Portrait of Socrates. Marble, Roman artwork (1st century), perhaps a copy of a lost bronze statue made by Lysippos

In the heat of the argument, often we believe that the other one is evil, and that he or she is morally corrupt.

But listen, how do we know? How do we know that our political adversaries are evil?

Most often they are not, but seek to prop up their own political agenda somehow.

At the end of the day, Democracy is about trying not to have predetermined ideas about how things are, but try and listen to the other end of the table.

Socrates is the epitome of this idea. When he went around in Athens, he said, that he was the wisest of them all. He knew, because he had been around talking to poets, politicians, scientists and so on. But he was most wise, why? Because he knew, that he did not know anything.

It is this humility in the face of political discourse, that most often create a better course.

Knowing that you do not know anything, but just try to grasp at straws, and do your very best. That is a wise way of looking at the world.

That is why we safeguard freedom of speech so fiercely, in order to be able to have a chance to know what other people know and how they see the world.

Now, I don’t agree with mr. Trump with everything. There are a lot of things, where I really disagree with him.

But the end of the day, he does not strike me as evil, but as a vicious fighter for what he believes in.

I can respect that, as well as he can respect my idealism.

Sometimes we need to fight due to geopolitical reasons, as we need to fight the Chinese. I understand the Chinese, perhaps better than most. I have read a lot of both Taoism and Confusianism, and off cause I understand Marxism, my family created that idea.

So my point with fighting the Chinese is not to see them as evil, but avoid a greater world war. Create balance in terms of geopolitical development.

That is a very difficult task.

Anyway, staying calm in a situation, where you work up your emotions is good, and right now, we need to stay calm, and look at the situation from a more levelled point of view. Hopefully in a few month, we can have a feeling of a certain respect for each others perspective.

Mr. Trump said at his inauguration, that he respected the legacy of mr. Obama, maybe we can learn a little from that and seek to improve rather than just destroy, build things rather than deconstruct.

We have an economy we need to rebuild, we have a climate Change strategy to develop, and we have China, that is a formidable adversary.

We need to stay focused, and determined to face the new challenges ahead.

And most important, we need to bolster the reputation of the US in the entire system, build bridges and improve image.

We succeeded in the terms of mr. Barack Obama, maybe this time it will be a bit more difficult because Obama was one of a kind, but it is possible.

G-d bless the United States of America.