In the 20th century, liberal democracy beat fascism, communism and nationalism, even religious fanaticism. In the 21st century, the autocrats and fascist type leaders are winning, wrote Anne Applebaum in the Atlantic. I would add; both fascism and nationalism are definitely on the rise world wide. Did lack of education, scientific advancement, or too much brain washing, fake news and indoctrination lead to a Brexit vote in Europe, a rise to new levels of white supremacy and extreme right wing parties, and a full Trump era and its aftermath in the U.S. plus our latest version of hegemonic imperialist war in Ukraine.
How did wars and mass killing and annihilation of the other get to be our only alternative to any other solution, this is a mentality of past centuries, violent, brutal and absurd, many of us thought that our 21st century will carry us away from, that we were headed to a more logical, rational and advanced civilized and unified common world.
Instead of trying to make an unaccommodating world in its image, policed and ruled by international laws, America and a post hegemonic West, as well as few big powers elsewhere, should all seek to fortify a model, their model, that others would want to emulate. The rights of the individual, self determination, consent of the governed, checks and balances on political powers, cultural tolerance and free expression, eradicate all apartheid rules and practices, they are all quickly fading out in several spots of the world including the Western hemisphere.
Americans, and to a lesser degree Europeans, are not promoting and defending these values. On the contrary all advanced nations are eroding these basic rules of the civilized world, and some super powers are transforming these same values into their own twisted hegemonic versions. How can America, or the advanced powers defend and lecture the world today, when in just few years, they all practically lived through insurrections against the democratic transfer of power, almost total coups to grab and maintain power by small groups against the majority, a galloping spread of wealth and inequality by powerful oligarch and super rich entities in all these countries without exceptions. offering themselves exuberant and fraudulent tax systems, as well as huge political power.
Wars and foolish adventures, mostly to the benefits of the war industries and special contractors, even the official armies and their commanders, driven by special interests foreign and interior lobbies, are becoming the norms. All these combinations of modern politics and governance are creating a dysfunctional environment preventing America and the West in general from reading correctly the dynamics of the global scene and the power shifts and preventing us from being the primary movers and shakers on the global scene that we believed ourselves to be for a long time.
Finally, we should all remember that no crime excuses any other crime, that blaming anyone doesn't absolve anyone else, and recognize that the solutions now being offered of more weapons and a bigger NATO are also what got us here, nobody's forced to commit mass murder, the president of Russia and its military elites may simply love war, or find the timing convenient to fulfill their ambitions, they have wanted an excuse for one, and they probably would not have had that excuse had we not operated our strategic policies defiantly and arrogantly, we could have answered some of their more reasonable demands and met them half way.
As always , my gratitude to all my good readers, stay safe and well.
No comments:
Post a Comment