That is why I felt personally betrayed when the United States abandoned the very principles it had long preached, principles I had believed in for years.
Suddenly, double standards emerged, along with hateful extremism against those who were different or immigrants, and laws that placed the “sons of Sam” above the rest of humankind.
I used to tell my friends that despite the betrayal of successive governments—Democrats and Republicans alike—I still had faith that the American people would one day correct their leaders’ betrayal of the principles we once believed they embodied.
A glimmer of that faith returned to me recently when I witnessed massive demonstrations across the United States under the slogan “No Kings.”
More than seven million young people reportedly took part across more than ten states. Though the movement appeared, at first glance, to be politically directed against President Donald Trump, its essence was much deeper than opposition to one man or one party.
This new American generation came out to declare clearly: democracy is not an electoral ritual, nor a theater where politicians take turns on stage. It is a living spirit—renewing, self-correcting, and rebelling whenever it senses danger.
Perhaps the most telling sign of the movement’s meaning was a placard held by a student in New York that read: “We don’t hate the president. We hate the idea of a king.”
The No Kings movement transcends the immediate political moment; it has become a new social philosophy within American thought.
It represents a rebellion against the myth of the “savior leader” or the “dominant ruler”—an idea that has long haunted the collective consciousness, placing all hope in one individual instead of building a system of awareness and institutions capable of correcting themselves.
American youth are rejecting the deification of power and the transformation of politics into a symbolic religion. They are defending the meaning of the state as a living social contract, not a golden cage where citizens are imprisoned in the name of patriotism.
Their slogan, “No Kings,” recalls the very roots of the American Revolution, which rose against absolute monarchy to proclaim the birth of individual freedom.
Yet, in a striking irony, the new generations now see their country—once the enemy of monarchy—creating new kinds of kings: kings of media, money, technology, and populist politics.
At the heart of this movement stands a generation that feels its future is being slowly stolen, a generation raised amid climate crises, crushing debt, and a nation divided against itself, watching democracy morph into a stage for hypocrisy, rage, and revenge rather than wisdom and balance.
They see political leaders weakening institutions to amass more power, and even their educational institutions—those that built America’s civilization and excellence—have not been spared.
But this anger is not destructive; it is, in philosophical terms, “creative anger.” It seeks to correct the course, not demolish the structure.
It is a collective exercise in awareness, a declaration that freedom is not inherited but practised and protected, day after day.
What is unfolding in the United States is not merely an American affair, it mirrors the global crisis of leadership in the modern world.
The central human question has become: Who rules whom?
Is the ruler meant to guide the consciousness of the people, or are the people themselves now responsible for guarding their consciousness against the corruption of power?
The answer offered by America’s youth—though expressed in their own idiom—is that sovereignty belongs to awareness, not to individuals.
Just as political systems decay without criticism, societies too decay when they surrender their minds to anyone who claims to speak for them—be it a king, a leader, or a so-called saviour.
The Global Echo
Historians will one day record that No Kings was not merely a protest but a moment of awakening.
It stirred the stagnant waters of American democracy, redefined the relationship between citizens and power, and ignited a wave of reflection across Europe, Latin America, and even the Middle East—reviving the same question: Are we peoples truly seeking freedom, or merely another father figure to whom we hand its keys?
The No Kings movement reminds us—especially in the Arab world—that democracy is not a Western institutional import but a state of consciousness, a moral responsibility that a society assumes toward itself.
When American youth take to the streets rejecting the very idea of “a king,” they are not rebelling against a person or a title, but against a deeply rooted human impulse, the yearning for dependency and the fear of freedom that rulers everywhere exploit.
Toward a new global awareness
In the end, what we witness in the streets of Washington, New York, Boston, Chicago, and California is but a new chapter in humanity’s timeless quest for dignity.
Perhaps the most profound realization is that those carrying the banner “No Kings” are not referring only to presidents, but to anyone who believes himself beyond accountability, in politics, finance, religion, or media.
It is a revolution against sanctification, submission, and everything that extinguishes the flame of questioning within the human spirit.
And if this American generation has chosen to say “No Kings,” perhaps it is time for all societies—East and West alike—to reconsider the kinds of kings they create in their collective consciousness and allow to rule over them.
“Freedom is never granted by the ruler’s generosity; it is preserved by the vigilance of an awakened nation.”
Who rules whom?
That is the question.
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