The US’ redirection of healthcare items such as masks and other crucial counter-COVID supplies from their original customers abroad to American citizens instead isn’t a modern-day act of “piracy” like it’s popularly being presented, but a revolutionary act of economic nationalism in defiance of globalization that revealed the true Neo-Realist nature of International Relations, thus proving that geopolitical power is the ultimate factor in determining who wins after the so-called “rules-based” Neo-Liberal system was exposed as a massive lie.
Economic Nationalism vs. Globalization
Trump is being mercilessly criticized by practically all of the global press after he doubled down on his “America First” policy of demanding that US companies abroad prioritize the export of healthcare items such as masks and other crucial counter-COVID supplies to American citizens instead of their original customers elsewhere, sometimes reportedly going as far as outright seizing some of these supplies in foreign countries so as to ensure that they reach his people no matter what.
In parallel with this, the President has also blocked US-based medical companies from selling some of their wares abroad to customers such as Canada, thus creating the impression among many in the media that America is “hoarding” potentially life-saving equipment at the expense of the rest of the global population.
That interpretation is extremely misleading, however, since it misses the crucial fact that Trump’s policies are really a revolutionary act of economic nationalism in defiance of globalization that revealed the true Neo-Realist nature of International Relations and thus proved that geopolitical power is the ultimate factor in determining who wins after the so-called “rules-based” Neo-Liberal system was exposed as a massive lie.
Morals, Ethics, And Principles Mean Nothing In An Interests-Driven Neo-Realist World
Soberly analyzing the situation without any emotional attachment or values-driven judgement whatsoever (which is admittedly very difficult for most folks, especially those in the Alt-Media Community, to do), there is absolutely nothing wrong in principle with a national leader doing all that they can to guarantee that their people have access to emergency supplies.
After all, whether it’s Trump or President Putin, these individuals are tasked with putting their own people first whenever the proverbial push comes to shove since they weren’t chosen to lead the “international community” but their own sovereign states.
The problem, however, is that many leaders and their predecessors either passively facilitated or outright supported the offshoring of strategic industries to other states in order to take advantage of the cost-cutting benefits of globalization, but this has in hindsight proven to have been a short-sighted mistake with potentially fatal long-term implications as is now being seen.
When countries don’t produce their core essentials, they’re naturally dependent on others to obtain them, and this creates an opportunity for a third party such as the US to interfere with such shipments.
Liberating The Masses’ Minds From Neo-Liberal Indoctrination
In the given situation, the most powerful of the forces at play — whether that be the customer, the relevant company, the host state in which the latter is producing their wares, or the third-party that decides to interfere — will emerge victorious, as is the present case with the US.
This observation is “politically incorrect” to openly state, however, since most of the world was under the manipulative illusion that International Relations were increasingly being influenced by the Neo-Liberal model whereby “shared interests” supported by a set of “agreed-upon rules” supposedly prevail over pure power.
The indignant reaction of most people abroad to the US’ latest acts of what they’ve been led to believe is so-called “mask piracy” proves just how successfully they were indoctrinated into believing that the world operated based on a completely different set of principles than it really does, which was a deliberate deception against well-intended individuals by the globalist power structure that has a stake in duping the masses so as to more easily manipulate their minds and thus indefinitely perpetuate control over their lives.
Economic Nationalism Is Both Vindicated And Victorious
There’s now no remaining doubt that globalization presents a latent but nevertheless extremely serious national security threat during times of crisis whenever a state is unable to obtain the strategic products that they’ve voluntarily allowed to be produced abroad.
The awareness of this indisputable fact vindicates Trump’s economic nationalist struggle of the past few years to encourage his country’s companies (sometimes under threat of crippling tariffs) to prioritize the production of as many goods as possible within their homeland.
Under these circumstances, it’s not Trump’s fault, but the fault of those leaders who voluntarily surrendered their production capabilities to other countries for the sake of profit that the US is “pirating” counter-COVID medical equipment since the US leader can’t be blamed for putting his people first (by hook or by crook, and for “better” or for “worse” depending on one’s perspective) when that’s simply his most basic responsibility given the office that he and all of his counterparts hold.
Those who are indignant about what happened are likely still in the throes of cognitive dissonance after Trump gave them a much-needed Neo-Realist reality check.
Trump Would Be Doing Something Wrong If The Global Media Praised Him
It’s unrealistic to imagine any leader with the capabilities to obtain more emergency medical supplies for their people during the height of an ever-worsening crisis eschewing that option just for the sake of so-called “international solidarity”, especially when most of the world already despises their country as it is (whether for “good reason” or “not”).
Any “praise” that they’d receive, especially if it was the US like in the present case that’s being discussed, would be totally insincere and designed to simply play to their ego so as to get them to continue surrendering more of their country’s strategic capabilities to others at their own people’s expense.
In fact, one can argue that the reason why Trump is catching so much flak for his “America First” policy is because most other countries simply don’t have the means to emulate it even if they wanted to, so their reaction is mostly due to jealousy since they themselves know that they’d likely never do what they’re demanding of him, which is to ignore an opportunity to help their people if it presented itself unless they themselves were hopelessly indoctrinated with the Neo-Liberal/Globalist ideology.
Towards A Worldwide Economic Nationalist Revolution?
There’s nothing that the global elite can do other than loudly complain about what Trump did in the hopes that his revolutionary act of economic nationalism against globalization won’t awaken the masses from their propaganda-induced Neo-Liberal slumber to the raw Neo-Realist reality of International Relations.
The people, however, might have already realized that the world operates according to a different set of principles than the ones that they were indoctrinated into believing, which could in turn foster the creation of more grassroots populist movements across the world agitating for their governments to immediately implement Trump-like policies of economic nationalism.
That scenario is the worst one that the global elite can imagine at this moment since they’ve spent the past four years doing everything in their power to ruthlessly discredit that Neo-Realist economic outlook as “racist”, “fascist”, and “xenophobic” because of the existential threat that it poses to their international power structure, especially if a worldwide economic nationalist revolution emerged as the completely unintended consequence of the COVID World Order that they plan to implement after World War C.
First published by OrientalReview.org
The 21st Century
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of 21cir.