Texting while driving. Bullying people on social media. Buying into the latest conspiracy theory. Passing off AI-generated work as your own.

That may seem like a random list of 21st-century vices. But I’d argue they’re all examples of the loss of one particular virtue: sophrosyne.

An ancient Greek concept, sophrosyne – pronounced “suh-fros-uh-nee” – is what we might call “sound-mindedness” today. It’s a constellation of characteristics, including moderation, reflectiveness and self-knowledge. They’re found in the kind of person who can respect and trust herself, and be respected and trusted by others.

As a philosopher and philosophical counselor, I research the connection between virtue and happiness. In particular, I’ve noticed a connection between sophrosyne and eudaimonia, the Greek philosophical concept for happiness, or living well.

Harmony of the soul

For the Greeks, sophrosyne represented excellence of character, moderation and self-control. It was connected to phronesis, or practical wisdom, and stood in marked contrast with hubris: excessive pride, dangerous overconfidence and lack of self-insight. Heraclitus, a philosopher who lived around 500 B.C.E., taught that sophrosyne was the most important virtue of all.

Plato, who taught a century later, discussed sophrosyne as the ability to know oneself – and to know when you don’t know something. In “Republic,” he likened sophrosyne to a harmony or friendship between the three parts of the soul: reason, spirit and bodily desires.

  At the center of ‘The School of Athens,’ by Raphael, stand Plato and his student, Aristotle. Wikimedia Commons

Plato’s student Aristotle argued that sophrosyne allows people to strike a balance between self-indulgence and self-denial – like someone who tries to get the right amount of physical exercise, neither too much nor too little. Aristotle taught that it was a virtue developed through practice, just like training for a sport or learning to play a musical instrument.

Sound-mindedness, in short, is not inborn but must be learned.

Discipline and discernment

I believe sophrosyne is still essential for the good life, the life of eudaimonia – happiness and human flourishing. It’s not a transitory feeling, but a sense of being your best self. This involves a kind of satisfaction that is not possible without self-knowledge and self-control.

What’s more, it requires the ability to discriminate between the good and the bad, the true and the false – capacities that are not inborn, but learned through steady practice. Without sophrosyne, it may not be possible to discern what is good for yourself or others. And even if you could, without sophrosyne you might lack the will to follow through.

If anything, these qualities might be even more important with the rise of artificial intelligence and social media. In my counseling practice, I’ve worked with people like “Brian,” an idealist who wanted truth and justice to win out over evil and oppression.

The problem was that he didn’t know how to vet his sources. As the COVID-19 pandemic raged, Brian fell down a conspiracy theory rabbit hole. He was certain that the condensation left in airplanes’ wake were “chemtrails,” a government brainwashing plot, and fumed against the “New World Order.” Thinking he knew it all, he was no longer open to reasoned dialogue.

Sound-mindedness helps us keep perspective in the sea of information online. Artur Debat/Moment Mobile via Getty Images

But if Brian is an example of the loss of sophrosyne, another person I worked with, “Lee,” shows how we can develop it. Lee spent quite a bit of time on social media, but she began to wonder how it was affecting her. She slowed down, took more breaks and started paying more attention to what her mind was doing and to how she was feeling.

As Lee became more self-aware, she realized she was wasting her time. She no longer connected to the reasons she had used social media in the first place. “Consuming social media was making me uneasy. It was like pigging out on junk food,” she told me. “Now I read more books, prepare food and walk during the time I had been spending on social media.”

Ripple effect

For the Greeks, sophrosyne was an ideal second to none. In the 1960s, though, Plato scholars Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns lamented that it was no longer “among our ideals.” That seems all the more true today – and the wider consequences are easy to see.

First, there’s the increase in incivility, in all its 21st-century forms – from road rage to cyberbullying. After the isolation of the pandemic, there’s even a new term for general social incivility: “social jet lag.”

The decline of sophrosyne can also lead to screen addiction, diminished attention span and ability to focus – factors that can, in turn, undermine civility. Civility takes sustained awareness of oneself and others.

The consequences go beyond our friends, families and co-workers to democracy itself. If sound-mindedness suffers, excessive pride and overconfidence hurt our ability to engage in reasoned dialogue and to respect other people’s differences.

Timeless virtue

There are a number of factors, I’d argue, that have led to the loss of sophrosyne, including a decrease in funding for education, more teaching to the test and greater economic inequality, which leaves less time and energy for things like personal development.

Another is the decline of mentoring relationships, which the ancient Greeks considered central to intellectual and moral development. A true mentoring relationship involves both instruction and leading by example. It’s about character, not success defined by wealth and status. Today, it appears that mentors have largely been replaced by celebrities and hero culture, with the rich and famous held up as examples worthy of emulation.

I believe the first step toward recovering sophrosyne is to recognize its importance in the good life. The second is to acknowledge its decline. The third is to understand the factors that have led to this decline.

Temperance, moderation, self-control, discernment – qualities such as these add up to a timeless excellence of character that cannot be faked. Becoming such a person requires guidance, practice and consistency.

Ross Channing Reed, Assistant Teaching Professor of Philosophy, Missouri University of Science and Technology

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

In a nation that wastes over a third of its food, we are now told that we cannot afford to feed the poor. The United States of America — the richest country in human history — is deliberately turning its back on its most vulnerable citizens.

Let that sink in.

Millions of families, seniors, and children are about to lose access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — the modest but vital benefit that puts groceries on the table for over 41 million Americans. The cruelty is not accidental. It is ideological. It is systemic. And it is being justified under the false banners of “fiscal responsibility,” “self-reliance,” and “reform.”

This is a betrayal of the social contract. Not only can we not feed the world, we can’t even feed our own citizens.

Hunger as Policy

Hunger is not a natural disaster. It’s a policy choice.

When political leaders — many of them wealthy beyond imagination — decide that tax cuts for corporations matter more than food for children, that is not economics; it is moral decay disguised as governance.

The Trump administration’s decision to curtail SNAP benefits, under the pretext of promoting “work” or controlling costs, echoes the same tired myth: that poverty is a moral failing, and hunger a deserved punishment.

But let’s be clear: the majority of SNAP households already include someone who works. They are home health aides, retail clerks, warehouse workers, gig drivers — the invisible labor holding this economy together. They don’t lack work ethic; they lack living wages.

The Myth of Dependency

The narrative of “dependency” is the oldest trick in the American playbook — a political dog whistle used to divide and dehumanize. It was used to dismantle welfare in the 1990s, and it’s being repackaged today to justify taking food from children’s mouths.

But SNAP is not welfare; it is a lifeline. It is one of the most efficient and fraud-resistant programs the federal government runs. Every $1 of SNAP spending generates up to $1.80 in local economic activity. Farmers, grocers, and small-town retailers all depend on it. When you cut SNAP, you don’t just starve the poor — you starve Main Street.

So let’s stop pretending this is about budgets. It’s about power — who deserves dignity, and who gets written off as expendable.

Ironically, this hurts MAGA the most.

Who Suffers?

The data tells the story plainly.

• 41% of SNAP recipients are children.
• 37% are White. 26% are Black. 16% are Latino.
• 29% of households have earned income.
• 81% live at or below the poverty line.

SNAP cuts will deepen child hunger, drive seniors into medical debt, and devastate rural communities already on the edge. The poorest will go without food, and local economies will lose billions in spending.

In moral terms, this is violence — slow, bureaucratic violence enacted by signatures and spreadsheets.

What Can We Do?

We must SNAP out of it, America.

The time for polite statements and online petitions is over. Hunger requires resistance. It requires moral imagination. It requires collective action that disrupts the machinery of neglect.

Here’s how we begin:

1. Tell the stories — put faces to the statistics. Let the public hear from working parents, veterans, seniors, and students whose lives depend on SNAP. Storytelling is a weapon against indifference.
2. Mobilize locally — organize Empty Plate demonstrations, sit-ins at USDA offices, and community meal shares that feed people while exposing government neglect. Pair protest with compassion.
3. Pressure power — call, visit, and confront elected officials in their districts. Flood their offices with testimonies. Demand public statements of accountability.
4. Build alliances — connect food justice movements with farmers, labor unions, and faith leaders. Hunger is not a partisan issue; it is a human one.
5. Reframe the narrative — food is not a handout. It is a human right. SNAP is not “aid” — it is a social investment in stability, health, and dignity.
6. Vote and remember — hold to account every official who chose cruelty over compassion. Hunger must become a political liability.
7. Picket your local grocery store — let the food giants understand that it is in their best interest to support SNAP.

 A Betrayal of Christian Values

The Republicans are interested in pushing their Christian agenda except when it actually helps people.

For Jesus said, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink… Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:35–40)

To cut food from the poor is not fiscal discipline — it is spiritual disobedience. Every loaf withheld, every benefit slashed, is a denial of that commandment.

Christian faith is not measured by church attendance or campaign slogans about morality; it is measured by whether we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and welcome the stranger.

When leaders who claim Christian values vote to take food from children, they do not defend the faith — they betray it. They have turned the Gospel of compassion into an economics of exclusion. They have forgotten that mercy, not money, is the measure of righteousness.

The teaching is unambiguous:

If Christ is in the hungry, then starving them is crucifying him again.
If Christ is in the poor, then neglecting them is rejecting him once more.

To be Christian is to care — relentlessly, inconveniently, politically, economically, and materially — for those who cannot feed themselves.

To do otherwise is to worship a god of greed and cruelty.

A Nation is Measured by its Heart

The measure of a civilization is not its GDP or its military budget; it is how it treats the poor, the sick, and the hungry.

SNAP is not just a policy — it is a reflection of who we are, or who we have become. If we allow hunger to become normalized, we will have lost the moral foundation of democracy itself.

This is the time to reclaim our Common Good. To stand together and say: We will not starve our neighbors. We will not criminalize poverty. We will not abandon compassion.

America, it’s time to SNAP out of it.

Because the cruelty is not the point — it’s the problem.

The night before SNAP expired, Trump hosted a Gilded-Age Great Gatsby themed party at Mar del Lago, even as two federal judges ordered the Trump administration to use emergency funding to provide SNAP benefits for the 42 million people who rely on the program to feed their families.

Remember: The Trump administration couldn’t find the money to feed American citizens, yet it’s working feverishly to send $40 billion over to Argentina.

Did we learn nothing from the French Revolution?

]]> https://fixcapitalism.com/snap-out-of-it-america-what-can-we-do-to-stop-the-cruelty/feed/ 0 https://fixcapitalism.com/de-americanization-strategy-de-coupling-from-the-usa-in-a-multipolar-world/ https://fixcapitalism.com/de-americanization-strategy-de-coupling-from-the-usa-in-a-multipolar-world/#comments Thu, 02 Oct 2025 08:06:16 +0000 http://fixcapitalism.com/?p=1619 Continue reading De-Americanization Strategy: De-Coupling from the USA in a Multipolar World]]> BY CHRISTIAN SARKAR

In discussions with senior executives across several industries, the following topic inevitably shows up: what can we do to reduce risks to our business due to geopolitical instability (which is code for Trump). This essay is an attempt to start this conversation, not just with businesses, but with countries as well.

UPDATE: Try the De-Americanization App >>

The Collapse of the American Model

The American Empire is crumbling. Its institutions are corrupted by money and special interests, its corporations worship shareholder primacy at the expense of people and planet, its culture exports hyper-consumerism and false promises. For decades, governments and businesses worldwide have been taught to imitate this model — only to find themselves ensnared in dependencies that strip away sovereignty.

“De-Americanization” is not anti-American. It is anti-dependency. It is the recognition that the U.S. system — financialized, extractive, exploitative — no longer serves as a viable model for the future. For governments, it means reclaiming autonomy from the dollar, Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Washington’s geopolitical grip. For businesses, it means breaking free from Madison Avenue spin, Wall Street finance, and Silicon Valley monopolies to rediscover their own cultures, stakeholders, and ecosystems.

The question is simple: Will the world collapse with America, or regenerate beyond it?

Why De-Americanize?

The world has been living under the shadow of the American model for decades. We have been taught that “bigger is better,” that Wall Street knows best, that consumer culture is the pinnacle of progress. But today the cracks are visible everywhere. The empire’s institutions are failing, its corporations are extractive, and its culture has hollowed out the imagination of entire societies.

To de-Americanize is not to reject the American people. It is to reject the dependency on a system that no longer works. It is to reclaim sovereignty, resilience, and regeneration. The reasons are clear.

• Political Instability

America itself has become unstable. Polarization, authoritarian drift, contested elections, and economic misleadership — the U.S. is no longer the anchor it was. To tie your fate to a collapsing political system is reckless. Dependency on instability guarantees collapse.

• Sovereignty at Risk

Nations and firms that rely on U.S. finance, defense, or tech live in a fragile illusion of independence. If Washington shifts policy, imposes sanctions, or tightens controls, entire economies can collapse overnight. Sovereignty that passes through Silicon Valley servers or Wall Street clearinghouses is not sovereignty at all. Dependency is fragility.

• Systemic Risk

The U.S. system itself is unstable. Overleveraged, financialized, addicted to short-term profit. The 2008 global crash revealed how fragile the model is, and how quickly the damage spills across borders. Today, the dollar itself has become a weapon — militarized through sanctions, exclusion, and coercion. To rely on a fragile empire is to inherit its instability.

• Cultural Colonization

Hollywood, Silicon Valley, and Madison Avenue have colonized imaginations across the planet. Local stories, languages, and aesthetics are drowned out by Americanized fantasies of endless consumption. To de-Americanize is to tell our own stories, elevate our own knowledge systems, and resist cultural homogenization disguised as freedom.

• Economic Extraction

Value flows outward. U.S. platforms and consumer giants siphon profits from local economies, strip data from citizens, and repatriate wealth to Wall Street. What remains is dependency and precarity. De-Americanization is the act of reclaiming value for local communities, keeping profits — and dignity — rooted in place.

• Sustainability vs. Extraction

The American model externalizes costs — onto workers, onto the environment, onto the future. It is a system built to burn the commons and call it growth. De-Americanization is not just about survival. It is about shifting to regeneration: circular economies, commons stewardship, equitable systems that nourish instead of destroy.

• Geopolitical Multipolarity

The unipolar world is gone. A multipolar order is emerging, messy and contested. To survive, nations and companies must be flexible, not tethered to a single declining empire. De-Americanization is preparation for a world where power is distributed, not monopolized.

The Signs of Crisis: What are the Triggers driving De-Americanization?

The case is not complicated. The American model has failed. Its promises of prosperity were built on exploitation. Its stability is an illusion. Its culture is colonization.

De-Americanization is not anti-Americanism. It is survival. It is sovereignty. It is the reclamation of futures stolen by dependency.

The question is not whether the U.S. will collapse under its contradictions. It already is.
The question is whether the rest of us will collapse with it — or regenerate beyond it.

Here are the seven crisis triggers that accelerate de-Americanization.

1. Financial Shock – The Dollar as Weapon
   The dollar has long been sold as a neutral currency. But it is not neutral. It is political, and increasingly weaponized. Sanctions, asset freezes, and dollar-denominated debt traps remind the world that the dollar is not a global commons, but a U.S. instrument. A sudden collapse in confidence, a sanctions overreach, or a liquidity freeze could turn dependency into paralysis. The lesson: a reserve currency that can be switched off by one government is not a safe foundation for sovereignty.
2. Supply Chain Disruption – Fragility Exposed

Food, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors — the lifelines of modern economies. When these flow through U.S.-controlled routes or suppliers, disruption is inevitable. Pandemic shortages, shipping crises, and geopolitical trade wars show how fragile “just-in-time” really is. In a world of cascading risks, dependency on U.S. agribusiness or chipmakers is not efficiency — it is fragility dressed as optimization.

3. Regulatory Shock – Empire by Force

U.S. regulations do not stop at U.S. borders. From financial compliance regimes to extraterritorial sanctions, Washington extends its “law” across the globe. Companies that do not comply risk losing market access, funding, or legitimacy. A single rule change in Washington can paralyze operations in Africa, Asia, or Latin America. This is empire by dictat — and it is why regulatory sovereignty is non-negotiable.

4. Technology Cutoff – Silicon Valley as Switch

Modern economies run on data, cloud, chips, and algorithms. Yet the infrastructure is concentrated in the hands of U.S. corporations. If AWS or Google Cloud is shut off, entire economies go dark. If chip exports are blocked, industries halt. If patents are enforced selectively, innovation stops. Technology is no longer just commerce — it is control. De-Americanization begins with technological sovereignty.

5. Consumer Backlash – The Cultural Revolt

Culture is not soft power; it is hard economics. Brands that once sold Americana as aspiration now face rejection. Boycotts, cultural backlash, and demands for local authenticity grow stronger with each executive order by President Trump. The more a company wraps itself in American identity, the more vulnerable it becomes to rejection in a multipolar world. Consumer sentiment moves faster than supply chains — and it punishes dependency.

6. Climate Crisis – When Nature Breaks the Model

The U.S. food system is built on monocrops, fossil fuels, and fragile logistics. Hurricanes on the Gulf Coast, droughts in the Midwest, wildfires in California — each disrupts global supply chains. Climate does not recognize empire. When monocrop failure in America ripples into food crises worldwide, dependency becomes famine. Only regenerative, local systems offer resilience in the age of climate chaos.

7. U.S. Political Instability – Empire in Decline

The greatest risk comes from within. America itself is now unstable — polarized, authoritarian-leaning, and politically brittle. Contested elections, institutional breakdown, or a slide into authoritarianism would destabilize not just the U.S., but every system dependent on it. To tie sovereignty to such a volatile political system is reckless. De-Americanization is, at its core, a hedge against empire collapse.

De-Americanization for Governments: Reclaiming Sovereignty (and the Future)

The first responsibility of government is to protect its people. Yet too many governments have ceded this duty to Washington, Wall Street, and Silicon Valley. The result is a hollow sovereignty — borders on paper, but dependencies in practice. To reclaim the future, governments must de-Americanize their foundations.

1. Admit the Dependency

Begin with honesty. Audit your reserves, your food systems, your data, your defense. Where do your seeds come from? Who owns your banks? Where are your servers hosted? Who controls your fighter jets? If the answer is Washington or Silicon Valley, then sovereignty is an illusion. You cannot manage what you refuse to measure. The audit is the mirror.

2. Diversify Fast

Dependency is fragility. Build resilience by diversifying — quickly. Forge regional alliances. Create trade corridors outside the dollar. Develop sovereign digital infrastructure that does not collapse if Silicon Valley flips a switch. Multipolar diplomacy is not luxury — it is survival. The world is no longer unipolar; to act as if it is, is to invite collapse.

3. Rebuild the Commons

A society that outsources its water, its schools, its healthcare, its justice, has already surrendered. The commons are the backbone of resilience. Privatization weakens people and strengthens dependency. Rebuilding the commons is not charity — it is security. When food, water, and justice are shared, the nation endures. Collective security must continue – even without the United States.

4. Renew Your Culture

Empire colonizes not only territory, but imagination. Governments must stop importing their stories from Hollywood, their textbooks from Washington, their algorithms from Silicon Valley. To renew culture is to elevate indigenous knowledge, to teach local history, to invest in regenerative economics. A people who know their own story cannot be ruled from afar.

5. Lead Differently

Leadership is not domination. True leadership is regenerative. Build coalitions for climate justice. Share models of circular economy. Invest in regional security built on cooperation, not exploitation. The world does not need another empire — it needs examples of sovereignty without violence, prosperity without extraction.

Collaboration and Interdependence

De-Americanization for governments is not retreat. It is renaissance. It is the refusal to let the decline of one empire dictate the collapse of all. Sovereignty is not only independence from Washington — it is interdependence with neighbors, with nature, with the future.

The nations that admit, diversify, rebuild, renew, and lead differently will not only survive the fall of the American model — they will inherit the future.

De-Americanization for Businesses: Understanding the Real Risks of Collapse

Corporations have long mistaken growth for dependency — mistaking Wall Street’s approval for real value, mistaking Silicon Valley’s platforms for progress, mistaking Madison Avenue’s tricks for trust. But the American model of business is dying. Extraction, speculation, and short-term profit have destroyed resilience. For businesses to survive — and to thrive — they must de-Americanize.

1. Audit Your Chains

Start with radical transparency. Map your dependencies — who funds you, who supplies you, who owns your digital backbone, who shapes your brand story. If your finance runs through Wall Street, if your data sits in AWS, if your identity is borrowed from American consumer culture — you are fragile. Dependency hides in plain sight. An audit reveals the choke points.

2. Decouple and Diversify

Every dependency is a liability. Begin cutting the cords. Localize supply chains. Diversify markets beyond U.S. demand. Seek capital from sovereign wealth funds, regional banks, or regenerative investors — not Wall Street’s quarterly machine. Diversification is not inefficiency — it is resilience.

3. Regenerate the Business Model

The age of extraction is over. Regeneration must replace exploitation. Build businesses that create value for communities, ecosystems, and employees — not just shareholders. Circular economies, stakeholder equity, transparent supply chains — these are not costs, they are survival strategies. A company that destroys its soil, water, and people will not endure.

4. Rebrand Truthfully

The American way was to manipulate. To sell lifestyles and illusions. That age is over. Trust has become the only sustainable currency. Businesses must rebrand truthfully — telling stories rooted in local culture, in real partnerships, in verifiable impact. Authenticity cannot be outsourced to Madison Avenue. It must be lived.

5. Lead Differently

Leadership is not cornering the market. It is opening the commons. Share regenerative practices, open-source solutions, and sustainable methods. Build alliances with peers, even competitors, to restore ecosystems and empower regional and local communities. True leadership will not be measured in market share, but in how much you restore.

The Future of De-Americanized Business Ecosystems

De-Americanization for business is not retreat from globalization — it is renewal of globalization on different terms. Businesses that free themselves from American dependencies will become resilient, trusted, and regenerative. New trading coalitions and alliances can be built rapidly – if there is a shared commitment to de-Americanization.

The corporations that dare to audit, decouple, regenerate, rebrand, and lead differently will not just outlive the American model — they will redefine what business means in the 21st century.

A Crisis Implementation of De-Americanization

In calm times, de-Americanization could be imagined as a slow reform. A decade-long transition, carefully managed, negotiated with patience. But the world is not calm. Crises compress time. A single shock can collapse a system in weeks. Currency turmoil, sanctions, supply chain breakdowns, climate disasters — each accelerates the timeline. What was once a 20-year project is now a 3-year scramble.

We are already there. The storm is not on the horizon — it is upon us.

The First 100 Days: Survival

The priority in a crisis is not elegance. It is survival. When the American model falters, dependency becomes catastrophe. The first 100 days are about stopping the bleeding:

• Freeze Capital Flight
  Wealth evaporates in a panic. Without capital controls, reserves vanish into offshore accounts or Wall Street instruments. A government or firm that cannot freeze the outflow will collapse.
• Secure Payroll and Liquidity
  People must be paid. Panic turns to revolt when wages stop. Businesses must prioritize liquidity over profit; governments must protect public payroll above all else.
• Stockpile Essential Inputs
  Food, fuel, medicine, chips. Every economy has critical inputs. In a crisis, U.S.-linked supply chains dry up. Stockpiling is not inefficiency — it is life insurance.
• Transition Data and Operations Off U.S. Platforms
  Dependency on AWS, Microsoft, Google is fragility. A switch can be flipped in Washington and whole economies go dark. Sovereign data is survival.
• Communicate Transparently to Preserve Trust
  People can endure hardship if they trust leadership. Lies, spin, and silence destroy legitimacy. Crisis management is not only logistics — it is narrative.

Actionable next steps (100–180 days)

• Build a tariff/export “digital twin” of your supply chain; simulate 10–25% duty scenarios and instant BIS rule changes.

• Qualify a second site + supplier for your top 10 revenue SKUs (contracted volumes, line trials booked).

• Stand up an export-compliant SKU squad (legal + architecture + PMO) for rapid re-binning when rules move.

• Refinance/raise with non-politicized capital where possible; scrub covenants for government control optics.

• Harmonize to a global ingredient baseline to reduce U.S.-only reformulation overhead and recall exposure.

• Segment data + keys by region (SaaS, logs, model weights) with clear subpoena boundaries.

The 2-3 Year Crash Program: Renewal Under Fire

Once the bleeding is stopped, rebuilding must begin. But there is no time for the luxury of gradual reform. The crash program is about embedding sovereignty into the foundations of economy and culture.

• Build Sovereign Tech Stacks and Payment Systems
  Regional clouds, open-source platforms, local chip fabs, multipolar payment corridors. Every dependency on Silicon Valley and Wall Street must be replaced with resilient alternatives.
• Establish Regenerative Local Supply Chains
  No more monocrop dependence, no more single-source fragility. Food, energy, and manufacturing must be grounded in regenerative local systems that restore soil, water, and community wealth.
• Rebrand Away from U.S. Identity
  A company or state tethered to American imagery will face backlash. Rebrand as sovereign, rooted, regenerative. Authenticity replaces Americana.
• Anchor in Culture, Commons, and Stakeholder Value
  Long-term resilience depends not only on economics but on meaning. Governments must reinvest in schools, water, and justice. Businesses must create value for workers, ecosystems, and communities. Culture must be renewed from within, not imported.

Industry Vulnerabilities

• Tech – Most exposed to U.S. tech bans and export controls.
• Food & Agriculture – Tied to U.S. monocrops and vulnerable to climate.
• Finance & Energy – Anchored in the dollar, exposed to sanctions.
• Consumer Brands – Exposed to cultural backlash and identity rejection.
• Defense/Pharma – Dependent on U.S. legitimacy and regulation.

What should Key Industries Do?

The table below captures a summary of our ideas. The details are specific to each company of course. 

The De-Americanization Strategy Toolkit (what companies are actually doing)

1) Footprint Diversification (“China+1…+N” and “USA+1”)

Move assembly/componentization into multiple jurisdictions to arbitrage tariff/ex-control lines and qualify for local content rules.

2) Product Segmentation for Controlled Markets

Design “export-compliant” SKUs for restricted jurisdictions (reduced compute, different interconnects).

3) Supplier Base Re-wiring & Dual-Sourcing Critical Inputs

Build mirrored BOMs (e.g., U.S./EU + ASEAN), qualify alternates, and modularize so single-country shocks don’t halt final build.

4) Corporate (Re)Structuring to Ring-Fence Risk

Spin-offs, carve-outs, or holding-company redesigns to separate “U.S.-centric” from “global” businesses.

5) Financing Mix that Minimizes Political Strings

Prefer private/ally-market capital; if accepting U.S. subsidies, avoid equity-like upside or governance hooks that create “state-instrument” optics abroad.

6) Currency & Invoicing Diversification (De-Dollarization Light)

Set contracts in EUR/JPY/CNH where feasible; add FX collars and multi-currency AR/AP netting to blunt tariff-induced price shocks.

7) Data-Sovereign Architectures

Adopt multi-cloud with strict data-localization (EU, India, ASEAN), in-region encryption key custody, and sovereign PaaS variants to reduce reach of U.S. subpoenas.

8) Export-Control Readiness & “Compliance DevOps”

Embed a real-time rules engine (ECCN mapping, end-use/end-user screening) in quoting/fulfillment; maintain “kill-switch” SKUs tied to new BIS rules.

9) Ingredient & Label Strategy for Food/CPG

Shift away from U.S.-specific additives toward globally acceptable baselines to avoid dual formulations.

10) Contractual Risk Transfer

Bake in tariff/sanction pass-through clauses, movable INCOTERMS, and material adverse policy change (MAPC) triggers to reprice or reroute quickly.

11) Talent & IP Hubs Outside Single Jurisdictions

Spread critical R&D across allied regimes; ensure IP ownership structures prevent export-control “taint.”

12) Listings, IR & Banking Diversification

Pursue dual listings and multi-bank relationships outside the U.S. to keep capital access if OFAC/BIS actions disrupt dollar rails.

Case Studies 

Here are some early thoughts;

Intel: Government Ownership as Risk

When the U.S. government acquired ~10% of Intel, it blurred the line between state and corporation. For foreign partners, Intel became less independent — a U.S. political tool. This case illustrates why tech sovereignty matters: reliance on U.S. platforms makes companies and nations vulnerable to Washington’s whims.

Heinz Spin-Off: A Fork in the Road

Kraft Heinz split into two firms: Global Taste Elevation (Heinz, Philadelphia, sauces) and North American Grocery (Kraft Singles, Oscar Mayer). The split allows Heinz to rebrand globally, diversify supply chains, and pivot from Americana ketchup to a regenerative taste company. Meanwhile, the grocery unit remains locked in U.S. food culture. A lesson: de-mergers can themselves be a de-Americanization strategy.

Nestlé: Incremental Decoupling

Nestlé’s move to eliminate synthetic dyes in U.S. foods reflects how non-U.S. firms adapt to American consumer norms while trying to maintain global flexibility. But incremental reforms are not enough. True sovereignty requires deeper decoupling from U.S. agribusiness and branding systems.

The Path Forward

De-Americanization is not about rejecting innovation. It is about rejecting dependency. It is the refusal to collapse alongside a failing empire.

The roadmap is clear:

• Governments must reclaim sovereignty in finance, commons, and culture.
• Businesses must localize, regenerate, and lead differently.
• In crisis, time compresses: survival first, regeneration next.
• Across industries, vulnerabilities differ, but the imperative is the same.

The American model is failing.

The question is: will your country, your business, find a way to regenerate beyond it?

Stay tuned. Capitalism is changing.

UPDATE: Try the De-Americanization App >>

Trump’s second term is answering that question with devastating clarity.

Our institutions are not just buildings or agencies. They reflect us – our ideals, our hopes, and even our future. If we allow them to be hollowed, or even destroyed, we will lose our democracy – surrendering our freedom to fascism and authoritarianism. If we fight to rebuild them—anchored in the Common Good—they can live again.

Institutions as the Foundations of Democracy

Institutions are not abstractions. They are the bones of democracy, the connective tissue of our society. They are the safeguards that protect us from tyranny, arbitrariness, and the corruption of unchecked power. They are the guardians of the Common Good.

For decades, Americans assumed that their institutions—though imperfect—were durable. The National Parks belonged to all of us. The Justice Department pursued fairness. The Census counted us equally. Public broadcasting told us the truth. The State Department upheld alliances.  Voters could vote by airmail and use voting machines.

But what happens when a leader decides not to steward institutions, but to hollow them out? What happens when loyalty to a man replaces loyalty to the law, to truth, to history, to the people?

Donald Trump’s presidency has answered this question. His first term weakened the foundations. His second term, which began in 2025, is demolishing the pillars.

This demolition of our Democracy is not accidental. It is the strategy of authoritarianism: dismantle, delegitimize, and dominate.

This is the very definition of misleadership – leadership which destroys the Common Good.

Let us count the ways.

1. National Parks & Public Lands

 Before Trump:
America’s national parks and protected lands were celebrated worldwide—“America’s best idea.” These lands were set aside for the public, conserved for future generations. Presidents of both parties expanded protections, treating nature as a shared inheritance.

First Term:
Trump shrank Bears Ears and Grand Staircase–Escalante monuments by millions of acres. He opened sacred lands to mining, oil, and gas drilling. Environmental reviews were bypassed, and the voices of Indigenous communities were silenced.

Second Term:
In 2025, Trump accelerated leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, weakened the Antiquities Act, and gutted rules protecting water and forests. The Department of the Interior became an arm of extraction industries. Public land is no longer held in trust—it is treated as a business asset to be sold off.

The Department of the Interior laid off 1,000 National Park Service employees, a nearly 20% drop in park workforce in some cases.  At Yosemite, cuts in personnel forced rangers into tasks like restroom maintenance and led to a surge in overtime and search-and-rescue missions.

Consequences for the Common Good:
Biodiversity loss, Indigenous dispossession, park visitor dissatisfaction and climate damage. A common inheritance privatized for short-term profit.

2:  Public Broadcasting (PBS/NPR)

Before Trump:
Public broadcasting was one of the most trusted institutions in America. PBS documentaries and NPR journalism connected millions of citizens to fact-based reporting and culture.

First Term:
Trump repeatedly threatened to eliminate funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). NPR journalists were attacked as “fake news.”

Second Term:
In 2025, the administration slashed CPB’s budget by 30%. Political appointees were installed on oversight boards. NPR affiliates in rural areas lost funding, forcing closures. PBS had to seek corporate sponsors, eroding independence.

Consequences for the Common Good:
A misinformed citizenry. Public broadcasting reduced to private influence. Truth itself put at risk.

3: Voice of America (VOA)

Before Trump:
VOA was a beacon of American credibility worldwide. Its independence made it a trusted source in countries where truth was scarce.

First Term:
Trump installed loyalists in leadership and pressured VOA to promote his narratives. Journalists resigned in protest.

Second Term:
In 2025, VOA became an overt propaganda channel. International credibility collapsed. Journalists were pushed to repeat White House talking points on China, Ukraine, and immigration.

Consequences for the Common Good:
The U.S. lost its moral voice abroad. Authoritarian regimes celebrated. The US has lost a way to counter misinformation or to pursue the truth on the global stage.

4: History of Slavery & American Sins

Before Trump:
Schools were slowly integrating honest accounts of slavery, Jim Crow, systemic racism, and Native genocide into curricula. The 1619 Project symbolized this reckoning.

First Term:
Trump launched the “1776 Commission” to promote “patriotic education” and ban “critical race theory.”

Second Term:
By 2025, the Department of Education tied federal funding to state compliance with “pro-American curricula.” History standards were rewritten to minimize slavery, colonization, and racism. Teachers who dissent face dismissal.

Consequences for the Common Good:
Historical amnesia, and institutional erasure of the truth. A nation unable to face its sins cannot heal them.

5: Arts & Culture (NEA, NEH, Smithsonian)

Before Trump:
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) funded community projects across the U.S.—theaters, museums, libraries. Art and culture were treated as public goods.

First Term:
Budgets proposed eliminating both agencies. Funding survived, but barely.

Second Term:
In 2025, funding cuts of 40% forced small arts institutions to close. Federal support for museums dwindled. Art and culture became dependent on wealthy donors, reinforcing inequality.

Consequences for the Common Good:
The arts became privatized luxuries instead of democratic expressions of creativity.

6: Environmental Protections (EPA)

Before Trump:
The EPA regulated air and water quality, enforced emissions standards, and protected human health.

First Term:
Trump rolled back more than 100 environmental rules. The Clean Power Plan was scrapped. Climate science was suppressed.

Second Term:
In 2025, a former coal lobbyist ran the EPA. Emissions regulations collapsed. U.S. climate pledges abandoned. Climate denial returned as official policy.

Consequences for the Common Good:
Increased pollution, rising health risks, and the loss of America’s climate leadership. The loss of biodiversity.

7: Healthcare (ACA/Medicaid)

Before Trump:
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) expanded healthcare to over 20 million Americans. Medicaid was strengthened.

First Term:
Trump failed to repeal ACA but weakened it through executive orders and lawsuits.

Second Term:
By 2025, Medicaid eligibility was narrowed. Subsidies shrank. RFK Jr., as Health Secretary, gutted vaccine policy. Millions lost coverage, women’s reproductive care restricted.

Consequences for the Common Good:
Health became a privilege, not a right. The most vulnerable suffer first. Increased mortality rates for infants and women.

8: Immigration 

Before Trump:
Deferred Action for Childhood (DACA) protected “Dreamers.” Refugee admissions held steady.

First Term:
Trump imposed the Muslim ban, reduced refugee admissions, and separated families at the border.

Second Term:
In 2025, family separations quietly resumed. Refugee cap dropped near zero. DACA frozen in courts. Deportations surged – some 1.2 million immigrants have been removed from society – leading to a crisis in the labor workforce. The administration doesn’t acknowledge habeas corpus.

Consequences for the Common Good:
Humanitarian crises at the border. America’s moral credibility shattered. Loss of illegals lead to rising prices of food, construction, and infrastructure-related services.

9: Department of Justice / Judiciary

Before Trump:
The DOJ enforced civil rights laws and was seen as largely independent.

First Term:
AG Barr used the DOJ to protect Trump and attack his critics.

Second Term:
In 2025, Harmeet Dhillon gutted the Civil Rights Division. Voting rights cases dropped. DOJ loyalty tests proliferated. Over two-thirds of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division staff are expected to leave their jobs, accepting a resignation offer as the Trump administration moves to drastically reshape the agency.

Consequences for the Common Good:
The law was weaponized for partisan purposes. Equality before the law has eroded.

10: Census & Voting Systems

Before Trump:
The Census was nonpartisan, ensuring fair representation and resources.

First Term:
Trump tried to add a citizenship question, aiming to suppress counts of immigrants.

Second Term:
In 2025, gerrymandering expanded so that black Americans have less representation. Census methodology skewed. Voter ID laws proliferated under DOJ approval.

Consequences for the Common Good:
A distorted democracy. Some voices silenced; others amplified unfairly. The GOP holds on to power at the expense of the people’s wishes.

11: Education 

Before Trump:
Title IX protections ensured equity. Federal support for student loans expanded access.

First Term:
Betsy DeVos dismantled borrower protections and weakened Title IX enforcement.

Second Term:
Trump attacks major universities such as Harvard and Columbia, on accusations of antisemitism and reduces previously granted funding for many student science projects.  In 2025, federal funding tied to “a patriotic curriculum.” Charter schools expanded, public schools underfunded. Trump cancels many foreign students from coming to American universities that accepted them.

Consequences for the Common Good:
Education became a battlefield of ideology, not a ladder of opportunity. America’s educational and scientific future is threatened.

13: State Department / Diplomacy

Before Trump:
The State Department relied on a professional corps. Alliances were stable.

First Term:
Diplomatic corps hollowed, Paris Accord abandoned, NATO weakened.

Second Term:
In 2025, further staff exodus. Partisan loyalists replaced career diplomats. NATO fractured. Trump raises tariffs on its close allies. Allies bypass America.

Consequences for the Common Good:
U.S. global influence diminished. Allies no longer trust America.

14: Consumer Protection (FTC, CFPB)

Before Trump:
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) protected consumers from predatory finance and monopolies.

First Term:
CFPB defanged under pro-industry leadership.

Second Term:
In 2025, antitrust actions abandoned. FTC slowed enforcement. Tech and finance corporations operate unchecked. Staff and contractors at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have been told they cannot “perform any work tasks.”

Consequences for the Common Good:
Consumers exposed to predatory lending, monopoly abuses, and privacy violations.

15: Social Safety Nets (SNAP, SSI, WIC)

Before Trump:
Social safety nets such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and the Wicked 7 Project ( WIC) reduced hunger, supported children, and alleviated poverty.

First Term:
Trump proposed deep cuts to food stamps and SSI, blocked in Congress.

Second Term:
In 2025, work requirements were reinstated. Funding cut. Eligibility narrowed. Millions lose food assistance.

Consequences for the Common Good:
Food insecurity and poverty rise. The poor and vulnerable abandoned.

What Next?

We listed 15 institutional areas that Trump and his MAGA (Make America Great Again) followers devastated.  Sadly, Trump’s actions changed MAGA to MAWA (Make America Weak Again).  Foreign countries are shocked and dismayed by how rapidly America sunk from the world’s Leading Democracy to a collapsing Empire with crumbling power.

Trump talks about acquire Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal.  Trump had the audacity to dictate new tariffs that he would charge not only to his enemies (China 50%), to neutral countries (India 50%, Switzerland 39%) and to his allies (Canada and Mexico 25%).  At the United Nations Security Council in June 2025, the U.S. was effectively the only country opposing an effort to move toward peace—specifically, it vetoed a resolution calling for an “immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” in Gaza.  

Within America, instead of Trump uniting Americans, he deepens divisions daily. His purpose is to openly vilify and destroy the Democrats and their party and to set himself up as a lifelong dictator. Seriously, does anyone doubt this still?

What will it take to stop this madness and restore Democracy in the USA? Time is running out.

IMAGE credit.

Israel, with US complicity, is committing genocide in Gaza through the mass starvation of the population as well as direct mass murders and the physical destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure. Israel does the dirty work. The US Government funds it and provides diplomatic cover through its UN veto. Palantir, through “Lavendar,” provides the AI for efficient mass murder. Microsoft, through Azure cloud services, and Google and Amazon, through the “Nimbus” initiative, supply core tech infrastructure for the Israeli army.

This marks 21st-century war crimes as an Israel-US public-private partnership. Israel’s mass starvation of the people of Gaza has been confirmed by the United Nations, Amnesty International, The Red Cross, Save the Children, and many others. The Norwegian Refugee Council, along with 100 organizations, has been calling for an end to Israel’s weaponization of food relief. This is the first time that mass starvation has been officially confirmed in the Middle East.

The scale of the starvation is staggering. Israel is systematically depriving food to more than 2 million people. Over half a million Palestinians face catastrophic hunger and at least 132,000 children aged under five are at risk of death from acute malnutrition. The scale of the horror is thoroughly documented by Haaretz in a recent article entitled “Starvation is Everywhere.” Those who are able to somehow access food distribution sites are routinely fired on by the Israeli army.

Israel has crossed the clear line into the darkest crimes—starving civilians to death and shooting them as they line up, emaciated, for food. There is no further line to cross, nor time to lose.

As a former US ambassador to Israel has recently explained, the intention to starve the population has been present from the start. Israel’s Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu recently declared, “there is no nation that feeds its enemies.” Minister Bezalel Smotrich recently stated, “whoever doesn’t evacuate, don’t let them. No water, no electricity; they can die of hunger or surrender. This is what we want.”

Yet despite these glaring declarations of genocide, US representatives at the UN repeatedly deny the facts and cover for Israel’s war crimes. The US alone vetoed Palestine’s admission to the UN in 2024. The US now denies visas to Palestinian leaders to come to the UN in September, yet another violation of international law.

The US has used its power and especially its veto in the UN Security Council to abet Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians and to block even the most basic humanitarian responses. The world is aghast but seems paralyzed before the Israel-US murder machine. Yet the world can act, even in the face of US intransigence. The US will stand naked and alone in its criminal complicity with Israel.

Let’s be clear. The overwhelming voice of humanity is on the side of the people of Palestine. Last December, 172 countries, with more than 90 percent of the world population, voted to support Palestine’s right to self-determination. Israel and the US were essentially isolated in their opposition. Similar overwhelming majorities are repeatedly expressed on behalf of Palestine and against the actions of Israel.

Israel’s thuggish government now counts solely on US support, but even that may not be there for long. Despite Trump’s intransigence and US government attempts to stifle pro-Palestinian voices, 58% of Americanswant the UN to recognize the State of Palestine, compared to only 33% who do not. Moreover, 60% of Americans oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Here are practical steps that the world can take.

First, Türkiye has set the correct course by ending all economic, trade, shipping, and air links with Israel. Israel is currently a rogue state, and Türkiye is right to treat it as such until Israeli-created mass starvation ends, and a State of Palestine is admitted to the UN as the 194th member, with the borders of June 4, 1967. Other states should immediately follow Türkiye’s lead.

Second, all UN member states that have not yet done so should recognize the State of Palestine. So far, 147 countries recognize Palestine. Dozens more should do so at the UN Summit on Palestine on September 22, even over the vociferous objections of the United States government.

Third, the Arab signatories to the Abraham Accords, Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan, and the UAE, should suspend their diplomatic relations with Israel until the Gaza siege ends and the State of Palestine is admitted to the UN.

Fourth, the UN General Assembly, by a vote of two-thirds present and voting, should suspend Israel from the UN General Assembly until it lifts its murderous siege on Gaza, based on the precedent of suspending South Africa during its Apartheid regime. The US has no veto in the UN General Assembly.

Fifth, UN member states should stop the export of all technology services that support the war, until the siege of Gaza ends and Palestine’s membership in the UN is adopted by the UN Security Council. Consumer companies such as Amazon and Microsoft that persist in aiding the Israel Defence Forces in the context of a genocide should face the wrath of consumers worldwide.

Sixth, the UN General Assembly should dispatch a UN Protection Force to Gaza and the West Bank. Typically, it would be the UN Security Council that mandates a protection force, but in this case, the US will block the Security Council with its veto. There is another way.

Under the “Uniting for Peace” mechanism, when the Security Council is deadlocked, the authority to act passes to the General Assembly. After a Security Council session and the almost inevitable US veto, the issue would be brought before the UNGA in a resumed 10th emergency special session on the Israel-Palestine conflict. There, the General Assembly can, by a two-thirds majority not subject to US veto, authorize a protection force in response to an urgent request from the State of Palestine. There is a precedent: in 1956, the General Assembly authorized the UN Emergency Force (UNEF) to enter Egypt and protect it from the ongoing invasion by Israel, France, and the United Kingdom.

At the invitation of Palestine, the protection force would enter Gaza to secure emergency humanitarian aid for the starving population. If Israel were to attack the UN protection force, the force would be authorized to defend itself and the Gazans. Whether Israel and the US would dare to fight a UNGA-mandated force protecting the starving Gazans remains to be seen.

Israel has crossed the clear line into the darkest crimes—starving civilians to death and shooting them as they line up, emaciated, for food. There is no further line to cross, nor time to lose. The family of nations is being tested and summoned to action as it has not been in decades.

Jeffrey D. Sachs is a University Professor and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, where he directed The Earth Institute from 2002 until 2016. He is also President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and a commissioner of the UN Broadband Commission for Development. He has been advisor to three United Nations Secretaries-General, and currently serves as an SDG Advocate under Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Sachs is the author, most recently, of “A New Foreign Policy: Beyond American Exceptionalism” (2020). Other books include: “Building the New American Economy: Smart, Fair, and Sustainable” (2017) and “The Age of Sustainable Development,” (2015) with Ban Ki-moon.

Sybil Fares is a specialist and advisor in Middle East policy and sustainable development at SDSN.

Licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Original article.

If there are any limits to a president’s power, it wasn’t evident from Donald Trump’s speech before a joint session of Congress on March 4, 2025.

In that speech, the first before lawmakers of Trump’s second term, the president declared vast accomplishments during the brief six weeks of his presidency. He claimed to have “brought back free speech” to the country. He declared that there were only two sexes, “male and female.” He reminded the audience that he had unilaterally renamed an international body of water as well as the country’s tallest mountain.

“Our country is on the verge of a comeback the likes of which the world has never witnessed, and perhaps will never witness again,” Trump asserted.

The extravagant claims appear to match Trump’s view of the presidency – one virtually kinglike in its unilateral power.

It’s true that the U.S. Constitution’s crucial section about the executive branch, Article 2, does not grant the president unlimited power. But it does make this figure the sole “Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States.”

This monopoly on the use of force is one way Trump could support his 2019 claim that he can do “whatever I want as President.”

Before Trump’s speech, protesters outside had taken issue with Trump’s wielding of such unchecked power. One protester’s sign said, “We the People don’t want false kings in our house.”

With those words, she echoed a concern about presidential power that originated more than 200 years ago.

Remnants of the monarchy

When the Constitution was written, many people – from those who drafted the document to those who read it – believed that endowing the president with such powers was dangerous.

Ratified after a lot of huffing and puffing, on May 29, 1790, by rather nervous citizens, the text of the Constitution had stirred many controversies.

It wasn’t just the oftentimes vague language, which includes head-scratchers such as the very preamble, “We the People of the United States.” Nor was the discomfort due solely to the document’s jarring brevity – at 4,543 words, the U.S. Constitution is the shortest written Constitution of any major nation in the world.

No, what made that document especially problematic, to borrow from John Adams, was that it provided for “a monarchical Republick, or if you will a limited Monarchy.”

Adams would eventually become the nation’s second president in 1797. Even though he was a staunch supporter of the Constitution, he was honest enough to take a hard look over the political layout of the new nation. And what he found were remnants of the British monarchy and traces of a king whose unchecked abuses had led the Colonists to demand their independence in the first place.

“The Name of President,” Adams couldn’t help concluding in a letter to prominent Massachusetts lawyer William Tudor, “does not alter the Nature of his office nor diminish the Regal Authorities and Powers which appear clearly in the Writing.”

While Adams was only somewhat uncomfortable, as a historian of the early republic I can stress that other observers at the time were downright appalled.

In a 1787 article published in the Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer, “An Old Whig” – identity unknown – wrote, “The office of President of the United States appears to me to be clothed with such powers as are dangerous.”

As the commander in chief of the Army, the American president “is in reality to be a king as much a King as the King of Great Britain, and a King too of the worst kind – an elective King.”

Consequently, as the author of this article resolved, “I shall despair of any happiness in the United States” until this office is “reduced to a lower pitch of power.”

‘Subjects of a military king’

Concern over a commander in chief declaring martial law, no matter the legality of the measure, was similarly on the minds of the Americans who had read the Constitution.

In 1788, a patriot who went under the pseudonym of “Philadelphiensis” – real name, Benjamin Workman – issued a sweeping warning. Should the president decide to impose martial law, “your character of free citizens” would be “changed to that of the subjects of a military king.”

A president turned military king could “wantonly inflict the most disgraceful punishment on a peaceable citizen,” the piece continued, “under pretence of disobedience, or the smallest neglect of militia duty.”

Another power given to the president was also universally considered extremely dangerous: that of granting pardons to individuals guilty of treason.

Maryland Attorney General Luther Martin reasoned that the treason most likely to take place was “that in which the president himself might be engaged.” What the president would do, Martin wrote, would be “to secure from punishment the creatures of his ambition, the associates and abettors of his treasonable practices, by granting them pardons.”

George Mason, who participated in the Constitutional Convention and also drafted Virginia’s state Constitution, foresaw a gloomy scenario. He shivered at the idea of a president who would “screen from punishment those whom he had secretly instigated to commit the crime, and thereby prevent a discovery of his own guilt.”

Choosing ‘villains or fools’

The framers did limit executive power in one significant way: The president of the United States is subject to impeachment and, upon conviction of treason or other high crimes, removal from office.

But in the meantime, the president may enact irreparable damage.

The Constitution was finally ratified – but only begrudgingly by the American citizens, who feared a president’s abuse of power. More persuasive than the legal restraints placed on the office, the belief that the people would choose their leader wisely tipped the scale toward approval.

Delegate John Dickinson asked a rhetorical question: “Will a virtuous and sensible people chuse villains or fools for their officers?”

Also, 18th-century common sense deemed it improbable that a person without virtue and magnanimity would run for the nation’s highest office. Americans’ faith in their first president, the upstanding George Washington, helped convince them that all would end well and their Constitution would be sufficient to protect the republic.

The Federalist Papers, the 85 essays written to persuade voters to support ratification, were suffused with this optimism.

People “of the character marked out for that of the President of the United States” were widely available, said the Federalist #67.

“It will not be too strong to say,” reads Federalist #68, “that there will be a constant probability of seeing the station filled by characters pre-eminent for ability and virtue.”

Government of laws?

Adams wasn’t so optimistic. He wavered. And then he flipped the issue on its head.

“There must be a positive Passion for the public good … established in the Minds of the People,” he had written in a 1776 letter, “or there can be no Republican Government, nor any real liberty.”

After almost 250 years of uninterrupted republican life, Americans are used to thinking that their nation is secured by checks and balances. As Adams kept repeating, America aims at becoming “a government of laws, and not of men.”

Americans, in other words, have long believed it is their institutions that make the nation. But the opposite is true: The people are the soul and the conscience of the republic.

Everything, in the end, boils down to the character of these people and the control they assert over who becomes their most important leader.

Maurizio Valsania, Professor of American History, Università di Torino

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

IMAGE: President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on March 4, 2025. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

There is a growing incidence of toxic leadership in organisations across the world. This is clear from anecdotal evidence as well as research which suggests that one out of every five leaders is toxic. My own research shows that closer to three out of every ten leaders are toxic.

This cancer of toxicity threatens the well being of both individuals and organisations. It also affects the performance of a society and country. That’s why there is a pressing need for leaders to understand the nature, dynamics and evolution of toxic leadership and organisations.

The word “toxic” comes from the Greek “toxikon” which means “arrow poison”. In a literal sense, the term in its original form thus means to kill (poison) in a targeted way (arrow). Toxic organisations and leaders therefore are those who deliberately destroy the fabric of the institution.

What makes a toxic leader?

Toxic leadership represents the “dark” side of leadership. It affects individuals as well as organisations.

In the case of individuals toxic leadership refers to ongoing, deliberate, intentional actions – the “arrow” – by a leader to undermine the sense of dignity, self-worth and efficacy of an individual – the “poison”. This results in exploitative, destructive, devaluing and demeaning work experiences. These destructive actions may be physical, psychosocial or even spiritual when they diminish a person’s meaning and purpose.

A toxic organisation is one that erodes, disables and destroys the physiological, psychosocial and spiritual well being of the people who work in it in permanent and deliberate ways. In other words, an organisation becomes metaphorically a “poison pill” for employees.

Workplace bullying is similar to toxic leadership, but is just one form of it. Bullying is more centred on individual, one-on-one, physical or emotional abuse by any one individual, including a leader, on another person.

In contrast to toxic leadership, healthy, authentic leadership nurtures and affirms the dignity, worth and efficacy of an individual. It creates enabling, empowering and meaningful work experiences.

And a healthy, authentic organisation is one that nurtures and grows the physiological, psychosocial and spiritual well being of its organisational members.

Can toxic leaders be competent?

Leadership toxicity and incompetence are not directly related. Both competent – getting the desired results – and incompetent leadership can be toxic.

If a narrower definition of competence is used – only focusing on technical and professional competencies – a toxic leader may still be seen as competent because they are “delivering the goods”. This is particularly true if a short term view is taken. But over the longer term their short term success is unsustainable. This is because they are destroying their teams, departments or organisations in the process.

If a comprehensive, long term view is taken toxic leaders are incompetent because they are not competent across all domains of a well-rounded leader. Taking a comprehensive view, leadership qualities include personal attributes, technical and professional competencies, values and attitudes, and conduct.

I believe that toxic leaders, regardless of their level of technical and professional competence, are incompetent. After all, competent leadership is all about getting things done with people.

Typical toxic leaders

Five typical toxic leaders exist:

• The Cold Fish: the ends justifies the means. So any decision and action is justifiable in terms of the results desired.
• The Snake: the world serves me in the endeavour to satisfy my personal needs like greed, status and power.
• Glory Seeker: personal glory and public visibility at any cost, regardless of whether I have made any real and meaningful contribution.
• Puppet Master: absolute, centralised control over everything and anyone, under all circumstances.
• Monarch: ruling the organisation as if it is my kingdom. All of its assets are available for my personal use.

The more prolific these toxic leaders are in an organisation, the more toxic the organisation. The table below profiles these toxic leaders.

Typical toxic organisations

The typical manifestations of a toxic organisation resulting from toxic leadership are:

• Negative emotional moods and mood swings: anger, despair, despondency, frustration, pessimism and aggression.
• Unproductive and meaningless work.
• Destructive and counterproductive conduct.
• Employee physical and emotional disengagement and withdrawal such as absenteeism, lack of contribution, and turnover.
• Unethical, deviant conduct: theft, fraud and sabotage.
• Poor well-being and health.
• Low (team) morale and work satisfaction.
• Organisational dis-identification and low organisational commitment.
• General life dissatisfaction.

But organisations can be toxic in their own right through the organisational culture they have. Organisational culture refers to shared ways of seeing, interpreting and acting upon the world that becomes ingrained in an organisation’s DNA. It’s the glue holding it together and provides an organisation with a way of looking at and relating to the world.

When toxic patterns become ingrained into the DNA of an organisation the following patterns emerge:

• Paranoid: the defensive, afraid, suspicious, trusting no-one or nobody organisation.
• Compulsive: the over-planned and over-programmed organisation.
• Hyperactive: the impulsive, unfocused organisation, acting like an adolescent.
• Deflated: the energyless, depressed and impotent organisation.
• Delusional: the reality estranged, make-believe organisation, living in a world of its own.
• Conscienceless: the unethical, amoral organisation.

There appears to be a growing incidence of the cancer of toxic leadership and organisations. This is in no uncertain terms endangering the well being of organisational members, compromising future sustainable organisational, community and societal performance and success, as well as the very continued existence of them.

This article is based on a longer, more comprehensive academic paper.

Theo Veldsman, Professor and Head, Department of Industrial Psychology and People Management, University of Johannesburg

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Trump 2.0 can be described as a kakistocracy – a state or society governed by its least suitable or competent citizens.

Let’s process that.

Donald Trump and the Republican Party have made dismantling Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives a core part of their political platform, claiming these programs undermine merit and lower standards. Yet, when it comes to their own appointments, qualifications and competence take a backseat to blind loyalty and political convenience. WTF?

The contradiction couldn’t be clearer: while they rail against DEI as a threat to excellence, they openly embrace mediocrity when it serves their own interests.

Trump’s first term was a case study in this hypocrisy. He repeatedly filled key government positions with individuals who had no business being there. Betsy DeVos, a billionaire donor with no experience in public education, was put in charge of the Department of Education. Rick Perry, who once pledged to eliminate the Department of Energy, was placed in charge of it—only to later admit he didn’t fully understand its function. Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon with no background in housing policy, was appointed to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The problem wasn’t just incompetence—it was an intentional disregard for expertise in favor of ideological alignment. Trump sought appointees who would be loyal to him personally, rather than those who had the knowledge and skills to effectively lead their respective departments. This trend continued in his judicial appointments, where qualifications took a backseat to political allegiance, resulting in the nomination of judges deemed unqualified by the American Bar Association.

Now, for Trump 2.0, his potential cabinet picks reveal the same troubling pattern:

• Marco Rubio, Secretary of State – A career politician with no foreign policy leadership experience. Lacks deep diplomatic experience; more of a legislator than a negotiator.
• Kash Patel, F.B.I. Director – Has never served in a senior law enforcement position or led a large investigative agency.  Mr. Patel is a right-wing operative who has vowed to use the position to exact revenge on Mr. Trump’s adversaries.
• Pam Bondi, Attorney General – A former Florida attorney general with ties to Trump’s legal battles. Faced scrutiny for dropping a Trump University fraud investigation after receiving a $25,000 donation from Trump’s foundation.
• Pete Hegseth, Defense Secretary – A Fox News host with military experience but no Pentagon leadership background. Unlike past Defense Secretaries, he has never held a senior military or civilian leadership role in the Department of Defense.
• Kristi Noem, Homeland Security Secretary – A governor with no direct national security experience.
• Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Labor Secretary – A former congresswoman with limited labor policy experience.
• John Ratcliffe, CIA Director – A former congressman with a history of politicizing intelligence.
• Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence – A former Democratic congresswoman with a controversial record on foreign policy.
• Mehmet Oz, Medicare and Medicaid Administrator – A TV doctor known for promoting dubious medical treatments.
• Lee Zeldin, EPA Administrator – A politician with a record of voting against environmental protections.
• Elise Stefanik, UN Ambassador – A Trump loyalist with little foreign policy experience.
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr., HHS Secretary – A vaccine skeptic with no public health credentials.
• Doug Burgum, Interior Secretary – A governor with strong fossil fuel industry ties.
• Doug Collins, Veterans Affairs Secretary – A former congressman with military chaplain experience but no VA leadership background.
• Scott Bessent, Treasury Secretary – A hedge fund billionaire with financial conflicts of interest.
• Brooke Rollins, Agriculture Secretary – A conservative think tank executive with no agricultural policy background.
• Howard Lutnick, Commerce Secretary – A Wall Street executive facing potential conflicts of interest.
• Sean Duffy, Transportation Secretary – A reality TV star turned congressman with no transportation policy experience.

The lineup underscores the blatant hypocrisy at play. The GOP’s claim that DEI threatens meritocracy is a smokescreen for their real objective: consolidating power and rewarding loyalty over competence. If Republicans were truly concerned about merit, they would demand expertise in governance—not just fealty to Trump.

You got played, MAGA. You elected the Keystone cops – the gang that couldn’t shoot straight!

BY Rebekkah Markey-Towler, The University of Melbourne

On his first day back in office as United States president, Donald Trump gave formal notice of his nation’s exit from the Paris Agreement – a vital global treaty seeking to rein in climate change.

Before signing the order, Trump declared his reasons to an arena of cheering supporters, describing the global agreement as an “unfair, one-sided Paris climate accord rip-off”.

Of course, this is not the first time Trump has withdrawn the US from the Paris deal – he did it in 2017, during his first term in office.

On one hand, Trump’s move is a huge blow to efforts to global climate action. The US is the world’s second-biggest emitter of greenhouse gas pollution, after China. The country is crucial to the global effort to curb climate change.

But given Trump’s climate denialism, it’s actually better that the US absent itself from international climate talks while he is in power. That way, the rest of the world can get on with the job without Trump’s corrosive influence.

A quick refresher on the Paris Agreement

Signed by 196 nations in 2015, the Paris Agreement is the first comprehensive global treaty to combat climate change.

Its overall goal is to hold the increase global temperatures to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, and pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C.

Scientists say meeting the more ambitious 1.5°C target is crucial, because crossing that threshold risks unleashing catastrophic climate change impacts, such as more frequent and severe droughts and heatwaves.

Under the agreement, each nation must make national plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to help reach the global temperature goals. These plans are known as “nationally determined contributions”.

What Trump’s withdrawal means

Under Trump’s last presidency, the US was only out of the Paris deal for four months, due to the time it took for the retreat to take effect. President Joe Biden rejoined the agreement in early 2021.

This time, the US withdrawal will become official more quickly – after a year. Then, the US will join Iran, Libya and Yemen as the only United Nations countries not party to the agreement.

The US can keep participating as a party to the Paris agreement until January 2026. That means it may try to negotiate at the COP30 climate change conference in Brazil this year.

COP30 is a big deal. It is when each country is due to present its new nationally determined contributions. The US withdrawal means it is unlikely to bring a new contribution to the meeting – if it attends at all.

Should the US show up, its presence would potentially destabilise negotiations. That’s why removing Trump-backed negotiators from the climate talks going forward is a good outcome.

If the US stayed in the tent under Trump, its negotiators could, for example, agitate to weaken any deals struck at future COP meetings. We saw such tactics from Saudi Arabia at COP29 in Baku. The oil state repeatedly disrupted the talks and in one instance, sought to alter important text in the agreement without full consultation.

With the US out of the way, the other parties to the Paris agreement have a better chance of progressing climate negotiations.

At this stage, it doesn’t appear other countries are preparing to follow Trump out the door. This is despite controversy at the COP29 talks when Argentinian president Javier Milei ordered his negotiators to withdraw only a few days in. Milei had previously described the climate emergency as a “socialist lie”.

At this stage, Trump has not withdrawn from the Paris Agreement’s parent convention, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. So after it withdraws from the Paris deal, the US can still attend COP meetings, but only as an observer.

Onwards and upwards

Of course, there are downsides to the US withdrawal from the Paris deal.

Leaving the Paris agreement means the US is no longer required to provide annual updates on its greenhouse gas emissions. This lack of transparency makes it harder to determine how the world is tracking on emissions reduction overall.

Under the Biden administration, the US contributed funding to help developing nations adopt clean energy and cope with climate change (albeit delivering less than it promised). Trump is expected to slash this funding. That will leave vulnerable nation states in an even more precarious position.

While the US was technically only out of the Paris deal for a short period last time, the process was destabilising. It weakened what was an unprecedented show of international solidarity and sent a damaging message about the importance of climate action.

Trump’s latest withdrawal is a similar blow to morale. It’s particularly galling for Americans fighting for climate action, and those struggling with its devastating effects – most recently, the unthinkable fires in Los Angeles.

But Trump’s withdrawal can easily be reversed by a new US president. And we can expect other parties to Paris, such as China and the European Union, to continue to play a leadership role, and others to fill the vacuum.

What’s more, as others have noted, Trump cannot derail global climate action. Investment in clean energy is now greater than in fossil fuels. When Trump last pulled out of Paris, many US state and local governments pressed ahead with climate policy; we can expect the same this time around.

And the vast majority of the rest of the world is still pursuing emissions reduction efforts.

So overall, the US exit from Paris is probably the best of a bunch of bad options. It mutes Trump’s capacity to destabilise international climate action, allowing others to step into the breach.

Rebekkah Markey-Towler, PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School, and Research fellow, Melbourne Climate Futures, The University of Melbourne

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Is your business degenerative? Is it following the well-thumbed playbook of corporate crapitalism?

Here’s an undeniable truth: most businesses are degenerative. They exploit, extract, and destroy – decimating the Common Good. Let’s confront the ugly reality of how most companies operate:

1. You Can’t Kill Your Customer and Call It Value Creation

It’s basic: if your business harms your customers, it’s doomed. Selling junk food, addictive products, or predatory services might work for a while, but it’s a race to the bottom. You can’t build trust—or a future—on exploitation. Long-term value means putting people’s well-being at the core of your business.

2. Business Is Part of Nature, Not Apart from It

A no-brainer. All business depends on the beneficence of Nature, yet most treat Nature like it’s disposable. The truth is, your business can’t thrive if the planet doesn’t. Whether it’s your supply chain, energy consumption, or waste management, ask yourself: are you regenerating or destroying? The future belongs to companies that heal, not harm.

3. Spreadsheets Don’t Lead, People Do

If your CEO runs the business by spreadsheet, you’ve already lost. Decisions made by algorithms and bottom-line thinking strip humanity out of the equation. Customers and employees aren’t data points—they’re people. Businesses that fail to connect on this level will be replaced by, well, algorithms. Real leadership is about purpose, empathy, and vision—not just numbers.

4. Profiting from Suffering Won’t Last

You can only profit from pain for so long. Sweatshops, environmental destruction, wage theft—they all come back to bite. Public outrage and growing awareness will destroy businesses that thrive on suffering. A regenerative business profits by solving problems, not creating them.

5. Hedge Fund Rule Equals Extraction

When hedge funds run the show, businesses stop being businesses. They become extraction machines, sucking out value for short-term profits and leaving employees, communities, and ecosystems in ruin. These companies strip-mine everything they touch. Real businesses build—extractive ones destroy.

6. CEO Pay: How Much Is Too Much?

When it takes over 100 years for your workers to earn what your CEO makes in a year, you have a problem. Inequality within organizations is a ticking time bomb. Pay disparities demoralize workers, erode trust, and fuel resentment. It’s not just about fairness; it’s about survival. Companies that share the wealth will endure. The others? Good riddance.

7. Does Your Business Give Back More Than It Takes?

Communities are the backbone of any business. But how many companies extract from their communities without giving back? If your business takes more than it contributes, it’s not just unsustainable—it’s parasitic. Businesses that reinvest in their communities create loyal customers, happier employees, and long-term resilience.

8. Do Your Employees Fear You?

When employees are afraid to speak up, to organize, or to challenge the status quo, your business is broken. Fear kills creativity, innovation, and loyalty. A thriving business creates a culture of trust, respect, and empowerment. Fear-driven workplaces collapse under their own weight.

9. Do Your Leaders All Think the Same?

When leadership is homogenous, you get groupthink. Homogeneity limits perspective, stifles innovation, and reinforces the status quo. Diversity isn’t just about representation—it’s about better decision-making. If all your leaders vote the same, think the same, and act the same, your business is on autopilot—heading for a crash.

The world doesn’t need more degenerative businesses. It needs regenerative organizations. Regenerative businesses don’t just reduce harm—they create value for people, communities, and the planet. They restore what’s been destroyed. They repair what’s broken. They rethink what’s possible. They regenerate the Common Good.

The path forward is clear. The question is: will your organization make the Big Shift, or will it double down on crapitalism?