That situation can only be understood through the understanding that the US has become its own civilization. And not one that is ready for autumn again. The history of civilizations is usually very long, and that of the US is very young. The US is therefore not concerned with its decline, Maçães suggests, but still with its rise: a young country that is mapping its own path, leading away from Europe.
The unique and fierce American politics, including Trumpism, is, according to Maçães, a prime symptom of this. Trumpism is not a paragon of a country undermining its own values, but of a country shaping its own. "This Enlightenment prodigy may not hesitate to throw off Western liberal principles if it becomes convinced that they have been refuted by time and experience," he wrote in his book. "If the West falters, America will want to become less Western. If the center of power in the world moves away from the West, America will too. "
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In his book, Maçães analyzes this burgeoning civilization and its political culture from a broad perspective, from political subcontractors and philosophers to poets, architects and characters in Easy Rider. That culture is very difficult for Europeans to understand, Maçães believes, because they always think they recognize what is happening in the US, while they do not really understand the underlying sentiments. For example, what Americans understand by "freedom" is fundamentally different than it is for Europeans. Nor do Europeans really understand the role of religion, the death penalty, gun ownership and other matters.
That also applies to American politics. For example, for the role that political narratives and the creation of stories play in this. "That world of storytelling looks very strange to Europeans," says Maçães. "There are so many different stories in America and stories that overlap. In recent weeks there has been so much interest in the idea that Trump would commit a coup. You can always find some pretty unlikely stories that are taken seriously in the American context. If you want to analyze them, you have to keep a certain amount of irony and distance and realize that such stories should not be taken literally. You can see that now: many Republicans accept Trump's tale of fake elections while they don't really believe in mass fraud.
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And because American politics has acquired strong elements of entertainment and fantasy, it has allowed for more extreme behavior, things that would be beyond the bounds of the possible in a European democracy. We saw the president in a speech on election night saying that fraud was being committed and that he wanted the vote to be stopped. If you saw such a speech in Europe or other parts of the world, you would conclude that a coup was taking place and that there was no turning back from that point.The interesting thing about America is, it's a place where those things do happen, but they can't be taken literally. There is a great element of fantasy, of role-play, that you have to keep an eye on.