Barry, whilst I always enjoy reading your essays, I do find this one hard to digest, as much as I believe that 'Those who do not know history are bound to repeat it,' is one of the most valuable of the quotations of Sir Edmund Burke.
Although many will argue that Ancient Greece was the birth place of democracy, I am of the view that we can only go only have to go back to the end of WW1 to understand the roots of (Western) democracy and the sea change that brought these about. I covered my views in a recent short essay that I wrote about the demise of Boris Johnson in the UK as follows:
"As a centre thinking person with a tendency towards conservative principle (which does not make me right wing), I cannot begin to describe the relief to see the back of Boris Johnson. That relief / celebration though is short lived.
The problem is that there is this massive vacuum in the centre ground of UK politics (which is evident in all of the once great Western democracies). In this centre ground is where balance, decency, common sense, tolerance, diplomacy, honesty, integrity and a desire to unite (rather than achieve power through deliberate division) reside. We have no UK political party that exhibit these values and whether we have a left or right wing government is determined by the lesser of two evils choice that we are faced with at any election. This is no choice at all if we ever want to return to stable democracy which supports a fair and equitable society.
Modern democracy is still only just over a century old and originally was driven as an aftermath of WW1 and reaction to the 1917 Bolshevik revolution. At the time, the ruling classes looked to what had happened in Russia and realised that the days of treating the majority as ‘cannon fodder’ were over. WW2 only enhanced the need and the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights should have cemented a process for continuously improving democracy. In general, slow but steady progress was made until the end of the 1980s / beginning of the 90s. Democracy was becoming too big an issue for the elite classes and the gradual unravelling of their power bases and thus a slow process of camouflaged dismantling began.
First the immediate fruits of Glasnost were grabbed by Western leadership who then chose not to support the efforts to westernise Russia begun by Gorbachev, which ultimately enabled the old Russian regimes to re-establish having proven the untrustworthiness of the West. At the same time China was embraced without any conditions being set to improve their appalling human rights record and that has remained the case. Thus continuing division of democracy and communist totalitarianism and the narrative that has gone with this was enabled, confused by a contrived and ridiculous China ‘good’, Russia ‘bad’, scenario .
Then further plots were hatched to undermine democracy from within Western democracy itself. To this day, far too few people understood the attack on democracy in Europe that the Maastricht Treaty fomented and how the 1992 UN Rio Declaration of the same period changed everything without people realising. The dumbing down of education and the infiltration and control of journalism led to the ability to make salami slice changes to remove freedoms whilst the majority slept. The majority of us have once again become cannon fodder, under the control of the new rich elites (many of whom made their fortunes due to the deliberate undermining of monopolies, mergers and cartel agencies on a global basis), who have joined forces with the old elites. My sadness and despair stems from the fact that the majority of us still don’t understand how we have been manipulated and played. Until the majority do begin to understand, we cannot expect to reverse this position as we need people power at a level never before witnessed to make that possible."
I feel that what you have written is greatly oversimplified and I am ready to accept that you could return that view on what I have written. The fact is that I do not believe that we are seeing traditional drivers of war between nations in today's world but a different type of war where the freedoms of the vast majority are being gradually eroded by those with immense and unacceptable political and corporate power on a global basis. You may remember that I have written a lengthy piece on the gradual and deliberate undermining of the pillars of good democratic societal standards which I believe has allowed this to happen without most of us noticing.
My own freedoms have been reduced somewhat by LinkedIn removing my account from their platform, which had been my arena for sharing my many views on current direction. I may not be right all the time but to silence my views rather than respond with cogent thought that could alter my mind is a very negative and dangerous game in my opinion.
Can't condone CCP tyranny & the revisionism pushed in Chinese schools... or the slave labor, human rights abuses, & the extreme pollution/eco-terrorism that the CCP uses to profit & succeed.
I don't hate China, The Republic of China, or any Chinese people. I'm not against trade with China.
I do, however, fully expect their society to modernize their ethics, morality to earn their position in world trade or proceed with these regressive tactics in sanctioned isolation. Clearly the IMF disagrees with my sense of morality & ethics, as they have established CCP as their next golden child, but we really shouldn't concede on that front in my opinion. Can you imagine if America began using slaves in this century? Forcibly castrate portions of the population?... Would we be able to maintain our trading partners? I cannot understand why these actions of the Chinese Government are simply overlooked & tolerated.
No war between Iowa and Ohio, because neither seeks hegemony.
China's history shows the contrary.
Either China rules barbarians around it, or barbarians become a a new "dynasty," like Yuan.
China is driven to rule or be ruled - incapable of peace.
Mainland took American concessions for 20 years at the start of 21st century, then turned on us.
Now the xi dynasty is failing. China lost two generations to "one-child." It will grow old before it gets rich. Worse, it is crushed between lower cost Vietnam and the more inventive West.
Just one big omission that I see, or the proverbial 800lb gorilla in the room. The argument is one-sided. China or more appropriately the CCP has no concern for any economic dependency, they're going to take whatever we're stupid enough to give them, figure out a way to steal the rest and destroy anything else that gets in their way to dominate our world, till they conquer it. They're not a partner in any American sense of the word. Just a pariah waiting for the right moment and extremely patient in doing slow. Our demise will be slow and painful, all the while in denial that bad things are done by bad people that actually do exist. Oops!
Barry, whilst I always enjoy reading your essays, I do find this one hard to digest, as much as I believe that 'Those who do not know history are bound to repeat it,' is one of the most valuable of the quotations of Sir Edmund Burke.
Although many will argue that Ancient Greece was the birth place of democracy, I am of the view that we can only go only have to go back to the end of WW1 to understand the roots of (Western) democracy and the sea change that brought these about. I covered my views in a recent short essay that I wrote about the demise of Boris Johnson in the UK as follows:
"As a centre thinking person with a tendency towards conservative principle (which does not make me right wing), I cannot begin to describe the relief to see the back of Boris Johnson. That relief / celebration though is short lived.
The problem is that there is this massive vacuum in the centre ground of UK politics (which is evident in all of the once great Western democracies). In this centre ground is where balance, decency, common sense, tolerance, diplomacy, honesty, integrity and a desire to unite (rather than achieve power through deliberate division) reside. We have no UK political party that exhibit these values and whether we have a left or right wing government is determined by the lesser of two evils choice that we are faced with at any election. This is no choice at all if we ever want to return to stable democracy which supports a fair and equitable society.
Modern democracy is still only just over a century old and originally was driven as an aftermath of WW1 and reaction to the 1917 Bolshevik revolution. At the time, the ruling classes looked to what had happened in Russia and realised that the days of treating the majority as ‘cannon fodder’ were over. WW2 only enhanced the need and the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights should have cemented a process for continuously improving democracy. In general, slow but steady progress was made until the end of the 1980s / beginning of the 90s. Democracy was becoming too big an issue for the elite classes and the gradual unravelling of their power bases and thus a slow process of camouflaged dismantling began.
First the immediate fruits of Glasnost were grabbed by Western leadership who then chose not to support the efforts to westernise Russia begun by Gorbachev, which ultimately enabled the old Russian regimes to re-establish having proven the untrustworthiness of the West. At the same time China was embraced without any conditions being set to improve their appalling human rights record and that has remained the case. Thus continuing division of democracy and communist totalitarianism and the narrative that has gone with this was enabled, confused by a contrived and ridiculous China ‘good’, Russia ‘bad’, scenario .
Then further plots were hatched to undermine democracy from within Western democracy itself. To this day, far too few people understood the attack on democracy in Europe that the Maastricht Treaty fomented and how the 1992 UN Rio Declaration of the same period changed everything without people realising. The dumbing down of education and the infiltration and control of journalism led to the ability to make salami slice changes to remove freedoms whilst the majority slept. The majority of us have once again become cannon fodder, under the control of the new rich elites (many of whom made their fortunes due to the deliberate undermining of monopolies, mergers and cartel agencies on a global basis), who have joined forces with the old elites. My sadness and despair stems from the fact that the majority of us still don’t understand how we have been manipulated and played. Until the majority do begin to understand, we cannot expect to reverse this position as we need people power at a level never before witnessed to make that possible."
I feel that what you have written is greatly oversimplified and I am ready to accept that you could return that view on what I have written. The fact is that I do not believe that we are seeing traditional drivers of war between nations in today's world but a different type of war where the freedoms of the vast majority are being gradually eroded by those with immense and unacceptable political and corporate power on a global basis. You may remember that I have written a lengthy piece on the gradual and deliberate undermining of the pillars of good democratic societal standards which I believe has allowed this to happen without most of us noticing.
My own freedoms have been reduced somewhat by LinkedIn removing my account from their platform, which had been my arena for sharing my many views on current direction. I may not be right all the time but to silence my views rather than respond with cogent thought that could alter my mind is a very negative and dangerous game in my opinion.
Beautiful essay!
Can't condone CCP tyranny & the revisionism pushed in Chinese schools... or the slave labor, human rights abuses, & the extreme pollution/eco-terrorism that the CCP uses to profit & succeed.
I don't hate China, The Republic of China, or any Chinese people. I'm not against trade with China.
I do, however, fully expect their society to modernize their ethics, morality to earn their position in world trade or proceed with these regressive tactics in sanctioned isolation. Clearly the IMF disagrees with my sense of morality & ethics, as they have established CCP as their next golden child, but we really shouldn't concede on that front in my opinion. Can you imagine if America began using slaves in this century? Forcibly castrate portions of the population?... Would we be able to maintain our trading partners? I cannot understand why these actions of the Chinese Government are simply overlooked & tolerated.
No war between Iowa and Ohio, because neither seeks hegemony.
China's history shows the contrary.
Either China rules barbarians around it, or barbarians become a a new "dynasty," like Yuan.
China is driven to rule or be ruled - incapable of peace.
Mainland took American concessions for 20 years at the start of 21st century, then turned on us.
Now the xi dynasty is failing. China lost two generations to "one-child." It will grow old before it gets rich. Worse, it is crushed between lower cost Vietnam and the more inventive West.
--------------------------------------------------
The only question is if America can be firm enough to bring that fall to safe landing.
.
Just one big omission that I see, or the proverbial 800lb gorilla in the room. The argument is one-sided. China or more appropriately the CCP has no concern for any economic dependency, they're going to take whatever we're stupid enough to give them, figure out a way to steal the rest and destroy anything else that gets in their way to dominate our world, till they conquer it. They're not a partner in any American sense of the word. Just a pariah waiting for the right moment and extremely patient in doing slow. Our demise will be slow and painful, all the while in denial that bad things are done by bad people that actually do exist. Oops!