Masopher's Mind

The British intellectual hemisphere has been recently buzzing about the exaggerated end of the American Empire, the decline of the West and rise of the “East”, this is happening as David Cameron heads over to Mumbai to talk about more than the quality of its call centers no doubt. India is the largest democracy in the world and at the rate its going soon to be the most populous. India enjoys a suitable hegemony and sphere of influence even with a braying a mule-ing Pakistan to it’s West. India enjoys American and Russian weaponry and is probably the few countries to have next generation Russian planes as well as modern American weaponry. Massive diasporas exist spreading its political reach and economic access. China may be the sweet spot due to its communist background and place as a permanent member of the security council but India quietly grows in power and influence. Let’s hope David comes back with more than a case of deli belly.

I heard a lecture by Professor Michael Cox at the LSE about America’s still powerful position in the world. Even after then growth of China and India, America still holds the most expensive weapons, largest markets and global currency. People still watch Hollywood movies and look to American presidents for stimulation and/or inspiration. A few days later his friends in Chatham house release a bunch of articles raising the same points, talking about BRIC, China and the costly muddle that the Americans have gotten into bringing democracy into the middle east and getting rid of “safe havens” or ungoverned space.

Britain has vested interests in America’s continuation. While the Prime Minister probably will no longer enjoy a vigorous hand job from the American first lady, the private sectors of both countries are pretty much overlapping. Rich bastards in both countries share a common language and common interests. Arabs, Chinamen, Africans and the like must learn English and lose their sense of morals to join in the fun.

We live in a world that has moved on from Europe, it has moved west to America and it is not moving East but instead further west, or perhaps….north: up through Canada and then south to Russia, Japan, Korea, and west to China and India, It will probably move further west to the Central Asian states and middle east then west to Europe and behold we are back where we started…and China which was once great and The East will go into decline as Western states rise and sooner or later the west will look at a flat map on the wall and start worrying in two dimensions again. Unlike the thinking of British think tanks, the world is round and everywhere is west of something.

The great red bear died suddenly in 1991 and since then, Europe and the United States have struggled to tear off strips of the carcass before it can resurrect itself in some other more malignant form. Georgia, the Ukraine, Poland, the Adriatic countries. Nato and the EU bloated themselves by snapping up and supporting newly independent regimes before Russian hegemony crept back into play. And this is the nature of the struggle in the Balkans and black sea areas: Russian backed breakaways versus European and American backed breakaways. But without ideology to hide behind or blame, there cannot be a cold war. It seems sleight of hand that Russia becomes an open market while maintaining military threat upon the world. The bear isn’t red and it’s a little smaller but it’s leaner, meaner and smarter than before, more of a threat not less. Europe under France unified Germany and two timing Britain has also carved out a niche for itself. From de Gaulle to Schroder and Blair, Europe has finally reestablished itself as a Europe capable of invading countries and interfering with internal affairs rather than being pawns of the US and USSR. China has come to the fore as well implementing its own successful chimera of communism and free market economy. The fifth creature is India that uses Russian weapons but also American consumerism. The world has gone from a great eagle and a great bear to a great number of bear-eagle chimerical creatures each singing different words but with a curiously familiar tune.
Will soviet tanks be rolling into our front yard? Not likely but we must remember that it’s not necessary. Once the bank repossesses your land tanks aren’t needed. You don’t need to be conscripted into the army either. A few months of poverty makes army career seem attractive. Unlike during the cold war, Russia has a firm grip on the global economy. Russia doesn’t need to quote Marx to sell weapons. The world is in state where people are willing to buy weapons from anyone because there is no religion, no ideology, no real definition of friends or foes. There is still a lot of rhetoric and some of that rhetoric may involve religious or ideological themes but it’s just excuses and obvious misquoting. The FARC in South America don’t know communism, Al Qaeda don’t know Islam. Its all just greed and power mongering. Bellum omnium contra omnes is imminent reality with only the global class of wealthy elites benefiting in harmony from the discord and poverty of the plebian underclass.

People with money were never the enemy, in fact they are for the most part good. Rich people dont fight wars, they dont force people to be unhappy, poor, niggardly to each other. You are our own worst enemy, you the poor are the ones who fight in the war, you are the ones that refuse to take part in democracy, you are the ones that steal from and decieve one another. You snipe at each other and ridicule each others ideas despite having none of your own.

In many ways you deserve to be terrorized and set against one another by these factions.

Something truly is rotten in the state of this world.