It’s been hard not to be flabbergasted by Donald Trump’s return to the White House. And yet, all we are witnessing is, no more and no less, the most caricatured but assumed, unfiltered form of the dominant model of society that we have been living in for several centuries. We, are the educated, polite Westerners who have always been on the right side of history. The shock, if there is one, is far less brutal for other parts of our societies, our world, for whom the suffering will only continue. Nothing surprises me anymore*…
This system has a name: capitalism, colonial and extractivist, masculinist and brutal, oligarchic and individualistic. Donald Trump’s rise to power only highlights and accelerates the self-destructive and brutal reality of our civilization. This is not a rupture, but a continuity that is as caricatural as it is coherent. The destruction of living things, the explosion of inequalities, the unlimited exploitation and monopolization of territories and finite resources, the techno-scientific headlong rush did not wait for Trump or Musk to exist. Attempts to establish the rule of law in order to regulate or even moralize capitalism are an illusory hope, a cover-up that has put us all to sleep. From now on, things seem clear, at least the debate needs to open up the need for a profound rethink, or even a radical departure from this system.
Obviously, even if it is part of a continuity, it represents a disturbing tragedy that we cannot rejoice in. This tragedy will affect the weakest first and foremost, as well as future generations. It is the result of an imbalance of power that defends the interests of a minority and immediate profit against the general interest and the future. It flies in the face of science and common sense, and risks frightening systemic ecological collapse. It is the result of manipulation, carried out by a mediacentric political system and social networks in the hands of an oligarchy as corrupted as it is cynical, which prefers chaos rather than see its hegemony challenged.
It demonstrates the impasse of liberal democracy, where for several decades now, at the ballot box, it has not been ideas that have won, but the most economically powerful forces. This is confirmation that we are in a plutocracy. The time has come to explore other , more direct and deliberative, forms of democracy, which are more demanding, inclusive and empowering.
In this sense, the current episode is perhaps an opportunity. It clarifies things. It forces all those, who are truly sincere in their progressive and emancipatory aspirations, and in their understanding of ecological reality, to stop kidding themselves. Science has been warning us for decades that there is no such thing as green or sustainable growth, any more than deregulated markets can be moralized. Karl Polanyi was already warning us in the last century of the dangers of such a sham, which had led Europe to the abyss**. Everything has been skilfully ignored and evaded for decades. All alternatives have been eliminated – alterglobalism has been buried. The end of history has fooled us, leaving the way clear for new monsters, infantile, childish and individualistic. Inequality has never reached such levels. At the cost of ecological self-destruction, the consequences of which are already beginning to be felt and are sure to intensify. We know that we’re coming to the end of a civilizational model based on the illusion of infinite growth, hybris and limitlessness.
Eternal growth is incompatible with the most elementary laws of physics. It is to the detriment of living things. We are flirting with thresholds of irreversibility threatening the continuation of the adventure of our living species, homo-sapiens, on the only livable planet we know, Earth.
Drill, baby, drill. Unfortunately, ecological collapse is happening before the resources to fuel it run out. There is still far too much fossil fuel left to continue this self-destructive headlong rush. Biden, Obama, Van der Leyen and Macron, to take just a few examples, had neither the capacity nor the intention to stop the hemorrhage, so much so that our civilizational model still depends on fossil fuel. In all likelihood, with or without Trump, it will only stop under physical duress. When the party’s over. But the end of growth is inevitable, and pressing the extractivist gas pedal will only speed things up. One cannot negotiate with reality, even less with always more delirious slogans or fake news.
Nor will growth solve deep-seated structural problems, whether economic (debt, inequality), social or democratic. Growth, which is increasingly difficult to achieve, has not created more well-being in wealthy societies for several decades. On the contrary, the price being paid is appalling, not to mention that it comes at the expense of the Global South, still exploited in the name of so-called development. This headlong rush is not going to abate.
On the contrary to what ballot box results might suggest, the basic cultural hegemony is not Trumpism. Majorities seem to aspire to break with this dominant system based on the always-more mania and a techno-solutionism that convinces only a minority of believers. Unfortunately, this is not enough to reverse an unequal balance of power, or counterbalance a democratic system that is weak, obsolete and even toxic in relation to the challenges we face. Citizens are ready for change, but only on two conditions: social justice and democracy. The first, beyond strong and necessary redistribution, relies on the wealthiest to set an example. The second is based on real, direct democracy, citizens’ deliberations, so that they can play an active role in political change, far removed from the appalling spectacle of beauty contests and electioneering.***.
As always, what is expected is security, tranquility, and the freedom to be and to think. Today these, historically left-wing and progressive values, have been snatched up by so-called strongmen who understand the plebs. Through incompetence and inconsistency, they have also appropriated historically progressive notions such as peace, and hijacked them to impose their brutality.
I’m writing this from Budapest, Hungary, where I have been living for the past twenty years. This country, and more precisely the regime that has been in place for the past 15 years and of which I am a privileged witness, is a laboratory that inspired Trump 2025. It shows that the collapse is above all moral, so great is the gap between rhetoric and reality. The rule of law and truth are in retreat, and legislative and social brutality are taking over. The result is demoralization and withdrawal. It’s the cult of the arbitrary and the law of the strongest. The collapse is also the collapse of living together. In spite of everything, life goes on and everyday life is far more complex and often more beautiful, in good times and bad, than the speeches and the nauseating atmosphere that has been created…
The current worrying, staggering, exhausting and demoralizing period can and must be an opportunity to finally ask ourselves the right questions. It’s a concern of clearly defining the real political cleavages. The choice is between degrowth or barbarism. Barbarism is here, the barbarism of self-destructive limitlessness, imposed and at the service of a minority. Degrowth means accepting that we are coming to the end of a civilizational model that is as unsustainable as it is undesirable. This system has a name: capitalism and its neo-liberal, even illiberal and libertarian excesses, accompanied by productivism, extractivism, post-colonialism and techno-scientism. It’s time to break free.
In this asymmetrical war, where the balance of power is so unequal, the challenge is first and foremost to survive, individually and collectively, but also psychologically, in the face of the flood of nonsense imposed on us. It’s a question of maintaining and protecting ethics, values, culture and principles, but also of living together in spirit and in practice.
To achieve this, we must not fall into the traps set by the current political agenda or their themes. We must resist, without exposing ourselves, head-on. We must do so with subtlety and ingenuity, to protect the spaces, breathing territories, of what’s left of the rule of law. We need to create and re-create mutual aid and solidarity, informal and decentralized but connected, rooted in reality and open to the world…
Finally, we need to prepare for the aftermath, which may come too soon or too late. Their madness has an end, so let’s think about it and start building the new, sustainable and convivial worlds that the majority of us aspire to see emerge.
To achieve this, we need to relaunch a large, multi-diverse, decentralized movement. We need to flee social networks and mainstream media to write the true story of everyday life. Tomorrow’s worlds are built on reality. We need to tell a counter-narrative of the good life, of common decency, of hope, with creativity, solidarity, audacity… and joy. Which is what we need now more than ever!
Vincent Liegey
Vincent Liegey is an engineer, interdisciplinary researcher, writes and lectures on degrowth, and is a coordinator of international degrowth conferences and of Cargonomia, a practical degrowth centre in Budapest.
* In song it’s better: Tiken Jah Fakoly – Plus rien ne m’étonne (from which I freely took inspiration for the title of my article).
** Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation, 1944
*** Vincent Liegey, Décroissance ou Barbarie, Revue Esprit, 2024
Illustration: Couverture d’Alternatives Economiques n°405 – 10/2020 – Un monde sans croissance est possible
