THE END OF AMERICA

The modern idea of America - perhaps the post-modern idea is a better way of putting it - was born in 1945. Or, as historians have been reminding us, 80 years ago.

This America had won the biggest war in history, from their perspective (the rest of the Allied powers know better) and now, could set the rules of the international systems that would rebuild world order from the chaos. The Germans were crushed, the British empire was gone or going, and in debt, and only Russia could arguably pose a growing threat (with China eventually kept in check by Nixon's triangulation).

So the Cold War began.

During that time - 80 years - the West was basically America, plus its allies. And as such, the world system, built to suit America, allowed the USA to prosper as never before.

Yesterday, Liberation Day for Donald Trump, the seemingly unstable, worst president in US history - the convicted felon no less, with mysterious empathy for the Kremlin - announced the end of the global system, built by America, to benefit itself and its allies. A few hours later he fired top people at the NSA, an agency designed to keep Americans safe.

And, lying, of course, he claimed the world had ripped off America for all this time. Trump, lying, said the world, in the years when the American dollar reigned supreme globally, and the USA became the richest country to ever exist (remember the Reagan 80s?), had "raped and pillaged" America, as if peaceful trading with one's allies and neighbours was a Viking Raid.

He failed to mention America benefits most from the world system of free trade it fought for, even killed for (in Vietnam, for example) during the Cold War.

The people who voted for Trump are not the Americans, for the most part, who have passports, or travel much to foreign countries (maybe sometimes to Canada or Mexico), but for whom Europe and Asia are useless, remote concepts, filled with nasty foreigners.

The people who voted for Trump hate the world of people outside their borders, or don't really care about them, or know them, or care to learn. They are the under-educated masses, those fed internet lies, cheap food and beer, and all the sports, especially wrestling, they can handle. Billionaires lead them cynically, but these are not people who understand that the success of the USA for the past 80 years was down, at least partially, to having allies, and working with them.

Not, in Trump's language, screwing them over.

Now, America as that great idea, of the Superman, the great indispensable friend, is dead. In the past few months, Trump and his ludicrous cronies, including VP Vance, have made sure we know, Europe is despised, Canada is despised, Denmark is despised, NATO is despised... only Russia is somehow exempt from contempt.

Trump has built the world that the leading contemporary Russian philosopher has argued for - a multipolar world, of competing nationalist large powers - basically, the USA, plus Russia and China, dividing the world up between them, no power seeking to dictate to the other few Big Powers - each staying in their own ethical-moral lane. And with few if any allies. Them against the rest of us.

Trump has torn down the perhaps false façade, that advertised a grinning, friendly Uncle Sam, beckoning us to romp on the sands of Miami Beach, and enjoy a Coca-Cola with our burger and Hollywood cartoons. The world of Disney, the world of benevolent hegemony, of avuncular nuclear supremacy, is exposed, as a fever dream, cobbled together from James Dean movies, baseball cards, and Playboy magazines. A 1950s Potemkin village. A disused movie lot. Fake.

Maybe he has done the world a favour, by stripping the good guy BS out of the whole cowboy routine. As if Santa asked for all his presents back, with interest, or Indiana Jones suddenly did a Roman salute, we're stuck with that classic image from the comics, of a Bad Superman, turned on the world, with us terrified and shocked, below.

But probably this is no favour, just a horrible lurching jolt. The start of a new world system. And, this time, with fewer sidekicks brought along for the ride.

{As an end note really, the supreme irony is that Trump's biggest fans, his MAGA voters, will soon find their cars - indeed most everything they want to buy - more expensive not less. He is giving them the opposite of what they wanted, which is the snake oil salesman's cruellest trick. The Economist - hardly left-wing - has called Trump's Tariff plan "the most profound, harmful and unnecessary economic error in the modern era".}

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart? A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional. Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were. For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ? Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets. But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ? How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular. John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se....

Poetry vs. Literature

Poetry is, of course, a part of literature. But, increasingly, over the 20th century, it has become marginalised - and, famously, has less of an audience than "before". I think that, when one considers the sort of criticism levelled against Seamus Heaney and "mainstream poetry", by poet-critics like Jeffrey Side , one ought to see the wider context for poetry in the "Anglo-Saxon" world. This phrase was used by one of the UK's leading literary cultural figures, in a private conversation recently, when they spoke eloquently about the supremacy of "Anglo-Saxon novels" and their impressive command of narrative. My heart sank as I listened, for what became clear to me, in a flash, is that nothing has changed since Victorian England (for some in the literary establishment). Britain (now allied to America) and the English language with its marvellous fiction machine, still rule the waves. I personally find this an uncomfortable position - but when ...

THIS YEAR'S BAFTAS

Last year, Eva Green won the Rising Star award at the Orange BAFTAs - and this year the ceremonies promise to be even more glamorous. The striking film writers in America silenced the Golden Globes, and look set to do the same for the Oscars, which means London may get a world-class awards night. Eyewear , like all UK citizens, has yet to see some of the films nominated (members get sent copies to watch at home in some instances before general release), but can make some predictions - want to bet? Atonement will likely win Best Film. The Bourne Ultimatum should win Best British Film, though Control may do. The Bourne trilogy was astonishingly good genre work, and has rejuvenated The Bond series in the process, so deserves the kudos. Film Not In The English Language should go to The Lives of Others . Lead Actor will be Daniel Day-Lewis . Lead Actress will be the brilliant Julie Christie , whose work in the superb Canadian film Away From Her was so brave, and moving. Ja...

E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

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