What a view!

Way to start 2026! The Venezuela operation is top of world news as a clear restatement of US leadership over the world. Even though American position in the world remains the same - the most powerful country, the richest country - this Venezuela action proves on the extreme ends that the democratic, rules based world order until 2025 was indeed working very well and that there is a resurgence of the old world order where a few people own resources and everyone else lives in their world (as Kings and Aristocrats ruled over ranks). Make America Great Again is indeed a successful endeavor in this aspect.

For me, all this is shocking and somewhat depressing at first. It destroys the norm and replaces it with a powerful precedent for future actions that will become the norm very soon. This is how I would feel if the Department of Transportation razed houses to build a road through a city, just at a very large scale. The American President has claimed eminent domain and set a new standard for preserving American interest. It is not a bad goal and, as the Secretary of State says, it declares how important National Security is in terms of geopolitical span of control. It is a shocking interpretation of geopolitics and its current day imperative. It shocks me because of its audacity and its scale. It walks back on all the progress that the Progressives achieved towards global harmony and world peace. As many statisticians, historians and philosophers have written in several books, we live in an unprecedented peaceful world today. If you would believe all those accounts, as I believed, the Venezuela operation shocks those beliefs. A few people at the top of the world made a determination that the future security of Americans relies on forcing our will on the rest of the world. It looks as if all the goals that Progressives accomplished in the last few decades is for naught after all. That is depressing. It is time to look beyond this shock and depression. This is the world we live in and we must make the best of it now.

I have always viewed my world with technology tinted glasses. Technology, in this context, is a culmination of science, reason, invention and societal change. The iPhone is an invention and is one part of the "Technology" that I refer to. It could not have come about without the underlying science of chips, Wi-Fi or materials. It could not have stood the test of markets and laws without reason and logic. Finally, it needed a great change in the society to be what it is today. When I say "technology tinted glasses" I mean that whole stew. Through these glasses, I saw wide spread productivity gains, better health and longevity, better quality of life for all in the world as key progressive goals. I do realize that all goals, progressive or otherwise, have impediments that must be overcome. In that sense, for all the progress in economic globalization, us aid programs, anti-terror operations, we have seen equal impediments in terms of Russian aggression, Chinese hegemony, Islamic Terrorism (Al Qaeda, Taliban, ISIS, Boko Haram) and American flaws (guns, healthcare and criminal greed). I thought, and I assumed, that technology will help the whole world solve all impediments. Now, there is a new angle. It appears that Military Force is an equally good solution to these impediments. Maybe it is necessary to reign in some of these impediments from time to time. Maybe it is necessary to show the world that no one should impede progress - or else! In that sense, I remain optimistic that after all this is behind us, we can continue marching towards global development and world peace. I am fully aware that right now, in this moment, this optimism feels like a big lie.

What can go wrong? We could regress to an aristocratic society. Kings, Princes, Dukes in their modern garb as Presidents, Social Media Influencers, Oligarchs, AI Model Owners could rule the world and all of us may fill classes of people doing the ruler's bidding. We might still vote but we will vote per their influence. We might eat what they throw us. We might all be training ground for their AI or whatever Big Thing they want to do in the name of Progress as they see it. Full blown George Orwell 1984! This is a serious possibility and this possibility lays bare the risks of this Venezuelan Operation. Will our next President be strong enough to control the wolf that this administration is unleashing? What if the upcoming aristocrats install an amenable leader to do their bidding? That is the imminent risk. In the long run, I fear the world future generations might live in. Health, wealth and security might become a service to be purchased from our leaders for a life time of servitude. Thought and speech freedoms might be limited to what the AI will allow. There might be constant tug of war between the rulers and the ranks because no matter how small, the Progressives will continue to live - like a germ that constantly tries to overpower its host.

I want to believe that all is for good. I can't believe it right now.