Counterpoint: A Complete Unknown

City Club fosters a Securus Locus for meaningful dialogue, encouraging diverse perspectives and civil discourse. Distinguished member James Balog uses photography to illuminate humanity’s impact on nature, reshaping how we see climate change and inspiring action through imagery. The following, Dated January 18, is his counterpoint to Sina’s column on Donald Trump as “A Complete Unknown.”

Dear Sina,

Philosophical abstraction about Trumpian uncertainty is misplaced—except to the extent we don't know how deep into the abyss Trump and his henchmen will take us. He is anything but an unknown. We know where he’s headed based on his past behavior, Project 2025, recent rhetoric, and the grossly underqualified–but easily manipulated–underlings he has hired. He is taking us to a level of ugliness unprecedented in this country. Some will benefit handsomely, just as some people did in Germany when fascism rose from the 1920s onward.

Historian Timothy Snyder notes Trump will "let the hydrocarbon oligarchs drill away at the earth and the digital oligarchs at our minds. A weakened government can control neither... The people who claim to want individual freedom are the same who clamor for mass deportations. America's hydrocarbon and digital oligarchs support this kind of libertarianism; social media guides men (and it is usually men) from believing they are solitary heroes to demanding other groups be punished. Fascism is now in the algorithms, the neural pathways, the social interactions."

It appears that Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Ellison, et al. are, in their fantasies of being Lords of Digerati floating above mere mortals, authoritarians masquerading as free speech advocates. Whether by accident or intent, they enable the decay of the American spirit, our moral and ethical decency, and whatever semblance of functional politics might still survive. In fact, they support the social media warfare being waged against this country by Putin and his minions. To use a Cold War term, they might be called "dupes." But those digital wizards are far too shrewd to be unwitting collaborators with the dark forces. So I come to the conclusion that they are such sycophants to Trump–and whoever else Trump might be colluding with–that they are willing to trade away all pretense of respect for America in the interest of profit and personal power. (BTW: What was Musk doing in his two secret 2024 meetings with Putin, as reported by The Wall Street Journal?)

It sickens me, too, that Trump is willing to abandon Ukraine to Russia. I pray he doesn’t have us retreat from the world stage (behind smokescreens about Greenland, Canada, and Panama), allowing Russia and China even more unchecked power—an outcome that would be catastrophic sooner rather than later.

I could go on, but won’t. Except to say that using, in your posting, a "Triumph of the Will"-style image to illustrate your thoughtful philosophy creates serious cognitive dissonance for me as a visual artist.

I do agree with you on one thing: we must fasten our seatbelts as we race toward the abyss–but, I would add, it is an abyss whose bottom we cannot yet see. I once visited a Himalayan temple devoted to the blood-lust of the goddess Kali, whom you reference. And believe me, it was not a pretty sight.

— James Balog

P.S. Please accept this postscript, written on January 22: Help me understand how a blanket pardon for the criminals who assaulted the U.S. Capitol on January 6 does anything but give unchecked license to an armed militia that now owes fealty and subservience to Trump. Does that seem like a positive development for any form of government this side of a dictatorship? (see also: SA Brown Shirts 1921-1934).