Deciphering Chaos: A Unipolar World to Multipolar World

To many people in America and around the world, the new Trump administration has been a literal shock to the system. One minute bringing amazingly talented people into the administration like Bissent, Rubio, Waltz, Keith Kellogg & many brilliant Wall Street and Silicon Valley individuals like Lutnick, Feinberg, Kupor and Krishnan. Even the talented but horrific Elon Musk. And then the next minute, there are the appointments of complete wackjobs like Kesh Patel, Tulsi Gabbard, Hegseth & RFK Jr. It’s so bizarre. 

Then hitting out at firm allies like Denmark, Canada, and at least somewhat ally’s like Panama and Mexico. Albeit I understand the focus on Panama and Mexico, who are frankly in bed with the CCP. It’s been so nutty and everyone is trying to keep up and figure out what is going on. 

BUT most shocking to many of us is the hatred and disrespect to Ukraine and President Zelensky particularly. Pushing for a blatantly one sided deal on minerals. Calling Zelensky a dictator, and the bizarre public dressing down of Zelensky at the White House on Feb 28th. The bullying. Both sides lost here. And as Quintus Curtius said: “It's Amateur Hour. You never air your disagreements in public. You never fight in public. Why? Because it makes both of you look like losers and pudwacks. This whole scene is cringe beyond belief.” I’ve spent most of March trying to make sense and process all of this. 

This was a wake up call for everyone. Our enemies are laughing as our allies around the world begin to rightfully question American commitments. I keep writing that the world has changed. Yet so few people have taken action. 3 years into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, most of the European Union has not ramped up defense spending, built up their defense industrial base or militaries nor inflicted the harshest possible sanctions on Russia. Despite a larger population and wealthier economy, with the EU being 9 times larger than the Russian economy and 3X the population of Russia. European leaders (Canada too), full of half measures with a lot of virtue signaling, platitudes and talk, while leaning very heavily on America to lead and do the hard work. 

Unfortunately for the world, America, the benign power is gone, or at least the pretense of one. Here is the transactional giant. A gangster of capitalism. One that doesn’t pretend about a “Rules based order”, honorable goals and a better world. Only a better world for America. America First, where everything is transactional.

Noah Smith describes this very well in his newsletter: "But Trump’s treatment of Zelensky, and his tolerance of Putin’s invasion, also illustrate a deeper and more important shift. America’s foreign policy is now fundamentally extractive, focused on forcing weaker countries into making economic concessions. Trump’s insistence that Ukraine surrender mineral rights to the U.S. in exchange for aid was the traditional action of a Great Power extracting value from a client state — the same type of thing the USSR did to the Warsaw Pact nations during the Cold War. 

For eight decades after World War 2, the U.S. defended the postwar geopolitical and economic order based on norms. That’s gone now. Under Trump, America acts like a gangster demanding protection money. In any case, America’s abrupt turn from moral beacon and defender of the free world is unsurprising, given the fundamental immorality of the Trump administration. If you have the morality of a gangster, you will behave like a gangster." 

I don’t like this at all but here we are. America, the unpredictable, as Morgoth writes beautifully: “America’s rivals do not know whether they’re going to get a sweet pipeline deal, tariff slap, a barrage of ATACMS, or a gay pride parade from the increasingly schizophrenic hegemon."

Living in a Kleptocratic America is also going to become even tougher and meaner.

This Tweet by @vylpill stuck with me: “American life is brutal because you have to be above average to be average. You have to be successful just to get by. Everywhere else you just have to be normal and you're set: you'll have a job, house, wife, etc. In America to get that you basically need to go ubermensch.” 

Europe better wake up or they will get eaten. Small countries like Taiwan also better wake up and arm up. No one is coming to save you. So be prepared to save yourself, your family and your tribe. The Unipolar world is GONE. Globalization as we know it is over. Reality is painful and harsh. 

If you have not internalized the lessons of Game of Thrones, now would be a good time to do so. The world is gonna be much tougher and meaner. Social darwinism rearing its ugly head again. Every country and every individual needs to get sharper, stronger and tougher. Realpolitik is here. In this new world order, the ends justify the means. So steel your heart for what is coming. Ruthlessness is a must if you want to make it through the rest of this decade. It is the time of the beast. 

I will end this with an apt quote from the movie "Fury":"Ideals are peaceful, history is violent."