News:
“Trump at a dead end in the Strait of Hormuz. He is seeking an exit while the war continues, prices rise, and allies as well as China keep their distance.”
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The world’s smile today is not joy.
It is a symptom of deep moral exhaustion.
When societies lose the ability to distinguish right from wrong,
they do not smile because they hope.
They smile because they no longer believe.
And that is when history enters its most dangerous phase.
“Why does the world rejoice and smile, father?”
We ask this ironically in Greece, echoing the propaganda hymn of the August 4th dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas.
“For the resounding slap Trump received in Iran, my child,” we answer today.
The American president did not merely encounter difficulties in his latest venture; rather, as the saying goes, he went for wool and came back shorn.
And here lies the strange — though not historically inexplicable — element.
The theocratic regime of the Mullahs in Iran has little sympathy in the free world. It maintains close ties with various authoritarian regimes, such as Putin’s Russia and others. Islamic countries, largely out of religious solidarity rather than aligned interests, continue to show tolerance or support, even those that have suffered missile attacks from Tehran but have so far avoided entering the war officially.
It is also true that the Iranian regime has long been targeted by the free world for its brutal exercise of power and violation of even the most basic human rights. Especially after the recent violent suppression of protests by the Revolutionary Guards — leaving thousands dead — the regime gained even more enemies.
And just when it seemed that the Ayatollah regime was nearing its end, the erratic and ahistorical American president appeared, like a “deus ex machina,” to commit — together with the equally irrational and ruthless Israeli prime minister — the unthinkable: an attack on Iran.
They launched a war that was not only irrational and doomed, as Iran is neither Iraq nor Libya, but also failed to foresee the obvious:
how to exit such a war without falling into the trap of the Strait of Hormuz.
An astonishing mix of naivety and arrogance.
And as if that were not enough, not only did they trigger global economic suffocation through the blockade of the straits, but by assassinating key figures of the regime, they effectively gave it the kiss of life.
The regime not only consolidated its supporters but also called even its opponents to unite — for the “nation” and the “homeland.”
Thus, any potential uprising is postponed indefinitely.
“With one shot, two birds,” as the saying goes — for the Mullahs.
Such is the price of arrogance and historical ignorance.
But beyond Iran, another equally significant phenomenon emerges globally:
Trump and Netanyahu, through this war and earlier actions such as the devastation in Gaza, have managed within a short time to undo what history had built over years:
They have reignited anti-Americanism and antisemitism across much of the world — even among generations that had never experienced or cultivated such sentiments.
We now call upon Diotima to fully analyze this new, evident, and deeply dangerous historical phenomenon.
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🔹 Diotima’s Analysis
Why does the world “rejoice and smile”?
The title is bitterly ironic — as history often is when it mocks itself.
1. The paradox of history
A regime on the verge of collapse can be revived by external attack.
By striking Iran, its enemies activated a fundamental historical law:
No power unites a people more effectively than an external enemy.
Thus:
dissent becomes betrayal
anger becomes patriotism
repression becomes defense
The attackers become, paradoxically, the regime’s saviors.
2. The psychology of the masses
The world’s “smile” is not joy. It is:
release
revenge
or cynicism
People react this way because:
a. The fall of arrogance
Societies instinctively enjoy seeing power humbled.
b. Anti-hegemonic instinct
Even those who dislike Iran resist unchecked global dominance.
c. Moral confusion
Seeing violence on all sides, people conclude:
“They are all the same.”
3. The most dangerous consequence
What emerges is not merely political reaction, but something deeper:
a revival of anti-Americanism
and more dangerously,
a resurgence of antisemitism
The first is political.
The second is civilizational — and far more enduring.
4. History as irony
An authoritarian regime is saved by its enemies
A “liberating” war strengthens oppression
A show of power produces weakness
History does not punish evil.
It punishes hubris.
5. Final answer
Why does the world smile?
Because:
it sees arrogance punished
it feels a distorted sense of balance
it releases accumulated frustration
and above all…
it no longer believes in moral clarity