The Choice Before Us

Tuesday, 6 January 2026, 9:56 am
Opinion: Martin LeFevre - Meditations

With the Trump Administration’s unprovoked and nakedly aggressive attack on Venezuela, the outlines of 2026 are already clear. And the fact that it worked in the immediate means darkness and chaos have been fully unleashed in the world. The imperative of psychological and philosophical revolution, manifesting in a true global order, can no longer be put off.

Domestically, Americans love nothing more than a quick and ‘clean’ military action. The US bombing and kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro has achieved its intended effect -- distracting from Trump’s growing unpopularity, and pulling the rug out from under the resistance movement.

Internationally, as one commentator put it, Trump’s act of aggression and kidnapping the head of another state, a kinsman of corruption, veritably screams, “The US is the law and is not subject to any higher one, able to wield its extraordinary power and lethality in the dead of night, kill dozens of innocents and face no consequences.”

Russia, which has stepped up its battlefield and urban drone attacks in Ukraine even as Potemkin village peace talks go on, laughably said it was an “unacceptable violation of the sovereignty of an independent state.” Make no mistake, the takeover of a South American country justifies Russia’s four-year war against Ukraine in Putin’s mind. It provides a model for decapitation of a government that he can only envy with respect to his nemesis Zelenskyy.

China, which has taken a slow and steady approach to a takeover of Taiwan, now has a free hand. Whether Xi decides to strike while the iron is hot, following Trump’s playbook, there’s no pretence of international law to stop him. Worldwide, there is only the raw calculus of power.

European leaders continue to try to have things both ways, at once mouthing platitudes about international law and the UN charter while bowing and scraping before Trump and US power. When will the EU and its member states stop stumbling along behind Trump’s narcissistic whims?

Keir Starmer says that the situation is “fast moving” and that he will “establish all the facts.” The EU Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, is “following very closely the situation in Venezuela … any solution must respect international law and the UN Charter.”

Less mealy-mouthed statements emanated from South America Brazilian president Lula, who said, “Attacking countries, in blatant violation of international law, is the first step towards a world of violence, chaos and instability, where the law of the strongest prevails over multilateralism.” Of course, “international law” has always meant rules and norms, and now it’s irrefutably a term devoid of meaning.

That’s born out by a weak tea response from Antonio Guterres, who initially said the action by the USA “sets a dangerous precedent,” before adding today, “I remain deeply concerned that rules of international law have not been respected.”

With all due respect Secretary-General, the dangerous precedent was set over 20 years ago with America’s illegal, ill-conceived invasion of Iraq. Indeed, since the Security Council gave its imprimatur to the Persian Gulf War over 30 years ago, it has become a millstone around the neck of the General Assembly.

The US partial payment of dues with conditions last week “points to the fact that the UN system itself is now so subservient to the American system that it is literally bowing down to just one power,” as Themrise Khan, an independent researcher on aid systems said a few days before the US attack.

The overdue dues for UN humanitarian work with strings attached came on the heels of this Trump tweet: “Perhaps the United States has become the REAL United Nations.” He’s that deluded. Emboldened by a co-opted and corrupted US military, Trump now threatens Colombia and Cuba, Iran and even Greenland.

The question is, will Trump’s “perfectly” planned and executed military strike mark a total slide into a world of violence, chaos and instability, or the first step in a humane world and greater harmony with nature?

That turns on a deeper question. Is the man-made evil operating through Trump and his ilk bringing the human crisis to a head and compelling us to radically change? Or is humankind’s course set, at least for the foreseeable future -- a hellish world of power, corruption and chaos?

In a global society of converging crises, from ecological destruction, to gross economic disparity driving desperate migrants, from political disintegration, to AI slop escalating human stupidity we can no longer afford to see ourselves as separate individuals and nations. Ending the emotionally embedded habit of identifying with ethnic, national or religious conceptions is not an ideal, but the intensifying requirement for life, a precondition for ceasing the plundering of the planet and creating a workably harmonious world.

Philosophically, knee-jerk assumptions of thinking in terms of national frameworks have to be superseded by conceptions of global interconnection and governance. There is no such thing as ‘good nationalism,’ and to think of oneself first as a patriot to a nation is to be a traitor to humanity.

Yet even the former executive director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, uses the word “sovereign” six times in his op-ed condemning Trump’s aggression, as if repeating the word will reinforce the defunct principle.

A new architecture urgently needs to be built, beyond the obsolete 20th century international order, and the 17th century Westphalian order. Sovereignty means “supreme principle,” and there cannot be 200 supreme principles in a global society, or raw power will continue to rule and ruin the earth and humanity.

Besides, the sovereignty of nation-states has been severed from the self-determination of peoples. Sovereignty now belongs to humanity, and multilateralism can only function within a political philosophy and framework that reflects the reality of a global society.

For a genuine global order to emerge, a psychological revolution at the core of human consciousness has to ignite. Only a revolution of the human heart will enable humankind to change course from the increasing fragmentation of the earth and the world. That’s the direction that malignant nationalists like Trump fear the most -- a global civilization.

Politically and paradoxically, an authentic, non-power-holding global body of great moral suasion that supersedes the UN is essential if it is not now to go the way of the League of Nations. It will be composed of ordinary world citizens from all over the world, rather than separate governments and particular groups with their own competing agendas.

What can one person do? Make space beyond the personal dimension. Our true power is as undivided individuals, not in organizing and mass movements. The task of human beings is to question and ignite insight together wherever we are to meet all facets of the polycrisis facing humanity.

Martin LeFevre

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Martin LeFevre - Meditations

Scoop Contributor

Martin LeFevre is a contemplative and philosopher.

His sui generis “Meditations” explore spiritual, philosophical and political questions relating to the polycrisis facing humanity.

lefevremartin77@gmail