By Lee Sang-joon
Donald Trump, an American merchant, one of the richest men not only in America, but also throughout the world, surprisingly jumped into the presidential election and unexpectedly won. His campaign motto was "America First."
From the beginning to the end of his campaign period, he had persistently cried out "America First" coupled with "Make America Great Again" until he won the election.
America became the richest nation in the world in the modern age a long time ago, correspondingly keeping ahead almost in every aspect of human civilization. Since then, it has not allowed any other nation to contend with it in the international arena.
In other words, America has "already" become second to none in terms of its material civilization, stably maintaining and enjoying its prosperity and thus America has "already" become great.
If something is already great and remains so, it is logical that it cannot be great again. This is true of any individual human being and any collective group of men. For all its richness and greatness, if a nation insists that it should be rich and great, crying out "This Nation First and Great Again," it is saying that it alone should dominate richness and greatness by excluding all the other countries from being entitled to be as rich and as great.
This being the case, both during his past presidential campaign in 2017 and in his present presidential office in 2018, as ever in being undifferentiated, President Trump has persistently been crying out "America First," "Make America Great Again."
Consequently, not only in his own country, but also throughout the world, he is diminishing humanity in general. He is also defiling the image of America, which has contributed to the international betterment through its leadership thereby deserving its greatness, in particular.
For instance, how many young men and women in uniform has it sacrificed, prominently in World War II and the Korean War? In parallel with this, it has ungrudgingly given away a great deal of its wealth to help in the reconstruction of the affected nations.
From this, we can logically say that America as ever remains as a "first and great" nation in both its international economy and leadership. Thus, Trump's "America First" and "Make America Great Again" merely constitute redundancy and triviality. In effect, he is only playing a trick on his listeners.
In this globalized world, the first priority of humanity is cooperation instead of rivalry or rather an enmity epidemic in the past because all nations have already become one family, a divine as well as human mandate.
Nevertheless, if anyone goes on selfishly insisting on "Me First," he is not only swimming against the current, but also as a result isolating himself from all society and ruining the entire world.
For one thing, on the critical point of climate change through global warming, it is imperative that all the nations on the as yet habitable globe should be constructively cooperative with one another in recovering from this, instead of misguidedly entering into a rivalry with one another in a ruinous way.
If the leader of the most powerful nation in every respect obstinately insists that only his nation should be "first," he complacently takes it for granted that all other nations should be exclusively blocked off the "first" line.
Here, properly, I would like to quote Jesus who said, "Instead, whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be a slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
This is the true meaning of "first and great." No leader worthy of the name should exist if they are not self-sacrificing, but instead being selfishly self-centered.
As all the sages of history have witnessed, little accomplishment comes from little sacrifice; much achievement from much sacrifice; and high attainment from great sacrifice.
Lee Sang joon is an emeritus professor at the Department of English Linguistics, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.
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From the beginning to the end of his campaign period, he had persistently cried out "America First" coupled with "Make America Great Again" until he won the election.
America became the richest nation in the world in the modern age a long time ago, correspondingly keeping ahead almost in every aspect of human civilization. Since then, it has not allowed any other nation to contend with it in the international arena.
In other words, America has "already" become second to none in terms of its material civilization, stably maintaining and enjoying its prosperity and thus America has "already" become great.
If something is already great and remains so, it is logical that it cannot be great again. This is true of any individual human being and any collective group of men. For all its richness and greatness, if a nation insists that it should be rich and great, crying out "This Nation First and Great Again," it is saying that it alone should dominate richness and greatness by excluding all the other countries from being entitled to be as rich and as great.
This being the case, both during his past presidential campaign in 2017 and in his present presidential office in 2018, as ever in being undifferentiated, President Trump has persistently been crying out "America First," "Make America Great Again."
Consequently, not only in his own country, but also throughout the world, he is diminishing humanity in general. He is also defiling the image of America, which has contributed to the international betterment through its leadership thereby deserving its greatness, in particular.
For instance, how many young men and women in uniform has it sacrificed, prominently in World War II and the Korean War? In parallel with this, it has ungrudgingly given away a great deal of its wealth to help in the reconstruction of the affected nations.
From this, we can logically say that America as ever remains as a "first and great" nation in both its international economy and leadership. Thus, Trump's "America First" and "Make America Great Again" merely constitute redundancy and triviality. In effect, he is only playing a trick on his listeners.
In this globalized world, the first priority of humanity is cooperation instead of rivalry or rather an enmity epidemic in the past because all nations have already become one family, a divine as well as human mandate.
Nevertheless, if anyone goes on selfishly insisting on "Me First," he is not only swimming against the current, but also as a result isolating himself from all society and ruining the entire world.
For one thing, on the critical point of climate change through global warming, it is imperative that all the nations on the as yet habitable globe should be constructively cooperative with one another in recovering from this, instead of misguidedly entering into a rivalry with one another in a ruinous way.
If the leader of the most powerful nation in every respect obstinately insists that only his nation should be "first," he complacently takes it for granted that all other nations should be exclusively blocked off the "first" line.
Here, properly, I would like to quote Jesus who said, "Instead, whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be a slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
This is the true meaning of "first and great." No leader worthy of the name should exist if they are not self-sacrificing, but instead being selfishly self-centered.
As all the sages of history have witnessed, little accomplishment comes from little sacrifice; much achievement from much sacrifice; and high attainment from great sacrifice.
Lee Sang joon is an emeritus professor at the Department of English Linguistics, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.
