AGEFI Luxembourg - juillet août 2025

Juillet / Août 2025 9 AGEFI Luxembourg Économie Opinion – by Rudy DEMOTTE, former Minister and President of the Parliament of the French CommunityofBelgium&Dr.BrunoCOLMANT (portrait),memberoftheRoyalAcademyofBelgium A FracturedDemocracy: America’s ShatteredMirror I t’s a panoramic image, shattered like a broken mirror. Yet, it reveals something essential about our time. In the barricaded streets of Los Angeles, in the muffled cries of protesters scat- tered by the National Guard, in the nocturnal raids on migrant families—some settled in the United States for decades—a chilling tremor runs through the spine of American democracy. What unfolds in the shadows of its institutions is not merely an episode of repression. It’s not a fleeting spasm or an overzealous police response. No, it’s a cold, calculated scheme woven in the dark corridors of think tanks where invisible architects draft an oppressive future. A “new order” rises, relentless, ready to crush the Enlightenment’s legacy under the weight of an authoritarian vision that tolerates no dissent. America stands at the precipice of emptiness and regression, showingus the path to the unthinkable. An Intellectual Counter-Revolution: The Dark Enlightenment Institutional violence doesn’t emerge from a vacu- um. It stems froman ideological framework rooted in a revolt against democratic modernity. Under the deliberately provocative banner of the Dark Enlightenment, a fringe of America’s intellectual right—drawing inspiration fromfigures likeCurtis Yarvin—advocates for a reversal of 18th-century values: reason, equality, universal rights, empathy. To them, democracy is an outdated relic, a barrier to efficiency, a theater of illusions. They reject popular sovereignty in favor of a strong, vertical, near-monarchical executive, antithetical to theAmerican constitutional spirit that sought apeo- ple’s democracy far removed from Europe’s empires and hereditary monarchies. In place of equality, they champion a “natural order” of hier- archies, paving theway for a retreat to segregation, slavery, and perhaps even the extermination of America’s indigenous populations. What was thought buried in history’s cata- combs—accepted servitude, disdain for themass- es, the glorification of force—returns, dressed in technocratic jargon, carried by a connected, self- assured, cynical intelligentsia. We are witnessing a counter-revolution against the Enlightenment. The goal is no longer to illuminate but to obscure, to restore the racial purity of the first pioneers and expel migrants, often branded as “rapists” in a narrative of genetic corruption, with Barack Obama and Kamala Harris as its archetypes in Trump’s rhetoric. The Neo-ReactionaryArchipelago: Builders of a NewAuthoritarianism This reversal takes shape in a formidable network of orga- nized structures. Leading the charge is the Heritage Foundation, orchestrat- ing Project 2025: a blueprint to bend the federal administra- tion to an ultracon- servative agenda by replacing independent civil servantswith loyalists to the regime. Orbiting this effort are shadow architects: Stephen Miller, a ruthless ideologue; Steve Bannon, the mas- termind of national populism; Russell Vought, a craftsman of centralized power; Ali Alexander, a strategist of digital crowds; and Jack Posobiec, a pro- pagandistofmediachaos.Theirpresidentopenlycalls for a “second American revolution”—with nothing emancipatory about it. Diving into the tumultuous and tormentedminds of thesefigures reveals akalei- doscopeofworldviews,blendingsociopoliticalmod- els,varying(ornonexistent)rolesforthestateasapro- tectororredistributor,andareconfigurationofpower dynamics. Libertarians advocate eugenicist visions within an absolute social Darwinism governed by tech-savvyelites. But theygo further: democracyand liberty, they argue, are not aligned. Democracy, in their view, obstructs the right to secession. They also see a divergence between liberalismand democracy. This techno-libertarian vision, fused withnationalist and identitarian ideals, envisions a future where technology becomes the primary lever of a fragmented society, where individual lib- erty is subordinated to market forces, and where the state, reduced to its bare minimum, cedes gov- ernance to private, algorithmic systems. This grip extends beyond rhetoric. Itmanifests indecrees that expand surveillance, even into the skies, with drones patrollingdefiant neighborhoods and scan- ning cities and consciences. TheAssault on Free Thought: Universities andMedia Under Siege Universities—once bastions of free inquiry—like Harvard and Berkeley are now demonized. Research deemed subversive is banned. Words vanish fromofficial lexicons. Independent journal- ists are silenced and barred from conferences for the crime of critical thinking. CNN, The WashingtonPost, and the BBCare sidelined, guilty of asking inconvenient questions. The Claremont Institute trains jurists and intellectuals convinced that America must return to Christian, patriarchal, supremacist values. Meanwhile, CPAC, now a global showcase for this anti-freedom movement, forges transatlantic tieswith Europe’s hard right. It celebrates a return to moral order, identitarian nationalism, and religion as the sole foundation of law. This front exposes a paradox: ultraconserva- tives claiming Christian traditions align with tech- no-libertarians who embrace an unrestrained hypermodernity. The old order meets digital dis- ruption—not to balance, but to exorcise the Enlightenment jointly. ARhetoric of Vulgarity: TheWeapon of Contempt Trump is not a historical accident but an ideological warlord, wieldingviolence as a triumphant banner. Every insult, every threat is a sharpenedweapon, a blow to reason and dignity. His brutality isn’t a flaw—it’s his rallying cry, a call to dominate through fear and chaos. He embodies this ideolog- ical matrixwith calculated savagery, flaunting vio- lence as a standard. California’sDemocratic governor, GavinNewsom, becomes “Newscum,” a vile blendof his name and “scum.” Peaceful protesters are “leftist vermin” or “animals.” The press is mocked, expelled, or silenced in conferences where only sycophants are allowed to speak. Opponents are branded enemies. Judges are thrown to the mob, threatened with “removal of immunity.” This vulgarity is neither a quirk nor a temperament. It’s a technique of domi- nation. By crushingnuancewith insults and replac- ing argumentation with violence, power seeks to discredit all critical intelligence. Social Inequality: TheMatrix of Violence This project thrives on a gaping social fracture, a product of the neoliberalismAmerica once cham- pioned. Initially, market liberalization, coupled with the erosion of meager social protections and the opening of markets to low-wage countries, enriched America’s upper classes under the intel- lectual guise of trickle-down economics, which argued that tax cuts for the wealthy would create jobs. But the trickle flowed upward. Decades of deindustrialization, precarity, and racial marginalization have turned poor neighborhoods into surveillance zones.Minorities are constant tar- gets. The precarious are invisible. Inequality is structural, tied to Protestant capitalism—what Braudel called the “wind of the world”—which made wealth a virtue and success a near-salvation. Today, conservativesweaponize it. Ina tragic rever- sal, the more the social order produces suffering, the more it fuels anger—not against itself, but against those who challenge it. Thus emerges a craving for authority, a desire for a strongman, as if the hand that strikes could also protect. Trumphas pulledoffa remarkable feat: convincing the working class he’ll shield them from the very elite he embodies. It goes further:America’s socioe- conomic system breeds internal violence, periodi- cally purged through distant, unending wars that unite Americans against a common enemy. But now, it’s different. Trump internalizes this violence, designating enemies within: migrants, leftists, Democrats, and the “deep state.”He sows seeds of civil discord, which he counters with an ever-esca- lating authoritarianism. AGlobal Contagion: Echoes in Europe This logic is spreading to Europe. The far-right repurposes these narratives: co-opting struggles, demonizing migrants, denouncing “cultural laxi- ty.” Inequality fuels an authoritarianismcloaked in democratic garb. This project claims to speak for the people, but behind the populist facade, colossal fortunes pull the strings. Oligarchs decry elites while funding this neo-reactionary movement—a reverse revolution. An ultra-rich elite manipulates widespread anger to entrench its power. Adding up the signs—cult of the leader, contemptuous dis- qualification, surveillance, militarization—one glimpses the silhouette of proto-fascism. What Arendt called the “banality of evil” iswhat Eco rec- ognized in its “scattered symptoms.” Not a thun- derous return of fascism but a slow crystallization, dissolving democracy under the guise of order. What America’sMirror Teaches Us What’s happening in the United States isn’t an explosion but a slow corrosion, a poison distilled dropbydropby calculatingminds.Networks inter- twine, ideas infiltrate, iron discipline takes hold— andan entire nation falters, undermined fromwith- in. This isn’t a conquest by arms but a collapse orchestrated by thought, as terrifying as it is irre- versible. It’s an attempt to rebuild society on new pillars: hierarchy, obedience, cultural homogeneity, contempt for equality, rejection of compassion, lin- guistic manipulation, and brutality. The response must be political, cultural, and social: to defend institutions and counterpowers uncompromising- ly, fight the fractures that feed extremism, and reaf- firm reason, empathy, and truth. AGlobal Threat: TheAxis ofAutocrats Hollywood’s soft power can no longer gloss over America’s chilling reality. A deeper fault cuts old political lines. On one side, ultra-reactionary, anti- freedom currents. On the other, those for whom democracy is non-negotiable. It’s no coincidence that this newAmerica admires the likes of Orbán, Bukele, and Putin. Between these capitals flows a toxic air: fascinationwith force, disdain for and sup- pression of counterpowers, and the transformation of the people into a docile mob. Reject Servitude, Restore the Light We call on you not to look away. History is cun- ning, rich in awakenings that come too late. Authoritarian regimes don’t rise through coups— they slither into the cracks of cowardice and resig- nation. They creep through silences, complacency, and abdications. What’s at stake today, combined with the relentless deadlines of planetary exploita- tion, isn’t a history lesson. It’s a confrontation— perhaps final—with the choices humanity must make. The urgency is absolute. Editor's note - The opinions expressed do not necessarily represent those of the newspaper. America grappling with its realities ARENDT IS BY YOUR SIDE Your end of life cycle management experts in Luxembourg arendt.com