The Old World Order is Dead.

What's Next is Up to You

“We live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power,” he said. “These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time.”

-Stephen Miller, from a CNN broadcast interview by Jake Tapper, 5 Jan 2026

“...since the beginning of time.”

The Old International Order-- the one our forefathers established after WWII and the dawn of nuclear-powered aggression--is, apparently, dead. Not because it lost its relevance, or its way , but because we had it wrong. The actual world order, according to White House Deputy Stephen Miller, is “might makes right.” It has been thus “since the beginning of time.”

If you’re as old as I am, you may remember that we exited the Second World War with an understanding of “mutually assured destruction.” According to the Trump Regime, that potential never existed, and doesn’t now, because....our stick is bigger than their stick.

This has been, of course, the modus operandi of the Trump Regime. Ask it for a solution to a key problem-- say, international order --and it tells you that you’ve got the problem wrong. That is, of course, the sign of a narrow mind intent on domination: it only has one answer in search of a self-defined problem.

People like to hear that there is simple solution: that Ivormectin will cure Covid infection; that we should just reduce the number of vaccinations; that putting red meat at the top of the food pyramid will produce a healthier population; that blowing up drug smuggling boats will reduce drug addiction; that there have always been only two genders.

When there’s trouble, it’s a tempting comfort to hear that there’s a simple answer.

Whenever a group of people -- a family, a community or a nation-- enter a time of disorder or have one thrust upon them, there is an additional temptation to take comfort in nostalgia. Things were better before, some of us say, and then ask: “how can we get back there?” The presumption is that the way we were was the right way, the natural way, the best way. And we look for a leader to take us there.

Liberals believe that this is what conservatives do-- try to turn back the clock to “simpler times.” But I was taught differently: true conservatives are not necessarily interested in retaining specific ways of doing things, e.g., assigning gender roles or subsidizing health care. True conservatives are invested in how we retain key values of our way of being whenever we stretch for new ways of doing .

There is a strong argument for conservative values and humanism. President George H.W. Bush actually made that argument and acted on it. But that argument is not being made in our country right now.

What we have instead are the classic symptoms of a disordered society badly in need of re-ordering: the over-simplification of issues; the previously-mentioned nostalgia; the unwillingness to re-examine values and value propositions; the fragmenting into dualistic understandings and positions; the thirst for someone powerful to do the necessary re-ordering for us, and the surrender of what we might have previously held dear in order for our leadership to do that work.

We’ve got that disorder in spades, dear readers.

It’s not all chaos and mayhem. Inside that disorder, there is a swift dismantling of the old, unworkable ways, and the attendant possibility of re-examining the problems they were intended to solve. I’ll give you an example if you are willing to go weed-whacking with me for a paragraph.

Let’s take subsidies for health care insurance as an example. That policy is an admission that we cannot bring down the cost of medical insurance because we cannot bring down the cost of healthcare because our pathological, medical treatment model of healthcare and pharmacology research and production have been set up as profit-making models. So we inject funding into the healthcare structure at the level of insurance to enable affordability, while we ensure that the cost of that insurance will regularly and inevitably increase and require further government funding. That is unsustainable. It also drives both political conservatives AND liberals who are focused in healthcare delivery crazy.

I have an entire other riff on the changing existential reason for nation-states; I’ll spare you that one.

Even within the disorder, everything has the possibility of being re-felt, re-thought, and re-imagined. (This is why fascism-- which has classically presented itself as a disorder relief strategy--casts the future as a dualistic premise. It is intended to wear down the weary into accepting safe city streets in exchange for an armed soldier at every corner and a suspension of free speech in public venues.)

In my previous post, I encouraged the practice of hope. I still believe in it as a way forward for individuals.

So-- how do we collectively do this work of preparing for re-feeling, re-thinking, and re-imagining our way into re-order? My suggestions below are intended as preparation for re-order:

Move from Disappointment and Anger to Query and Collaboration

When we see something that doesn’t work for us and/or our fellow citizens, we need to move from our anger or disappointment and ask ourselves: How could it work better? Maybe we talk it over with someone who has a different perspective on the problem. Concentrate on values. Our goal is to get at the values we want to see held or developed within whatever it is we’d like to see fixed.

Listen to Different Voices

The re-order needs to work for more of us than the last order did. The failing of the last order (liberal democracy) was predicted. The warning voices were ignored. We’re good at ignoring the dissenting voices in this country. We silence or minimize them in academia and other spheres of endeavor, where we often name groups in order to keep them marginalized. Conservatives argue that their social studies and philosophical research has been at best underfunded and more usually ignored by higher education, government and the non-profit sector. It is technically correct to call that discrimination. There’s a lot of that going on all over the spectrum. Apparently, progressives are also capable of ignoring/discounting the marginalized.

Maintain Awareness of the Power Vectors

Sadly, all of that depends on which group is in power, and how they maintain that power. Humility is a potent individual tool towards growth, but groups inevitably seem to develop power vectors as or immediately after they are created. And those power vectors can quickly dispel collaborative creation. Power isn’t inherently bad; but like fire-- another useful tool-- it benefits from watchful eyes. The uses of power in public spheres is another area that could benefit from some loving attention and dispassionate witness. We need to do this re-build together, or risk ruining the effort.

Begin With a Short List

There’s going to be a lot of work to do; we should get a head start. Maybe take a look at your intention and attention lists, and pick one or two things.

But...What Can One Person Do?

I know, I’m not in charge of making policy either, and I’m unlikely to be invited to do so. But--as long as we are still a democracy-- I can observe those who are, listen to my community, and let them know what I think. I am fortunate to have an excellent fresh-person legislator representing my Congressional district. Emily Randall is laser-focused on the healthcare issues I used as an example above. She’s not a flashy politician (yet). She’s up for the hard work of re-building. I can encourage her to continue to represent and fight for us.

If all we do is react and resist, we’ll get the attention, and miss the opportunity.

P.S. Claudette Colvin died last Tuesday in Texas, age 86. Did you know that she was the first black woman to refuse to give up her seat to a white woman in 1955 Montgomery, Alabama, months before Rosa Parks did the same? Neither did I. She was 15 years old when she did that. She said in an interview that she couldn’t help herself: the spirit of Sojourner Truth was holding her to her seat. The reason that the civil rights movement used Rosa Parks as their example is widely believed to be that Ms. Colvin was too young and too black. If you’re going to work for re-order, you may not get recognized, but you’ll find yourself in good company. When I get where I’m going, I hope to be able to give her a hug.