George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Munroe or Abraham Lincoln would have committed suicide if they were born into the existing democratic United States, obviously for what it does under an unethical, unwise, and, indeed, more vainglorious and unintelligent President, who administers a despotic rule. It cannot boast of a culture of relating to people as people because they have an ancestry of Red Indian or Native Americans, the persecuted locals; the coloured, the exploited from Africa and mixed whites from European countries with lack of culture of concern for others beyond mere preaching. The United States stands as a country of violence against humanity with a contemptible attitude to people of smaller countries whom they attack. After John F. Kennedy, who was the President in the early sixties of the last century, it is only Barack Obama who showed a quality of leadership of concern for others in the last six decades. ‘Woe to the world’ is the title for the United States.
The eighty third Golden Globe Awards ceremony was conducted on 12 January 2026 at Beverly Hills in California. Oven Cooper was selected the best actor for his performance in the film ‘Adolescence’ and Rose Bern received the best actress award for her role in ‘If I Had Legs, I Would Kick You’. What surprised the whole world, while watching the ceremony, was the black and white lapel pins with ‘Be Good’ and ‘ICE Out’ printed on them. Actors and actresses like Mark Ruffalo, Wanda Sykes, Jean Smart and Tessa Thomson wore them as a campaign against US policies against immigrants and also other countries. Nothing more needs to be said to show that there are still some intelligent and thoughtful Americans who disapprove of the policies of the United States.
‘The United States is the role model for wealthy elites thriving at the expense of the majority’, said Noam Chomsky, the greatest intellectual of the second half of twentieth century, reflecting almost the same thoughts expressed by Bertrand Russell half a century earlier. Many other thinkers and writers have pointed an accusing finger at the human right violations that the United States has done not only on its own soil but also in several other weaker countries by attacking them and using exploitative methods simultaneously, destroying the freedom and comfort of the people of that country. The euphemistic objectives like intervention for humane purposes have always been for the benefit of the United States as can be seen in the present Venezuelan attack where the oil business of that country is taken over by companies from the United States, immediately after the attack on that country which was already in shambles caused by sanctions and economic disorders including corruption. The drug trafficking story is the usual one that the United States used against many other countries in the past.
The pertinent question is: Who, exactly, bestowed upon the United States the power to set right the so called ills of the other countries? If or when needed, only the United Nations can decide so. Many times, additionally, attacks are done to distract public opinion in the US by making other countries scapegoats. All such initiatives were illegal and against international laws. It is to be noted that the United States was attacking weaker nations which were not capable of defending themselves except in the case of Cuba under Fidel Castro which stood strong against possible US intervention. The fact also remains that the CIA, the strong secret service of the United States, tried sixty-eight times either directly or through agents to kill Fidel Castro and the man survived all that. Interestingly, it is to be noticed that one of the major demands that the US made to the acting president of Venezuela after the US attack was to stop supplying oil to Cuba, a country which depended on Venezuelan oil for the last seventy years.
What surprises many thinkers and political commentators is the condemnable and dismissive attitude of the US towards the European countries too. Denmark, who is the lawful governor of Greenland, is threatened by the US that they want to take over the small self governing state, Greenland. The most illogical reason given by the United States is that if it does not take over, Greenland may be taken over by China or Russia, an argument which has no sense at all or an argument which is equal to declaring that Canada could become the fifty first state of the United States.
What the United States follows is a near colonial aggression in a democratic world which has more than ninety countries other than the US which call themselves democratic countries. This indeed is a sign of welcoming the new age of empire building. The slogan is MAGA Make America Great Again, a symbol of arrogance which communicates that some time ago America was great which it lost, a condemnation for the previous presidents of the United States. The hypocrisy of this is easily understandable when America wants Iran to destroy its nuclear warheads, while America keeps its nuclear warheads. The arrogance is unforgivable, just as the Tariff War is. Perceivably this country does not speak about the accumulation of machinery and mechanisations of Israel as a country which has killed several lakhs of people since its existence.
The only way out from this American onslaught on smaller nations; as they did in Vietnam, Iraq, Libya, Nicaragua, Columbia directly and several other countries indirectly and also to stall the American propaganda of being the protector of democracies is to invest more into the United Nations which has to become a true democratic organisation. There is also a chance for starting an organisation which could stand against the attack of the United States with big countries like Russia and China and small countries like Cuba and South Africa. It is imperative that a maddened bull has to be controlled to save people from its violence.
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Prof. Sunney Tharappan, is Director of College for Leadership and HRD, Mangaluru. He trains and writes and lives in Mangaluru. Email: [email protected]