Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a traumatic albeit ironic disease. In MS patients, the immune system attacks their own central nervous system damaging the brain and spinal cord. I recalled this when my wife told me about a bright Indian academic in the US.
She wanted to invite this scholar to Koç University Asia Center which she chairs. But the Indian academic had to decline as he was not sure whether he would be able to travel back to the US because of the confusion about the new US immigration policy.
His anxiety is in fact echoed by many others, not least the American “establishment”. The “White Helmets”, whose heroic humanitarian efforts in Syria became an Oscar-winning documentary, watched their own Oscar ceremony from television in Istanbul because of the travel ban.
I wonder what would remain of the US story if talent from around the world could not travel to America. Experimenting with American ecosystem that attracts global talent is a sort of MS. From the atomic bomb to Apple, the US is a hyperpower thanks to that ecosystem.
I think it is time to get real about the implications of what is unfolding in many parts of the developed world.
Firstly, violent racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia is now a tidal wave and cannot be ignored or rationalised. Remember the murder of engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla in Kansas or six Muslims at a mosque in Quebec or the attack at a Jewish cemetery in Rochester or no less than 115 such attacks a year in Belgium alone.
Secondly, post-factual and pseudo-nationalistic, xenophobic populism is defining itself as a transnational political movement. One point this movement is right about is that in 2008 a particular economic system had collapsed and needs to be rebuilt albeit with major corrections. There are three elections this year to watch in Europe between March and September.
This week in the Netherlands a demagogue, uttering xenophobic gibberish, freshly enthused by the Brexit and the US elections, will seriously contend for power. A few weeks later the French will vote to elect their next president.
The top centrist contenders have a habit of falling off because of scandalous revelations. And that leaves the first round almost uncontestably to the leader of the extreme right. La France can only be saved at the second round. Then comes Germany in September where the political centre is also eroding in a tyranny of the educated class. These are important countries that can set the direction.
I use “left and right” reluctantly and only due to habit. Marine Le Pen is correct in stating that in politics, “the division is no longer right-left”. Yet, she is typically demagogical in suggesting a false dichotomy of “patriot versus globalist” instead.
The erosion of the political centre is in fact bad news for both the traditional left and right. Thus, both flanks of the centre must go back to the black board and think how to redefine themselves, starting from their economic policies, without giving in to extremist hollow demagoguery which ultimately undermines democracy.
They may start from redistribution of wealth, social security, infrastructure development, job and growth generation as well as productivity and innovation, social, political, economic and cultural inclusion, cooperative international security and humanitarian multilateralism.
Recently, I was in London and came across a political rally which championed better National Health System and underscored the positive role of migrants overall in the British story. The democratic impulses are still alive. But the intellectuals seem to have fallen sadly out of shape. Wake up! Happy Holi!
Follow him on Twitter @akcapar