Saturday, December 19, 2015
The Night Terror Of A Multipolar World
8-22-2023: I have decided to pull this post. When I wrote it back in 2015, I was still under the influence of information sources which were actually created by the Russian government for the purpose of spreading misinformation and propaganda. As the events of the last few years have abundantly shown, Russia has turned out to be a narcissistic, imperialist, piece-of-garbage regime led by a thieving little man in a bunker. Those Russians who truly desire to be decent people have renounced that regime and its leader. Because in 2015 I was writing under the influence of false information, this post which I originally wrote will therefore need to be revised. Once the revision is completed, I will re-publish the post.
Another thought-provoking post. Thank you for being so consistently challenging, erudite, and such a concise and elegant writer. Your posts, regardless of the content, are uniformly wonderful to read.
ReplyDeleteI haven't much time to comment right now but a few quick thoughts - England is of course the example that springs to mind of an empire now "reduced" to an "ordinary" country. Of course you are right that the stakeholders fought that change tooth and nail, but if you look at the country as a whole rather than at those individual entities, I think it is clear that England has succeeded in making the transition without coming apart at the seams and while retaining most of the elements of a functioning communal society - maybe that's the best that can be hoped for?
Things have changed quite a bit since the aftermath of the second world war, when the British empire was breaking up. Specifically, it seems to me that the entities with the most to lose - no longer individuals and modestly-sized banks, but truly huge, international corporations - have grown greatly in power as compared to the power of the governments by whose grace they ostensibly exist. Reminds me of what I learned in middle school, when Napoleon was crowned Holy Roman Emperor, and he took the crown out of the pope's hands and placed it on his own head, thereby reversing a power structure that had existed since Charlemagne.
I fear that as the United States continues along the path of "de-emperializing" if you will, that it will shortly become clear that the power of those international organizations exceeds that of the humbled government by a country mile. What will happen then I don't know. Have you read the wonderful novels of Neal Stephenson? My favorites - "The Diamond Age" and "Snow Crash" are dated now, but they are well worth reading for a vision of a society in which personal identity relates to various entities other than nation-states. I think he is a futurist (and novelist) of rare talent.
Also - when you asked what was the last time the U.S, showed real leadership, the example that jumped into my head was "the moon mission." Of all the ways in which our country has declined since, oh, the Vietnam War, the one I lament the most is the loss of our leadership in the international scientific community. Its just a damn shame that faction and fundamentalism has been allowed to destroy our scientific leadership on the global stage.
Hello Aimee,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your very kind comment. You do bring up a good point concerning England, namely, that many ordinary rank-and-file members of a dysfunctional society are actually very decent people - which is why they are not in positions of power. I'll have to read the Neal Stephenson novels. (I think in six months, God willing, I will have much more time to do fun things.) Feliz Navidad!