‘AmExit’ Leaves World a Vastly More Dangerous Place and Europe Must Step Up, Akunin Says

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Mar. 1 – People around the world and especially those who have been occupied or threatened by Russia in a vastly more dangerous place, one that means they will not have the US on their side and that they will thus not attend to what is going on in the US as they have in the past, Boris Akunin says.
    That is the pen name of a Georgian-Russian writer who lives in Britain, and his reflections on what this means are so powerful and succinct that they are worth being quoted in full and then reflected upon by all those affected which means by all of us because we are all going to have to live with them for some time to come.
Below is an informal translation of his words (t.me/EtoBorisAkunin/582 reposted at https://echofm.online/opinions/ameexit):
AmExit
We are accustomed to living in a world that is ruled or is trying to be ruled by America. This situation arose more than a century ago, when the idealist Woodrow Wilson first spoke about the interests not of his country, but of the whole world, and strengthened after 1945, when the United States led the world camp of democratic countries and its collective security.
Decade after decade, America has invested enormous effort and enormous amounts of money in its reputational capital and in ensuring global leadership. Not everything in these efforts, frankly speaking, was nice and altruistic, but there was a lot of good. Russia should be grateful to the States for helping the famine in the twenties and for Lendlease in the forties, Europe for the Marshall Plan, and there was a lot of other things. We remember; we appreciate.
For a hundred years, America was the most important, greatest country in the world. But now, it seems, this era is ending; and the Americans themselves are ending it, having elected a man with the slogan ‘America First’ as their president. The point is precisely this slogan, because the second one, ‘Make America Great Again,’ is just pablum for simple-minded rednecks.
‘America First’ and ‘MAGA’ represent two opposite vectors -- either greatness (and then you have to pay a tax on greatness) - or the priority of national interests (and then you don’t have to spend money on strangers).
Strangers are you and me. All we can do is say: “Goodbye, America. We weren’t very good with you, but it will be worse without you.” And then bravely sing I will survive.
Let's forget about America. She is no longer with us. That is, she, of course, will not go away, she will continue to put pressure on her with her political and economic interests, but not from above, but from somewhere on the side. We will soon cease to closely monitor American domestic politics, just as we do not closely monitor, say, Indian ones. This will cease to have a direct bearing on our lives - who has a majority in Congress and what kind of winds are blowing in Washington now. Well, they blow and let them blow.
As a result of the Trump turn, our lives will change. Much remains to be understood and realized, but some things are already beginning to become clear.
For example, it is clear that the global importance and global role of Europe is greatly increasing. Is she ready for such a burden, can she cope with it? That’s not clear yet.
There are several questions here.
Will European society learn from the mistakes of the American democratic establishment? Will we get rid of the excesses of leftism that irritate common sense and push voters to the right? Will European countries be able to go beyond national egoism and recognize themselves as a confederation united by a common political course?
More importantly: does Europe have the resolve to defend itself? Without an older brother, on your own? Is she capable of being firm and courageous? Will Europe show solidarity with Ukraine not in words, but in deeds - will it harness itself to the fullest, compensating for Amexit? After all, Ukraine is very close, from there you can hear screams of pain and sounds of explosions. And besides, the security of Ukraine is the security of Europe.
There can be only one slogan here: Make Europe Great. Without Again, because with great America, Europe was not great. Now you have to be.
And as for America, well, take the banjo and play a song of farewell for me.