Trump emerges as Global Village’s concern

Canadian sociologist Herbert Marshall McLuhan (1911∼1980) already predicted in the 1960s that a time will come when the world gets smaller and people come to have more interest in other places due to development of media including TV, telecommunications and science and technology. The term ‘Global Village,’ which he used for the first time in his book "The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Topographic Man’ published in 1962, was a revolutionary concept at the time. McLuhan did not predict that Global Village will become homogenous and peaceful just like a single village. Rather, he forecasted that the globe will become a world of "maximal disagreement" due to all different situations.

Extreme famine hit Ethiopia in 1984 when the African country was struggling amid a civil war. American pop stars including Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie had deep sympathy towards the Ethiopian people after learning about hell-like misery afflicting Ethiopians at the time. They created the legendary song ‘We Are the World’ in a project that was joined by over 40 world-renowned musicians, including Cyndi Lauper and Diana Ross. More than 20 million copies of the album released in 1985 were sold worldwide, and the proceeds were used to help Africa.

U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally declared withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement designed to stop global warming, and became "public enemy" of the world overnight. As the U.S. leader dumped the agreement signed by 195 countries to help protect his country’s smoke and stack industry, he is facing a flurry of criticisms even within the U.S. as well. It is unprecedented that a head of state has caused public anger around the world even if the leader has not committed grave crimes such as wartime massacre.

President Trump trumpets the "America First" doctrine in a bid to revive the glorious era when the U.S. had no rival, but U.S.’ global leadership is currently on a shaky ground on the contrary. The European Union is distancing itself from President Trump, and seismic change is anticipated in world order, which has been led by the U.S. since the World War Second. Global Village that is facing Trump, a leader who never allows the world to reasonably predict his next moves, has complex and mixed feelings. Can we urge him to "Leave the Earth" as Korean comedian Kim Byeong-jo joked in the 1980s?