He is also suggesting that Canada become a US state. We are very much back in the world where big powers feel they have the right to annexe small countries if it serves their purposes, simply because they can. It never completely went away, but there was a time in the second half of the twentieth century when it looked (at least from the blinkered perspective of middle class folk in my very prosperous part of the world) as if it was becoming less acceptable. Perhaps it has just become more naked again.
In the case of Greenland, Donald Trump is threatening military action against a small country (Denmark) which, like Canada, is supposed to be a US ally. No wonder he’s never been particularly concerned about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Greenland is unusual in North America (along with Nunavut territory in Canada) in being a large self-governing entity in which indigenous people are still the majority and indigenous politicians are in charge, at least in some spheres. Until recently one might have assumed it would stay that way and that, one day, in spite of its tiny population, it would become a fully independent Inuit state – the first new indigenous majority state in the continent. It now looks increasingly as if this has just been a respite, and that Greenland will go the way of the rest of the Americas. It just hasn’t been worth bothering with up to now.
This is all very much the territory of my novel America City (though things are happening much more quickly than I anticipated) and, I won’t lie, there’s an idiot part of me that wants to crow over my powers of prediction. But another part finds all this absolutely terrifying, because I have ideas about the things that are going to happen next, not in fiction, but in the world that my lovely, lively, optimistic grandchildren are going to have to grow up in. I honestly feel afraid to even name those things, though I don’t think you have to be much of a prophet now to see what they might be.
Chris, I recommend America City to anyone with even a passing interest in either politics or science fiction. It’s such a good book, and I have been thinking about it a lot over the last few days, especially the way how people got manipulated so easily against Canada. Holly was a fascinating character, and I’m seeing a lot of Hollies (I’m sure that’s the plural) emerging. That is, the aspect of Holly who uses her fascination with the awful Slaymaker as an excuse to stick around, even though his intentions will hurt her friends, because it’s through him that she makes money.
Anyway, you’re not alone, I’m terrified too.
Thank you Donna. Very kind of you to write. The thing about Holly’s fascination with Slaymaker, is that I get it myself. Slaymaker wasn’t originally modeled on Trump. (I came up with the character before anyone knew he would go for the presidency) and I found him likeable, just as Holly does, whereas I can’t see Trump as likeable at all, no matter how I try. But I’ve been thinking about this lately, and I wonder if, to his own supporters, Trump does seem likeable in the same kind of maverick, irreverent way as Slaymaker seems likeable to me.
On Holly, I don’t really see her as motivated by money, but by a subconscious desire to stick it to her very right-on but emotionally cold parents. Incidentally, back in the real world, I see Liz Truss as possibly having a similar motivation, though I wouldn’t compare her personality to Holly’s. (Now that really is someone who is hard to like!)
Thanks again, Donna. Truly terrifying times.