Last June, an unprecedented military parade took place in Washington, DC, officially to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the creation of the United States army (and, more or less unofficially, to celebrate the 79th birthday of Trump, eager to emulate his admirers Putin and Kim Jong-un). American journalist and academic Linda Kinstler wrote that, as she watched the tanks pass by, she thought of "Chekhov's gun," the principle that says that, in a play, a gun that appears in the first act must be fired in the third act. She said: "When you watch a military parade, you must ask yourself when and where lethal weapons will be deployed, in whose name and for what cause."
We should keep this in mind when assessing the absurd (and criminal) rearmament race that NATO is demanding from Europeans, many of whom don't know how to get out of this commitment: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wants the construction of the bridge over the SS to count as military spending and help reach the ridiculous 5% figure. Has anyone said exactly why we Europeans should rearm? Perhaps to confront Putin, that is, the very dictator to whom Trump is willing to concede a substantial part of Ukraine and let him win the war (believing that this will favor him in his competition for the Nobel Peace Prize, a race he maintains against the ghost of Barack Obama, his great mistress).
Unfortunately, we are seeing how the appeal to "defend itself" has led Israel, a state that was created to host a persecuted people, to commit the atrocious genocide against the Palestinians, without anyone, inside or outside Israel, seeming capable of stopping Ben's feet, a headlong flight without limits and without brakes that allows him to escape his legal problems. Perhaps this is the most shocking aspect, and the one that creates the most perplexity and disappointment, of the current political moment: can we understand that Putin in Russia or Xi in China have no opposition, given their repressive and dictatorial policies, but why in countries with a strong democratic tradition, like the United States, no one seems capable of stopping the apprentice dictators?
I was thinking while reading, Right here, the article by Francesc Torres, an artist intimately linked to New York—he's lived in the city for half a century, is an American citizen, and his wife is a Brooklyn native—and yet he's considering leaving the country, as other artists, intellectuals, and academics have done. A country heading toward an authoritarian system with, apparently, almost no one in a position to stop Trump. Where is that powerful and articulate civil society? Where is that America that led the greatest struggle for civil rights, for women's rights, for gay rights? Why are universities bowing to the demands of a satrap who hasn't read a book in the last twenty years? Trump's swashbuckling entrance into his second presidency seems to have knocked out the opposition. And, by forced marches, he's making the country less attractive.
So why is Europe, the Europe that grovels at its feet on a British golf course (just look at the helplessness reflected on Ursula von der Leyen's pathetic face), unable to react? Why do democratic societies today, which are in no way comparable to those of the 1930s, seem helpless in the face of the rise of demagogues? Didn't we have the best-prepared generations in history? Aren't we freer, more well-off, and more cultured than ever? Why have we fallen into the trap of "illiteracy," when we had everything to produce free and well-informed citizens? I still refuse to believe that it all boils down to us being a flock of sheep abducted by the disinformation on social media, but I think this is getting closer and closer to explaining what's happening to us.
And the worst part is that, as happened a few years ago with the euro crisis, the diagnosis has been made. Europe cannot be a half-way Union, a club of states lacking a common fiscal policy, foreign policy, or army. This is perfectly established. So why are we incapable of strengthening Europe? The Swiss, a far-sighted people by nature, say that "it's only when the sun shines that the roof needs fixing." The roof is very hard to fix, in the middle of a storm. But I don't know if we can wait for the bonanza to return. Meanwhile, the question persists, and it is urgent: if we know the solution, why don't we act?
