Over the years of working, I have such a feeling in interpersonal communication: after a serious setback or blow, different people react differently. Some choose to avoid or even attack themselves, while others launch a violent attack on the “perpetrators” they consider.
After looking up the relevant information, I found that it is called “post-traumatic stress disorder”. Symptoms include: unpleasant thoughts, feelings, or dreams; mental or physical discomfort and nervousness when touching objects, attempts to avoid or even destroy them; sudden changes in cognition and feelings, and Excited state occurs frequently, etc.
The explanation on the data includes the two reactions I mentioned above. Since my work is related to international politics, it is natural for me to contrast interpersonal interactions with interactions between nations. When thinking about why there is so much “abnormal” in America today, I also naturally think of “post-traumatic stress disorder.”
We know that the big change in the image of the United States began during the Trump administration. In other words, America’s self-perception, from “the whole world envy us” to “the whole world laughs at us”, is Trump’s “mark”.
Of course, Trump is just the one who speaks the truth about what many Americans think they are. America’s “disease” started before he took office. His four years in the White House have reinforced that mentality, both subjectively and objectively. In the chaos of governance, political polarization, polarization between the rich and the poor, and social division, Americans are hurt.
Voters are extremely dissatisfied with the status quo, society is full of hostility, and the United States is in a state of frequent stress.
After being injured, one of the typical responses of the United States is to attack the outside world. Trump has brought this to the fore, and his diplomacy is markedly aggressive. Biden, whose personal style and political philosophy are different from Trump, has not and is unlikely to change this situation. There are two main reasons: First, the hostility in American society. When I observed the phenomenon of choosing to attack others after being injured, I found that those people have one thing in common, that is, they are full of ill-will; dissatisfaction with people and things is the background color of their personality. Such characteristics make these people have the “will” to attack others.
It is not difficult for anyone who pays attention to current affairs in the United States to find the hostility in American society today—extreme dissatisfaction with the status quo. This phenomenon has become embedded in American politics. An indisputable fact is that those moderate and stable politicians have little visibility. And those aggressive politicians can easily occupy the headlines of public opinion.
Second, the strength of the US foreign attack. I’ve found that people who attack others after being hurt tend to have a lot of energy. Anyone who has had a similar experience knows that self-healing takes energy, but those people still have “excess” energy to attack others. In other words, the attack is because of the “strength” of the attack.
No matter how you interpret the “decline” of the United States, it is difficult to deny the fact that the United States today is still the superpower with the strongest comprehensive strength. Such strength is the “confidence” for the United States to attack foreign countries.
On December 10, the number of deaths in the United States due to the new crown exceeded 800,000, accounting for 15% of the world’s population (the United States’ population accounted for 4.2% of the world). The death of the epidemic is only a symptom of the wounds of the United States. Biden cannot eliminate the hostility in American society, and the United States under his administration still has the strength to attack others. Is this kind of America dangerous?
