Hi Joe,
I’m trying really hard to stay peaceful but it’s not working. You talk about civility, but that’s not going to work with people who are intent on tearing things down. So many people in power are purposely trying to wreck our institutions. How is civility going to help?
Done
Hey, Done.
You are expressing something I hear so often. It’s hard to stay peaceful when our default response to most things is to fight and attack – anywhere from militia groups threatening violence against people who are simply doing their jobs to canceling someone online without investigating all the facts of a situation. We’re disempowering one another by responding in our default mode, and using an old notion of civility won’t make this go away.
The work of Fierce Civility is to stand strong and be fierce in our commitment to not give in to the current trends of lack of civility. And yes, Done, at the moment, that requires all of our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual resolve. In these times, it demands all our strength to not be drawn into fighting and volatility.
Caught up in this reactive way of defending what we believe in, we’re overlooking that the true enemy of our time is lack of civility. We can no longer debate challenging topics, or very rarely advocate for policy change in a collaborative way. The issues we’re discussing are the same issues we have always been discussing; what has changed is how we’re doing it. So, if we want to see a way forward, we need to focus on how we’re approaching one another; not just on what we want to say.
We need upgraded skills to fiercely and civilly challenge bullying, cheating, scapegoating and canceling our opponents. We need to resist apathy, cynicism, extreme self-interest and hopelessness. Until we confront and neutralize the lack of civility or manipulation, we will most likely remain stuck in our current rut of debilitating gridlock.
Having lived and worked in many countries around the world, including conflict zones, I know many people who face this dilemma every day. Even some communities and neighborhoods in the United States are confronted with this reality. In these places, respect, dignity, community and basic human needs are not taken for granted. In the most extreme circumstances, this can mean a day that doesn’t include a bomb dropping on their neighborhood is considered a good day. They know that the ability to hold on to their highest values of compassion, kindness and peace in the face of adversity is a choice. And one that doesn’t always come easy. They have cultivated the resilience, fortitude and stamina to maintain this level of civility – for themselves, their children and for their community.
Here in the United States – in the media, at social gatherings, in intellectual circles, even in government – we are seeing escalations of tensions, speech and acts of violence that some compare in its severity to the Civil War. Perhaps it’s time that more Americans join the rest of the world and not take our liberties and comforts for granted. Instead, while the issues we fight for are important, a higher priority could be to unite with those who share a common commitment to civility and rule of law and build alliances in new, and potentially surprising, places. Alliances that transcend age, race, gender, title, geography, academic stature, financial status, political affiliation and more.
Increasingly, we see that using reason or data points to reach those on the extremes of our political polarization isn’t effective. But as a united front, our fierceness to practice civility would strengthen our individual and collective resilience, resourcefulness, self-care and safety. It will build and deepen our relationships with our allies.
These times are calling on us to remember who we are at our best. And to appeal from the heart to encourage others to do the same. Legendary civil rights advocate Grace Lee Boggs said: “A movement begins when the oppressed begin seeing themselves as pioneers in creating new, more human relations and thus advancing the evolution of the human race. Confident of their own humanity, movement builders are able to recognize the humanity in others, including their opponents, and therefore the potential within them for redemption.”
I am seeing so many who are confronted with this reality right now and are feeling compelled to take action in a new way. While my words may not rid you of your frustration, Done, I hope it brings some sense of peace and clarity. For your own wellbeing and for us all.
In other words, you are not alone.
Joe
Learn more about Joe Weston and his work here. Make sure to c heck out Joe’s bestselling book Fierce Civility: Transforming our Global Culture from Polarization to Lasting Peace, published March 2023.
To Ask Joe, please submit questions to: AskJoe@Fulcrum.us.
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.