Tehran views them as a necessary defense against encirclement by hostile forces.

Devoted to their faith, they live according to the Shia principles of Islam, which honor divinely ordained successors to the Prophet. Intent on preserving this identity, the Iranian people have continued their millennia-long pursuit of scholarship in the arts and sciences. Persian art and science flourished especially in the 'Islamic Golden Age' where Persian scholars formed the core of intellectual activity. 

Let it be said that no nation is without its sins, and Iran is no exception. The West rightly points to the difficult struggle for greater freedoms within its borders, particularly the plight of its women. These are real and painful struggles. However, this internal push for social evolution is now dwarfed by an external threat of total annihilation. When a nation is shattered by invasion and its economy is driven into ruin, what becomes of women's rights? The question answers itself in the grim realities of Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan. In the rubble of failed states, there are no rights, only a desperate scramble for survival. The societal fabric required for any progress is utterly annihilated.

It is perhaps the ultimate testimony to Iran's civilizational depth - a form of resolute, ancient patience, that it can contain its own internal contradictions while meeting the existential threat from the world's greatest military powers with such calculated calm. 

This is the wisdom of a people who think in millennia, not in election cycles.

The official justification for the attack was Iran's alleged pursuit of a nuclear bomb - a charge Tehran has consistently denied. For years, Iran has pointed to a religious 'fatwa' forbidding such weapons and to the IAEA's own reports which, prior to the US abandoning the JCPOA, confirmed its compliance.

Now, cornered into a war they long saw as inevitable, they have endured unimaginable suffering. Their Supreme Leader was killed, their cities bombed, their children martyred. Yet, through this, we see a form of poetic justice. By demonstrating its unyielding control over the Strait of Hormuz—the artery of the global economy—Iran holds a lever over the world.

A sustained closure would force the US and its allies to the negotiating table, not as masters, but as equals. This signals a seismic shift in global power, the definitive end of American hegemony in the Middle East, and a humbling lesson for a superpower intoxicated by its own hubris. 

It is the dawn of a new, multipolar world, born from the pain, patience, and resolve of a reluctant hero that was forced to fight. 

Americans

Image by PineForest & AI

If one were to use just one word to describe Americans, it would be talent. 

That ineffable ability to astonish, entrance, enchant, entertain, excite, and amuse audiences globally and God knows where else.

Americans, having evolved from what is arguably the world’s largest human laboratory, have shown us what humans are capable of: not only in the creation of stories and myths across print, film, digital, and live formats, but in the advancement of technologies that allow us to actively participate in those stories rather than merely spectate. And we are still only at the beginning of this unfolding.

Yet, among a nation so rich in talent, how did they end up being ruled by the least talented of them?

Or is he?

One simplistic way to look at it is this: there is no universal yardstick for talent. It is notoriously hard to define, and it is often said that everyone is talented in some way.

Donald Trump has audacity and ambition, fuelled by an unrelenting will and determination to win. That, in itself, is a form of talent. Is it not?

Hard work often masquerades as talent.

Besides, who wakes up one morning, decides he wants to be President of the United States, and then becomes one - not once, but twice? Like the frog who dreamt he’d be king and then became one. It happens. Or so it seems.

But let us ask a simpler question: is Donald J. Trump really happy, healthy, and enjoying every moment of his life? Maybe. Maybe not. Based on observation alone, he neither looks nor sounds particularly happy or healthy, nor as though he is enjoying himself at all. How could anyone be, whose daily mission appears to be hurling insults and making enemies of virtually everyone?

So what is he getting out of this - apart from money?

How much money is worth the daily physical, mental, and emotional assault on one’s senses—and on ours?

What gets him out of bed every morning and back into it every night?

How does he cope with the pressures of the job while simultaneously being a husband, a father, a man, a human being and a deeply polarising figure? How does his mind operate? What compels a sitting president to effectively tell the member nations of the UN General Assembly to go to hell?

Power.

He believes the United States is the most powerful nation on Earth; and he lacks the vocabulary, or perhaps the inclination, to say it in softer terms. The kind the left, and much of the rest of the world, have grown accustomed to.

“Nice words are not truthful. Truthful words are not nice.”

~ Tao Te Ching

At least this lesser-talented American is upfront about his excesses, his transgressions, and his appetites for power. American politicians have acted with impunity for decades. The difference now is that this reality is visible to more people around the world.

The best actors are among the most talented people on Earth. They can continue performing convincingly, protected by how persuasive their acting is. Donald J. Trump, however, seems to be cracking on openly - creating headlines, enemies, and spectacles in equal measure. Perhaps he is talented after all. Perhaps he is simply a different kind of actor.

Best or worst, it is still acting to a familiar script; one handed down from previous presidents, played out like well-worn Hollywood blockbuster sequels that refuse to die.

America is no danger to the world.

But the world may yet become a danger to America if this man persists in pursuing a personal, divisive agenda that confuses power with purpose and spectacle with leadership.

Mid-Year Stock Take - Letter to Jon at 35

Mushroom cloud over Nagasaki 9 Aug.1945

 

Dear Jon,

Here we are, just breaching the second half of the 25th year of the 21st century. Also breaching the 35th year of your birth to your departure on August 9th. 

Admittedly, I have discovered more things about today as time progresses. It's perhaps of our fixation on birthdays that we overlook departure days. It has taken me nineteen years to realise more facts about August 9;

Apart from being Singapore's national day, and that it's exactly two weeks or 15 days after your birthday, 

it was also the devastation of Nagasaki when the US dropped a second nuclear bomb to unofficially and brutally end the war.

 It’s been a year since I last shared endings and beginnings with you. It was the beginning of the 2024 Paris Olympics ending around your departure date leaving the world relatively safe and peaceful. 

Fast forward one year, this post is a sort of report card of where the human race is at. 

1. The human race has never been so comfortable, peaceful and empowered in their daily lives. 

2. Things could get worse. 

3. Things could get really bad. 

We live in a material world. We do all that matters in search of better lives chasing dreams in a society that has provided the best in healthcare, food, living conveniences, economic and technological advances are unprecedented yet we’re on the verge of self- destruction. 

There is a serious trust deficit growing amongst us since the end of the cold war. From relationships to families, communities and nations. Most people in the civilised world are living ultra comfortable lives yet not happier but more anxious desiring more of everything material that we think will make us happier. Be it entertainment, food, sex, possessions or anything that provides distractions from ourselves. 

The endless scrolling of screens be it the mobile devices as an extension of our hands or the large screens as extensions of our living rooms, searching for news and useless information so we can feel-better. That’s not what happiness looks like.

As if not serious enough, we are heralding the dawn of Ai, arguably mankind's greatest technological achievement, coming into the mix. Although the possibilities are positively game changing, the dangers of misuse by bad actors using Ai to plot world domination, loom ominous. 

Not withstanding Ai, the madness is already upon us. Israel is carrying out a systemic genocide on the Palestinians since October 2023. As if mad with bloodlust they have started wars with Iran, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen with the aid of their lackey the US and no end in sight.. 

It is a slow and painful genocide in Palestine. The Israelis are deliberately starving women & children and mindless wars are being waged in the Middle East that could escalate into another nuclear third world war. 

One would think that after Hitler’s Germany, Mussolini’s Italy & the Japanese defeat in the Second World War would have taught us the futility of war but apparently not. It has been exactly 80 years since the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuked by the US ending the war but more wars are being waged around the world today instigated or led by the US. 

Isn’t it ironic, that the liberators of the free world from the horrors of the Second World War has been the sole peddler of wars ever since? It seems that the most powerful nation on earth is hell bent on destroying it. America has been entrusted to lead and police the world and they have done so with impunity. The age old adage still rings true; 'Who is going to police the police?'

These realities come to light when Donald Trump won a second term in the White House. A convicted felon managed to win a landslide victory beating the democrats whose last term was disastrous even irresponsible. Democrats or Republicans, America's politics have, from the onset, been divisive- "Either you're on my side or you're against me." This is nothing new as Americans have subscribed even invented this form of 'game theory' for decades against it's own people as well as the rest of the world. The world's largest human lab has in turn, turned the world into it's own human lab- bringing it's own ideology of governance or justice to all, inflicting chaos and destruction everywhere they choose. The only diplomacy they know is through force or coercion. Donald Trump is no different from his predecessors. 

"When all you have is a hammer, every challenge you face becomes a nail to be hammered out."

The only difference is that Trump is not a career politician but a 'businessman' and hopefully he can begin to see that business can only be done with mutual transfer of value benefitting both sides leading to a multi-lateral world, not one of domination by a facist regime. In fact, America is known to be a plutocracy (ruled by the rich 1%) or even kleptocracy (ruled by thieves) and the only reason they can be that is that they wield the biggest hammer. 

However, with the inevitable rise of China after a century of humiliation, there is a new world leader in the making. Compared to four thousand years of civilisation, it took only a century of humiliation to put order to the chaos largely brought upon themselves, tranquilised by the comforts of the spoils of internal warfare and imperial rule handed down through the dynasties. Starting with the end of the Qing Dynasty, China bade farewell to it's last emperor Puyi and the Chinese Communist Party won complete victory in the Chinese Civil War and the People's Republic of China was founded in August 1950. 

So in a sort of a roundabout way, I have briefly but more importantly recounted the journey and establishment of a world power worthy and capable of standing up to the US in the delicate balance of power as to who holds the bigger hammer, be it in military strength or Ai advancement to rule the world. 

I often wonder what we wouldn't talk about son.

Happy 35th Birthday Jon.