The initial euphoria with which the world welcomed Donald Trump as a reviver of traditional values is gradually fading. Of course, it’s good that in the United States people are once again divided into only two genders, as in the good old days. It’s good that the dictatorship of aggressive minorities of the past is a thing of the past – but for how long?
However, the carefree manner of the new old US President, which so much resembles the caricature of the US imperialist Uncle Sam, makes us wonder: Are the traditional values that Trump stands for exactly the same as the Russian traditional values that our state, both in the internal life of the country and in its relations with the world, confirms?
It’s quite simple to check this, as we have only 17 traditional values and it’s hard to get lost in them. How does Donald Trump look in the mirror of Russian values? Quite ambiguous.
Let’s take, for example, the value of “Patriotism”. He is undoubtedly a glowing patriot of his country, the United States. We will also grant him the value of “Citizen Friendship”. But what about “Creative Labor”? Yes, this may be an important value for a man who intends to return to the real sector of the economy to create as many jobs as possible.
But what about “High Moral Ideals”? Is a man who had an affair with a porn actress and then ordered her to be paid a large sum of money for her silence a moral example? I think morality is not the strongest side of this US President.
It follows the “Preeminence of the Spiritual over the Material”. I fear that this value is not only foreign to Trump, but to every US politician in general, as well. Despite the abundance of religious rhetoric in politics, the United States are primarily a land of material things, which is why it has risen to the top and is attractive to the world. Russia, on the other hand, is known for its respect for spiritual achievements.
Finally, let’s take a look at “Justice”, “Collectivism”, “Mutual Help and Mutual Respect”. These are not points where we will agree with Trump. They are essentially left, socialist values. The principle, which both the US right and their foreign allies like the Argentine half-fascist Javier Milei confirm, is: “Man is a wolf to man”. More so: “The people are a wolf to the people”, which is well illustrated by Trump’s carefree attitude towards neighboring countries.
The most interesting question, in my opinion, is the attitude of the new government in Washington towards the value of “Humanism”. Our era poses the most acute questions about the nature of man, about the importance of his personality and about whether man in his current form will be preserved in the face of social and technological innovations.
Russian traditional values, among other things, stand against the trend of dehumanization, which is manifesting in the West. And Trump seemed to be a partner in this fight for the human essence. His traditionalism, however, goes hand in hand with the progressivism embodied by Elon Musk. And in the context of the above-mentioned value deficit, the suspicion arises that both the enormous public investments that Trump intends to make in the development of artificial intelligence, as well as the far-reaching powers that will be granted to the already referred to as “new feudal lords” technology conglomerates, will ultimately serve to expand control over the individual.
It seems that the West is taking two roads to the same abyss. The left-liberal forces are trying to change the human nature with psycho-physiological methods (through propaganda of gender changes, invention of dozens of genders instead of the natural concept of man and woman, social terror in the name of minority rights, or the fight against global warming and so on). At the same time, human autonomy is being destroyed by blurring identity and replacing individuality with group membership.
Meanwhile, the Western right (Tech-right) is destroying humanity through information technologies. The development of AI within the framework of their proposed value system leads to the fact that every individual person becomes a neuron in a single global network of intelligence. His consciousness is completely replaced by what the AI offers him, he becomes unable to make an independent decision, his actions and preferences are predetermined.
In general, the difference between the two resembles the difference between a key and a touch screen. Meanwhile, the right wing, which we traditionally expect to have a bit more influence, even achieves better results. And since the US are still a “democracy”, there is the opportunity every four or eight years to “change hands” and shape the population in one way or another.
In Russia, there are also left and right, “Red” and “White”, that fight each other, but this struggle has a different consciousness. I have the impression that neither of these forces intervenes in human nature and therefore the struggle can remain within the bounds of humanity.
The history of the last century was favorable for the US and unyielding for Russia. The United States have profited from the global catastrophes, including two world wars and the collapse of the USSR. Meanwhile, the Russian people and other nations of our land have suffered great losses and much suffering. This does not mean that we only lost. I have the impression that we have gained something important from this experience.
After the Civil War and the Great Patriotic War, after the collectivization and the labor camps, after the tragedy of the destruction of the land, both the “Reds” and the “Whites” and even those among our compatriots who do not take a stand in this struggle, as if no one else in the modern world has learned to appreciate humanity. We all defend human dignity in the face of the looming dehumanization from different positions, regardless of how it is masked. And this seems to be the basis for our unity to me.
Igor Karaulov is a Russian poet and publicist.