DOES EARLY 2025 FEEL'S " UNHEIMLICH " ?

It is difficult to describe the mood in these first days of January 2025. Observers feel mostly lost in a labyrinth wherein there are more questions than answers.

Given the many unanswered, or better, the ever-evolving question marks and the actions of unpredictable agitators everywhere, there are no safety barriers available.

That the world took a rightward turn is undeniable. It is often overblown. The world has known similar, even worse cycles and was able to overcome them, albeit at an enormous cost.  The Ying and the Yang have their own cycles after all.

The upcoming Trump presidency freaks many people out. This president-elect is indeed a proven, often cunning dérangeur first. While he fits often in the "culture" of the punchline and counts his supporters, home and abroad, among the undesirables, his bluster is often overrated. He is more Nero than Caesar. At the end of the day, America's handrails will prove more shock resistant than he and the MAGA "sect" imagine. The sympathy he enjoys in some parts of the world rests often with his peers, who hold onto power at the cost of legitimacy. By the way, his selection of governmental associates in crime is hallucinating. Elon Musk's latest attack against the German chancellor and his embrace of the German ultra-right only feed "unease", mostly in the EU. Europeans might try to neutralize Trump through flattering his ego but they cannot compete with a MAGA court that counts more billionaires or opportunistic flatterers than  Europe (minus Russia). His cultural, anti-immigration, anti- Woke crusade will find followers everywhere, even in the EU's democratic heartland. The Italian PM is currently enjoying the lavish hospitality of the ogre in Mar a Lago.

Two years from now the American mid-term elections will be a good indicator of the durability of the "mad man strategy". Trump argues that his unpredictability is the cornerstone of his overall  success. He forgets, or better, is oblivious of the fact that the success stories of strategic diplomacy and peacemaking resulted from trust a la carte between often disagreeing parties.

History is not a popular topic with the A.I. generation. That is too bad since history teaches that brutalism doesn't last and that a bad cycle ends up exhausting itself. By the way, today one is confronted with even more ominous challenges like climate change, the disappearing act of mercy and tolerance, creeping civil and a-typical wars or le racisme nouveau under the form of le grand remplacement. These evils will outlive the aberrations of the new and not-so-new MAGA right. America's short history  is already is packed with freaks and gurus. One more will not make such a difference in the long run. The EU had better concentrate on its homegrown weaknesses since not doing so  will give Trump & Co. more arguments to start their own pathological war against all the EU stands for.

The current unheimliche Zeitgeist has mostly aggravating external causes but it must first be addressed by internal self- confident therapies. Mental exhaustion will take care of the rest. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken's last interview should be a "obligatory reading" for all who need a compass in these uncertain times. Heart and brains beat drones.