The chief publicist of the post-Cold War order was Francis Fukuyama, who in his 1992 book The End of History argued that with the fall of the Berlin Wall Western liberal democracy represented the final form of government. What Fukuyama got wrong after the fall of the Berlin Wall wasn’t his assessment of the strength of political forms; rather it was the depth of his philosophical model. He believed that with the end of the nearly half-century-long superpower standoff, the historical dialectic pitting conflicting political models against each other had been resolved. In fact, the dialectic just took another turn.
Just after defeating communism in the Soviet Union, America breathed new life into the communist party that survived. And instead of Western democratic principles transforming the CCP, the American establishment acquired a taste for Eastern techno-autocracy. Tech became the anchor of the U.S.-China relationship, with CCP funding driving Silicon Valley startups, thanks largely to the efforts of Dianne Feinstein, who, after Kissinger, became the second-most influential official driving the U.S.-CCP relationship for the next 20 years.
– Lee Smith, The Thirty Tyrants
Most in the West never understood what made it great. And any garden needs always to be tended because generations are replaced.
Lucklucky –
That garden must not only be tended, but pruned. The weeds must be torn out by the root, no matter hoe pretty the blooms may appear to be. In that, we failed.
“Most in the West never understood what made it great.”
This is spot on. People take our prosperity completely for granted. They take for granted that the shops will always be full up with stuff that they can easily afford to buy. They have no concept of how it got there or the hows and whys of the way socialism leads to empty shelves and queues.
“Rep. Eric Swalwell told CNN Wednesday that he was “shocked” when the FBI informed him several years ago that he was targeted by a suspected Chinese intelligence operative”
Shocked, shocked I tell you he said gazing dreamily at the photo of Christine Fang on his iPhone.
Congressman Swalwell remains a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Lessons will not be learned.
“In the garden, growth has it seasons. First comes spring and summer, but then we have fall and winter. And then we get spring and summer again.” —Chance
The ‘West’ never defeated Communism nor Fascism, it just appropriated them into its own political culture under new management and branding – as anyone paying attention can now see.
Liberal Democracy; Social Democracy; Social, Democratic Liberal Democracy; Christian Democracy; Parliamentary Democracy. They can’t all be the same can they? And for sure none of them is democracy, because the sole aim of that is to stop the concentration of power so it cannot fall into a single pair of hands, or group whether minority or majority to be wielded over society as a whole, to avoid tyranny. It was never intended to elect governments, but to decide issues collectively.
Yet all the so-called democracies concentrate power to be wielded by a self-selecting, closed shop, political caste.
‘Democracy is the will of the majority’, is an oxymoron. Voting is the new opium of the People.
What Fukuyama got wrong was human nature.
The Election Stealing brigade have entered the bragging phase:
https://time.com/5936036/secret-2020-election-campaign/
It’s amazing how western neoliberals went to such great lengths to help build up the economic power of Communist China.
The idea was they’d supposedly become more ‘western’. If anything, it’s making us more communist.
I don’t subscribe to the ‘Guilty Men’ thesis regarding appeasement and WW2, it’s much too simplistic. HOWEVER, I do subscribe to it regarding the rise of China….Bill Clinton, George Bush, Barack Obama, John McCain, Tony Blair, Angela Merkel, David Cameron, all the pro-‘free trade’ businessmen and think tanks, etc, etc. These people share a lot of the responsibility for building up a hostile superpower and screwed their own people’s security and safety for the sake of China.
“The idea was they’d supposedly become more ‘western’. If anything, it’s making us more communist.”
Well the social credit system is just around the corner.
Martin:
You forgot Joe Biden from that little list.
Apparently 83 senators including Biden supported letting China in the WTO. Disgusting.
I can just about understand the support for China in the later Cold War era to take advantage of the Sino-Soviet split. It made sense from a realpolitik view. The post 1989 approach has been completely divorced from realpolitik though (as has nearly all western foreign policy since then) There was NO upside to any of this free trade nonsense with China. Some cheaper consumer crap is a false economy.
Realpolitik would advise the West tried harder to cultivate better relations with Russia to now undermine China. The current ruling class are so ideologically dense and obsessed with conspiracy theories about muh Russia, so there’s no hope of that.
Not convinced Russian ghastliness is just a conspiracy theory, but China has certainly been a geopolitical disaster & highly corrosive to liberty on a global level.
I’m referring to liberal conspiracy theories about Putin rigging elections in USA and Europe, Trump/Farage/Le Pen/Johnson/Assange/name your liberal hate figure of choice being Russian agents and so on. It’s just nonsense. I think some Western European liberals use them disingenuously. Like moan about supposed Russian meddling to try to undermine Le Pen, AFD, Viktor Orban etc. Or bash Britain about Brexit. At the same time they have the Nord Stream project. It’s pretty hypocritical.
It is still preferable though to the kind of degenerate psychopathy of Anglo-American liberals. They actually believe Trump is an FSB agent or something like that.That the FSB/GRU brought about Brexit. Genuinely. These people are nutcases. I always quote back at them what Obama said to Romney in 2012 about the 80s wanting their foreign policy back. Usually drives them nuts to hear one of that from one of their ‘Gods’.
As I have often pointed out….. the international establishment elite are not really Marxists (although they happy to USE Marxist thugs such as “Black Lives Matter” – when it suites their purpose), they are closer to FASCISTS (“Stakeholder Capitalism”, 1971, by Klaus Schwab, creator of the World Economic Forum, is a Fascist work) – but yes this is Technocracy, going back to Saint-Simon (the early 19th century French Collectivist) and all the way back to Sir Francis “New Atlantis” Bacon.
Russia – Russia is different, it is an old fashioned dictatorship with few intellectual pretensions.
When “President” Xi talks to the World Economic Forum on “freedom and democracy” (no I am not making that up – go listen to his speech) the international elite fawn on him (led by Klaus Schwab – in his role as chief hand maiden), but PUTIN – errr no, they do not like him.
Mr Putin is a professional criminal, there are people like him (on a much smaller scale) a few hundred yards from where I am typing these words.
He is, as the Mitford sisters would have said, a bit “non you” as far as the international establishment elite are concerned.
Mr Putin is a murderer and a thief – but there are worse things in the world.
And, no, I am not being sarcastic.
In their own horrible way people like “President” Xi and Klaus Schwab are SINCERE – which makes them much more dangerous and harmful. Ditto the Tech Lords of Silicon Valley and even (yes) the Credit Bubble bankers – they have a vision for a “better world” (run away screaming), Mr Putin does not.
“And Joseph Biden?” – he is a puppet, a puppet if the evil forces that dominate this world.
I am not a fan of Hegel – so I was never a fan of Francis F.
I believe P.T.Barnum had the most apposite statement of facts.