“Traditional democracies will end up on the garbage heap of history” – Alberto Fujimori, 1938-2024, Peruvian President, 1998, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ, p 37.

I started the VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS in 1965 and got it published in 2007 – 42 years after. The first quote which caught my attention was by Dr Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784, “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.” It upended everything Nigeria had taught me about being a loyal citizen. I was launched on an adventure.

Fujimori was elected President of Peru, became a dictator and uttered the statement above about a week after my escape from death in Abacha’s detention. As a life-long believer in democracy, and suffering for that belief, I found the utterance repulsive. I debated with myself whether or not to include it in the book. Two decision rules compelled me to retain it. One, intellectual honesty demands that the researcher should include all the evidence available with regards to an idea – those in support and those against.

Two, a quick look around the world in 1998 revealed that democracies too often degenerated to dictatorships instead of the other way around. Maybe Fujimori was right. The USA provided me the assurance that democracy had a chance in the world. The USA and Trump have extinguished any hope for democracy in the world in my life time. Just look around and count. America, land of the brave and home of the free, voted in November 2024 to surrender both its bravery and its freedom.

Democracy died in the US – hitherto its strongest and most vocal defender (though damned hypocritical) when the people in a nation, whose people were always regarded as intelligent, voted for a presidential candidate who openly announced that he will be a dictator if elected. Because, as Joseph De Maistre, 1753-1821, warned mankind about two hundred years ago, “Every country has the government it deserves.”

Americans, including Leon Musk, who have lost trillion dollars of their wealth in the last month and a half, have only themselves to blame for whatever befalls them. Certainly, their losses are just starting. The most obvious is financial. Staggering as that might be, right now, unfortunately, more wealth is destined to be wiped out. Leon Musk, one of the architects of the American tragedy, has lost $100 billion of his fortune within weeks. Nothing can save him from losing more. On the aggregate, most billionaires worldwide, irrespective of nationalities, are also destined to share in the financial catastrophe which one man’s election in a democracy would have unleashed on our planet and outer space. 

MONEY IS NOT EVERYTHING

“Money makes everything legitimate – including bastards” – Jewish Proverb.

“Money! Money! How much sorrow it creates in the world” – Leo Tolstoy, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ, p 163 

Trump was honest with Americans during the presidential campaigns about two things. One, he would destroy other nations’ economies by imposing huge tariffs unless they bowed to his wishes.. Two, he would “Make America Great Again” by turning the planet Earth hell for billions of people – including poor and middle class Americans. Other people in other nations were not involved in the decision to provide him the opportunity to prove his points.

Trump was “Made in America”; so are the global economic and political calamities unfolding. Like all dictators before him, wanting to play God, he and his inner caucus of advisers, particularly Elon Musk, very quickly discarded one of the eternal lessons history has taught us – nobody can single-handedly create the world as he chooses. Unintended and frequently unpleasant consequences result from such attempts. More often than not, millions of human beings die in the attempt.

Already, experts in various fields of endeavour, from the armed forces of several nations to agriculture and food production, manufacturing and markets, are predicting an unprecedented humanitarian crisis worse than what the world experienced during Covid-19 in 2020. Unknown millions will die globally because the repercussions of Trump’s policies will leave them without a dime and without any means of support – all over the world and in America. 

Money is indispensable; it can also lead to the death of millions by its sudden withdrawal. Trump and Musk are aware of this. It is quite possible that a study had been conducted to provide them an estimate of the millions of people to be rendered destitute from the abolition of USAID, Social Security for tens of millions of Americans, and, above all, global imposition of tariffs. No leader in history has ever been able to wipe out hundreds of millions of fellow human beings by merely signing an Executive Order. 

Hitler was inefficient. He spent millions building detention centres, transporting victims all over Europe and building gas chambers. Americans have given the world Trump and Musk, two Arch-angels of death, who can now delete one billion dispensable victims, selected by Musk’s Artificial Intelligence, AI, outfit, with just a flick of the pen. America is already great again – but, for the wrong reasons. By the time Trump is finished with his second or third term, the USA would have rendered millions of people expendable who never threatened its security or waged war against it. America would also have become a full-blown dictatorship; grinding the citizens of a formerly proud and free nation into dust. 

CONSEQUENCES OF THE RISE OF DICTATORSHIPS

“The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime” – Sir Edward Grey, the British Foreign Secretary, on August 3, 1914, on the eve of World War I.  

Working on the VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOATIONS was almost like staying in a university to read ten or more courses. I certainly read more history books – over 300 – than most graduates of History. From them it has been possible for me to discern when current global or national events repeat those that led to certain repercussions in the past. For instance, most people, including Presidents Trump and Xi – of the USA and China respectively – are not aware that World War III has started. All that is left is the shooting.

Everything possible, including Artificial Intelligence, AI, is being weaponised. Trump, like the leaders of any strongest power, facing a challenger threatening to replace it, invariably opts for war before the upstart becomes stronger. National interest dictates it. And, what is national interest?  “National Interest is defined in terms of power”. Hans J Morgenthau, 1904-1980, a key American figure in International Relations in the last century, was the author of what had become central to America’s conduct of foreign policy.

Underlying the concept was the notion, alien to history, that the USA would perpetually remain the strongest military power on the planet. The leaders of the nation which gave me the opportunity to read history obviously have forgotten that “Fortune, ever fickle, will assail with sudden stroke, the kingdom of the proud.” (Geoffrey Chaucer, 1342-1400). Incidentally, Professor Morgenthau taught me International Relations, in my Senior Year as an undergraduate in 1968.

He symbolised the proud and complacent American; who believed that no nation will ever challenge the USA. I remember one of my classmates, Willie Ndongo, a Cameroonian, telling Prof that “One day America will be fighting for its life – like the Roman Empire.” He was almost thrown out of the class for the impudence – which has now become a prophecy. Obviously, great scholars can also be myopic.

Morgenthau was taking his position at the time when the sun of the British Empire was setting – contrary to the pronouncement of an English author and fool. Today, America is scared of the Chinese and getting ready to fight for its life. Unfortunately, the US has also turned its back on democracy and freedom. A dictator has replaced a President. The lights of freedom have gone out. God’s Own Country has been taken over by the Devil. When a war breaks out, every leader becomes an autocrat out of necessity. America is at war; which it might lose – despite the breast-beating by dictator Trump – for a simple reason the Americans lose sight of.