C.G. JUNG: ‘We have become rich in knowledge, but not in wisdom.’

In the first days of January 2026, President Trump violated international law by invading Venezuela and kidnapping its president, Maduro, and then threatened to annex Greenland, Colombia and Cuba to the United States.

At the beginning of his second term, Trump had already announced his intention to make Canada the 51st state of the United States. It makes sense to bring a brutal dictator like Maduro before a democratic court. However, many people consider it madness to violate international law in the process. Trump’s insane motto is: You can only build something new if you destroy the old first.

What should we call it when, instead of the existing international law, the old law of the jungle suddenly applies again?

The terms ‘madness’ or ‘megalomania’ are certainly appropriate today for US President Trump. The same applies to Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. And before them, to mass murderers such as Hitler, Stalin and Mao Tse-tung.

Trump does what he wants because he can? Putin does what he wants because he can? Xi does what he wants because he can?

With more and more problems, the question of sense or madness arises today. With the climate crisis, with the fight against terrorism, with the arms race, with every war, with the increasing flow of refugees. Admittedly, the question of sense or madness is not new in all of this. It also arose during the plague, the Crusades, the burning of witches, and even during the expulsion from paradise. But that does not provide meaningful answers to the new questions, problems and challenges.

Many forget that despite Trump, Putin and Xi, international law remains the law. However, as Heribert Prantl writes, international law needs ‘forces that will develop it further and help it survive the winter’. The law of the strongest, which now seems to apply, is not law at all; it remains injustice because it is based on naked power. The megalomaniacs may be able to create facts, but they remain villains nonetheless. The international legal order continues to make sense as the core of democracies.

It would be complete madness if we simply resigned ourselves to the fact that international law is being brutally violated today. If we simply capitulate to the megalomaniacs without a fight and cowardly, we will wake up as colonised people. Or do we want the law of the jungle to apply in Europe as well?

The great Swiss depth psychologist Carl Gustav Jung analysed: ‘We have become rich in knowledge, but not in wisdom.’ Clearly, the future needs wisdom. But we are too obsessed with the past and too forgetful of the future. We will also have to learn to live with uncertainty. What can a humanity that relies more on wisdom do today? Jung says: ‘The only great power I recognise is the human soul.’ And that also means that we must learn to trust our intuition more. And our intuition tells us that for every trend, there are always counter-trends: in the USA, for example, the Democrats have had some surprising election successes, such as in the mayoral election in New York.

In Europe, too, there are counter-movements to the shift to the right. And in China, interest in Buddhism is growing. Similarly, the trade agreement between the EU states and the South American Mercosur states is a clear sign of rule-based cooperation against the trade warrior Trump and against the US fantasies of omnipotence. The future is uncertain, but open. It will always be that way. Those who, like me, were born in 1938 have experienced this several times.

Have we forgotten and suppressed this ‘only superpower’, the human soul?

Because everything is connected, we are jointly responsible for the problems of our time. The rediscovery of the human soul depends on a global change in consciousness. C. G. Jung always saw himself as a spiritual healer in his private, political and professional life. Terms such as ‘new’ or “alternative” or ‘new consciousness’, ‘new depth psychology’ and ‘depth theology’ play a central role in this. Today, we could add: ‘new peace movement’, ‘new neurology’ and ‘new environmental movement’.

The soul doctor C. G. Jung suggests that, especially in difficult times, we strive for a life of cheerful serenity, for example, by reflecting more thoroughly on the insights of those who have had near-death experiences – he himself had a near-death experience. For Jung, it is always about getting to know our own dark sides. It could be that the other person or persons are right sometimes. He therefore suggests that we ‘think more fundamentally about the Christian prerequisites of our existence here’.

Recognising our shadow protects us from self-aggrandisement and moralism – important in combating madness and searching for meaning. Jung describes the myth for modern man as ‘creative consciousness’. In order to overcome the prevailing movement towards death and self-destruction, we need to liberate our life energy. This is where the opportunity lies in our current crises. History proves Jung right. In all crises, humanity has always managed to recognise the opportunities. C. G. Jung says: ‘We can only climb out of the pit once we have fallen into it.’

Source

Franz Alt 2026 | Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator