AT PENPOINT
US President Donald Trump may think that by preventing immigrants from entering the USA, he is making the country safe, but he may be creating the circumstances where the USA is unable to maintain its lead in cutting-edge technologies which have so far enabled it to dominate the world.
It might seem a far leap, but Trump’s refusal to do anything about the climate change crisis, indeed to accept that it is occurring, is a sign that the USA (and the rest of the West) is moving from what historian Arnold J. Toynbee called a ‘creative minority’ into a ‘dominant minority.’
Toynbee, in his monumental A Study of History, explained how a ‘creative minority’ solved problems. Examples include the leaders of decolonization movements and the codifiers of the Peace of Westphalia (which created the concept of nationalism).It is a small group of individuals within a larger society who respond to challenges with innovation, driving progress and evolution.
It should be noted that Toynbee saw civilizations as the proper units of study, and saw a single Western civilization, composed of various states. Therefore, a creative minority does not exist within a state alone, but the states are that creative minority. However, the movement is towards becoming a dominant minority, which dominates the state by virtue of its economic and military power. States can become part of a dominant minority too.
A creative minority would find some solution to the climate change problem. It might involve using that very tool that has thus far guaranteed its dominance in the world, technology. Trump is trying to defend US superiority in technology, but the best he can do with the climate change problem is to pretend it isn’t there. US superiority is maintained by sheer brute force, not so much of its personnel, as of its machines.
This has led to the plea that the USA is no longer upholding its core values, but imposing its will. Actually, the white majority Trump represents subdued the USA by force, killing off the Native Americans and enslaving the African Americans.
Trump’s ban on migration would mean that he is trying to establish what Toynbee called a limes, or military frontier, in place of a limites, which is a more permeable border. Toynbee got these concepts from Roman history (he was basically a Romanist by training). A civilization, he postulated, would have a limites, where it gradually tailed off, and even beyond the political boundaries,its influence would continue. As today you can get a Big Mac at many places in Pakistan’s major cities. It’s probably deeper now than in Roman times, when you can at best get clothes or wine; you can stream American TV over the internet.
Trump might think that closing US borders to all countries, especially those which send non-whites to the USA, might be sound policy. However, while such racism might appeal to some of his supporters, it will end by impoverishing the USA, which has so far only benefited from the talent that has been brought in.
The limites however, marked the end of civilization. Beyond were barbarians, who wanted to enjoy the benefits and comforts of civilization. They could come over freely, and settle within the empire. They were not really encouraged, nor were they helped, and they were left to fend for themselves. It could be barbarians trying to get into the Roman Empire, Hittites trying to get into pharaonic Egypt, or Mongols trying to get first into China and then into Persia. That was when empires felt it necessary to establish a limes, a military frontier, which they controlled.
The West is experiencing this. There was a time when it was possible for anyone to travel anywhere. The restriction came from people not having the fare, the gumption to get a passport, but most of all, the lack of inclination. However, now the desire to go to the West has led people to trust human smugglers, to use any means necessary, with some torturous (and dangerous) routes used.
The USA has not exactly established a military frontier, and both its land borders are still relatively open. However, its sea and air boundaries are now much more controlled. The military is not used, though it has a specialized agency for the job. It is interesting that Trump’s grandparents, all four of them, were able to migrate to the USA from Germany, but some distant ancestor, about 1800 years ago, could not cross from the wilds of Germania into the civilized space of the Pax Romana. It is almost as if he is taking revenge for that ancient rejection.
The criterion he set for re-examining both residency (green cards) and naturalization (citizenship) are interesting: security risks, threats to law and order, and incompatibility with Western civilization. All three terms are crying out for definition. It is especially interesting to see how Trump dealt with campus protests against Gaza, where his administration deported green-card holders for protesting against Israeli massacres of Palestinians.
However, the most contentious of these terms is Western civilization One is reminded of how Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was radicalized in South Africa: he was dressed in European clothes, as befitted a qualified barrister, yet he was thrown out of his first-class compartment on a train onto a railway platform. After a struggle, he won the right of ‘coloureds and Indians’ to travel first-class if they were dressed in European clothes. One is also reminded of the French colonial regulation who were granted the right to vote if they wore European dress.
Will Trump insist on Western dress? That they eschew their native language? Or will European languages be acceptable? Knowing Trump, it will probably include Zionism. Why should support for Israel, and for its slaughter of Gazan babies, be part of Western civilization? Especially since Western civilization was until recently Christian civilization, and that in turn until a century ago conducted pogroms.
Trump may have a thing for Zionists, and thus for Israel, because he has a Jewish son-in-law, and because of the Zionists who support him, but another section of his support base consists of neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klanners, who are anti-Jewish as well as anti-Black. They were represented within the administration by Elon Musk and his rather inept Nazi salute, He has left, but they haven’t. For them, Western civilization is white as well as Christian.
Trump is repeating an anti-immigrant trope that resents anyone who is not a WASP, or White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Though the Irish are white, they are overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, which led to their being resented in the 19th century when large numbers migrated after the Irish famine. Then there was the Yellow Peril scare around the beginning of the 20th century.
Trump should notice that each of the once resented groups has had a shot at the Presidency. John F. Kennedy was the first Irish-American and Roman Catholic President. Barack Obama was the first Black American. The nearest Asian Americans have had to a president has been Andrew Yang, who ran for the Democratic nomination in 2020.
Rome had also tried Emperors of ancestry of former subject peoples, From the Spaniards Trajan and Hadrian in the 1st century, there later were Maximinus Thrax (the Thracian), Philip the Arab and Claudius Gothicus (the Goth).
The most formidable barbarian leaders were those who had some knowledge of Roman ways. Alaric the Goth, who carried out the first sack of Rome since 390 BC, in 410, had actually served in the Roman Army. Trump has a point in fearing migrants, especially now that they serve in its military in large numbers, with military service a shortcut to citizenship.
Trump might think that closing US borders to all countries, especially those which send non-whites to the USA, might be sound policy. However, while such racism might appeal to some of his supporters, it will end by impoverishing the USA, which has so far only benefited from the talent that has been brought in.
