The reelection of Donald Trump as the leader of the world’s foremost power demonstrates that the authoritarian trend across the globe is not a fleeting, circumstantial anomaly that can be resolved with a handful of reforms. This trend reflects a boundless blindness that accompanies the desire to reinforce or redraw borders.
The real estate magnate may well erect economic and migratory barriers, but his attempts to isolate the United States from an inescapable reality will remain in vain. This reality is one of a world driven by economic exchanges and the associated competition—a world that is becoming increasingly digitalized, in which the United States is but one power among many.
That three of the world’s wealthiest men (E. Musk, J. Bezos, and M. Zuckerberg) align themselves as vassals of D. Trump, and that these men lead high-tech companies, illustrates how entrepreneurs can submit to their own idealizations of control. These idealizations are understandable, given that each has succeeded in building a global organization that influences economic and political dynamics. Yet, as vast and opulent as these companies may be, they remain mortal, much like civilizations locked in competition for limited resources.
Is it not partly to stave off vainly a competition that threatens their dominance that major entrepreneurs support authoritarian policies? The structural competition of market economies and nations, combined with digitalization and global inequalities, generates a form of social chaos instead of the harmony envisioned by Adam Smith. The prevailing authoritarianism is an illusory attempt to maintain a sense of control amidst this chaos, to sustain the ideal of Western domination, which is gradually fracturing.
In this 21st century, once again, we are left with little choice, politically and economically, but between competition and domination.