By LEONARDO BOFF*
“Making America Great Again” (MAGA) will never be achieved by the vicious, violent and humiliating methods that Trump is using, methods adopted by his entire administration.
As Deeds They speak of the first murder, that of Cain, who out of envy killed his brother Abel. The Lord asked Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” He replied, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” God said, “I hear the voice of your brother’s blood from the ground. Now you will be cursed by the ground itself, which swallowed up your brother’s blood that you shed” (Genesis, 4, 9-12).
There is a whole genealogy of Cains throughout history who murdered, beheaded and exterminated entire nations. Today humanity is witnessing the action of a descendant of Cain, Donald Trump. Few have defined the purpose of our Cain better than the Brazilian national/international journalist Jamil Chade, whose words resonated in a live in Germany. Jamil Chade states: “Donald Trump has already made it clear: he will not engage in diplomacy. He will act with force, both military and economic and commercial. His construction of a new order does not involve peace. But rather the surrender of the adversary.”
In fact, Donald Trump has turned the existing world order “governed by rules” (which were in the interests of the powerful) upside down, but which somehow maintained a certain balance/imbalance on the planet, dominated by speculative capital in the hands of a small group of billionaires.
In the dispute between unipolarity and multipolarity (Russia and China), he came out in full defense of the unipolarity of the United States: they want to be the only ones to dominate the world. To maintain their monopoly on power, they broke with allies, especially Europeans, and withdrew from almost all UN bodies. Perhaps most damagingly, the 2015 Paris Treaty, which provided for a collective effort to reduce greenhouse gases to stabilize the Earth at 1,5ºC above the industrial era by 2030. We have already surpassed this number and are close to 2ºC or more.
But what showed its character as a Cain of the Earth was being the only country to vote against the UN project against world hunger. It cut humanitarian aid, especially against hunger, such as USAIDS. In Africa, many children died of hunger. The suppression of voucher The food shortage in Bangladesh caused devastation among the poor population. He continued to support the genocide in Gaza, something that the genocidal Catholic former president Joe Biden had also done. More than fifteen thousand innocent people were victims of Israeli bombs. It is a crime against humanity that cries out to heaven. Donald Trump continues to support genocide.
In addition to imposing heavy tariffs on imports from all countries, whether friends or “enemies,” as of today (April 3), the US has closed the Department of Education, where the creative and critical spirit is formed, and has cut funding for health, scientific research and university subsidies. Its decrees override the law and the Constitution itself, which has already led to several lawsuits.
What is being done with the undocumented immigrants, deported, chained, by the thousands, with violence to their countries of origin, or what is worse to the Guantanamo prison, famous for its mistreatment and torture, or to the prisons of El Salvador under the tyrant president Nayb Bukele, a notorious violator of human rights, with torture and murders in the prisons.
Peace is imposed by force, which means violent pacification. Diplomacy and eventual dialogue are just a ploy to impose one's will. As I said, depending on the country, it conducts dialogue with a revolver on the table. It speaks loudly and shoutingly to the weak, quietly and meekly to the strong. The only powers it respects, because they limit its hegemonic purposes, are China and Russia.
“Making America Great Again” (MAGA) or “America First” (understood as “America Only”) will never be achieved by the vicious, violent and humiliating methods he is using, methods adopted by his entire administration. When has history shown that violent methods create lasting peace? Only peaceful methods create peace. Peace is both an end and a means.
It is not unlikely that in order to defeat China, which has already surpassed the United States in many aspects, it will use nuclear weapons. The hunger for power is insatiable and, deep down, when a power feels it is about to be surpassed, it launches a suicidal war, which would mean an incalculable disaster for the biosphere and for the survival of the human species. This would consume the Cain-like character of Donald Trump, an evil angel of death and those who advise him. Thus the words of the Writing Instruments: “I hear from the earth the voice of the blood of your brothers. Now you will be cursed by the earth itself, which swallowed the blood of your brothers spilled by you, Cain (genesis, 4, 9-12).
May the Lord of time and history free us from such a misfortune, committed by a modern Cain, enemy of life.
*Leonardo Boff is an ecologist, philosopher and writer. Author, among other books, of Caring for our common home: clues to delay the end of the world (Vozes). [https://amzn.to/3zR83dw]
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