Rise of the ‘Angry White Man’ and collapse of Western empires

In 1984, the dystopian novel published in 1949 by George Orwell, our present is perfectly captured in his futuristic crystal ball.

No work of fiction, as far as I know, anticipated history with such perfect clairvoyance.

The book warns of the dangers of the iron-fisted propagandistic state which turns everyone into a minion.

It’s set in a world befallen by continuous war, propaganda and intrusive state surveillance. Everything isn’t what it seems.

Big Brother, the ultimate leader around whom a cult revolves, uses the Thought Police to crush all independent thinking and dissent.

There’s despair and despondency everywhere. Truly Orwellian, the novel describes our current predicaments – distrust in institutions, official deception, and secret surveillance through illiberalism and authoritarianism.

Today I want to focus on one of those predicaments – the end of trust in institutions.

We live in dangerous times everywhere on the planet. Pax Americana, the period of post-war American dominance, has clearly entered its sunset, even though the United States is still the mightiest power on earth.

But the election of Donald Trump in 2016 to the helm of the behemoth signalled the inner decay in the American Empire.

His and the White House’s congenital lying – the invention of alternative facts – is emblematic of an ideological fatigue, a failure to reimagine the so-called American ingenuity.

It’s the end of the road for the post-war schema of ideas built on liberalism – markets, democracy, and internationalism.

Is it the end of liberalism? I don’t think so. But it’s the end of a certain global order built on liberalism.

No one knows what will emerge out of the ashes of the West as we know it. Nor am I suggesting this is happening tomorrow.

But it’s coming. Question: how did we get here? Admittedly, all ideas and empires have a shelf life. The Roman Empire came and went.

So did the British Empire. We know what happened to the dynasties of China or the kingdoms of west Africa. Left in their stead are only faint memories and nostalgia.

Rubble and ruins lie where the Mayans, Aztecs, and Incas once trod. I saw it personally in Machu Picchu.

First, let me start with the West since that’s where much of the angst has come from. It’s difficult to get to the top.

But they say it’s much more difficult to stay there. Nothing has ravaged the West more than the systems it created.

Principal among these is the global market trading system domiciled in the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

This post-war system allowed the dominance of the global economy by the US and the West.

That’s until Asian countries – first Japan and then China and the Asian Tigers, among others like Brazil – unlocked the secrets of economic growth. They’re beating America and the West in their own game.

The American and West’s share of the global market has shrunk while that of Asia and countries in the Global South has expanded.

In practical terms, workers in the West – who formed the great middle classes – have been squeezed by low wages, unemployment, job insecurity, and the instability of pensions.

As a result, the Angry White Man – the voter who put Mr Trump in office and led to the slow torture of Brexit in Britain as well as the rise of white supremacist, anti-immigrant, racist, nativist and the far right in the industrial democracies of the West – has taken centre stage.

Like the Roman Empire, which was collapsed by enemies within and without, the West’s fate is no different.

The Angry White Man in the West blames everyone, except himself, for the decline of the West.

He hates multilateralism, the UN, the ruling elites, the mainstream media, intellectuals and universities, and anything that makes basic sense. He questions plain facts.

Like in 1984, he has built a personality cult around Mr Trump. American liberals, progressives, and the Left have been paralysed by this surge of naked racism and counter-factualism.

American has risen up against American. The Empire is eating itself from within. Russia’s Vladimir Putin and other autocrats have stoked fires of dysfunction in America and the West.

He’s leading a charge against liberalism, democracy, and human rights. He has able allies in China, Hungary and Brazil.

At the periphery of the Empire – and Kenya is a good example – the Age of the Distrust of Institutions has taken deep root.

The failure of the democratic experiments in Kenya and elsewhere in Africa has deepened the public’s despair.

The daily brazen looting of public coffers by politicians and bureaucrats — now more visible because of social media — has blown the lid off the mystique of officialdom.

We see the emperor without clothes. The words of the state ring hollow when it speaks. Trust is gone.

Cynicism and anger have become the new currency of citizenship. Neither the East nor the West offer us any hope. We will perish if we don’t save ourselves.

Makau Mutua is SUNY Distinguished Professor at SUNY Buffalo Law School and Chair of KHRC. @makaumutua.