by Bill Schlesinger
In the past few months, I have asked myself repeatedly, how did Trump win? The question is even more pressing now that he has been inaugurated. Trump’s misbehavior is legendary, yet, strangely, I find that a lot of my friends seem less upset about the prospects of a Trump presidency than they were 8 years ago.
The Trump election seems in line with an increasing global trend towards autocracy[i] in world governments during the past 20 years. Perhaps the world has become too complex and human numbers too large for democracy to work anymore? Has the process been corrupted by money? Are we comfortable with kings?
My gut feeling is that the rise of autocracy is driven by the subtle pressures that we all feel each day from a planet that is too full of people. The world seems small when we hear of minerals that are in short supply and critical supplies are controlled by other countries: Phosphorus (Morocco), Cobalt (Congo), Nickel (New Guinea), and rare earth metals (China). Copper is now mined from low-grade deposits that are loaded with arsenic. Currently, the U.S. has ample petroleum, but the price of petroleum on world markets is stubbornly high due to terrorism and wars that disrupt the global supply chain.
Advocates of MAGA feel that DEI initiatives are misplaced—their kids can’t get into decent colleges and their jobs are threatened (or lost) by foreign competition and the appearance of preferential hiring at home. Housing is short and basic goods are in high demand, driving up prices. The borders seem porous to immigration; MAGA asks why we need all these people. Many followers of MAGA embrace assault weapons to counter a potential uprising of the masses.
Ecology holds some lessons for us. Aggression in troops of chimpanzees is related to ensuring adequate food and desirable mates within the group. Aggressive territorial behavior in birds is inversely related to the prevailing conditions of food supply. Humans seem prone to follow such Darwinian behaviors; evolutionary biology doesn’t leave much room for altruism.
The Trump administration offers immediate carrots to assuage to the problems of a full planet—tariffs, lower taxes, less spending for the public good, and impermeable borders to those who don’t look like us. Trump favors resource extraction over wilderness preservation. When it comes to grabbing a larger portion of Earth’s remaining bounty, Greenland has curb appeal.
Unfortunately, an immediate focus on a crowded planet overlooks long-term problems such as population growth, climate change, overfishing, rainforest destruction, and chemical pollution. These problems are harder to see and likely to play out with indirect and diffuse impacts on our future. Many will require global cooperation, which we should foster, not thwart.
On November 5, Trump offered immediate answers to the worried psychology of the electorate. Questions left unanswered are: How to cope with the remaining 7.5 billion people who share the planet with us; how to preserve Earth’s wondrous biodiversity; and how to survive society’s effluents that accumulate in the atmosphere and fresh waters. Trump was elected on the promise to change our perception that our world is small, but the long-term problems facing Homo sapiens need a genuine sapient vision that we did not elect.
References
Diamond, Larry. 2024. How to end the democratic recession. Foreign Affairs 103 (6): 126-140.
Kalof, L., T. Dietz, G. Guagnano and P.C. Stern. 2002. Race, gender, and environmentalism: The atypical values and beliefs of white men. Race, Gender, and Class 8: 1-19.
Schlesinger, W.H. 2019. Patriotism in a globalized world. https://blogs.nicholas.duke.edu/citizenscientist/patriotism-in-a-globalized-world/
Silk, Joan B. 2014. The evolutionary roots of lethal conflict. Nature 513: 321-322.
Southwick, C.H. 1971. The biology and psychology of crowding in man and animals. Ohio Journal of Science 71: 65-72.
Smith, T.M. and H.H. Shugart. 1987. Territory size variation in the ovenbird—the role of habitat structure. Ecology 68: 695-704.
[i] Autocratic leadership, also known as authoritarian leadership, is characterized by individual control over all decisions and little input from group members. Plutocracy is when the governing individuals are rich.
