Eurasia Press & News
Human survival on this planet has now become a battle between two systems of thought and governance; one the American based on vestiges of Western Neo-Liberalism and the other the Chinese under President Xi Jinping based on a restating of Marxist Socialism. The implications for the future of human civilization are profound. In competition with the American are 1.388 billion Chinese citizens as well as those citizens in silk-road nations outside of China. As this is occurring, globally American power and by extension its “Western” value system is diminishing. However, internally the American originating belief in its value system – so defined within the nation as “Freedom” remains strong.
Not only China
But most of the other nations around the world
Now see America in a state of political and societal confusion, a nation engulfed in stew of lies and deceit; all being powered by an unrelenting flow of false information empowered by an unrestrained media and internet.
A nation with gaping inequality, a nation dangerously politically divided, a nation overpowered in large part by a secular theology, that secularity embraced within Evangelical Christianity, its most powerful religious order.
And a nation recently under the control of a psycho who dispatched a mob to ransack the Capitol in hopes of overturning his loss in an election.
What is all this saying to the other nations in the world?
What is it saying to China?
It is saying that large segments of the population are without social coherence. Far-Right antidemocratic extremists are in control of parts of the American society. It is saying that the future of America is uncertain. America has lost direction.
There is a stark contrast between the American version of society as it was established at its founding and that version in recent history. Something changed in the aftermath of the Second World War and then the post – Cold War era after the breakup of the Soviet Union.
All of this raises the questions: Why is America unable to adjust to this change? Why has rational thought become redundant? Why is America unable to draw the line among its citizens between constructive Free Speech and extreme opinions that foster violent action?
The answers are being exposed by a restating of Marxist Socialism under Chinese Premier Xi Jinping. It is the message of this essay.
The implications for the future of American are profound. In ideological competition are 1.388 billion Chinese citizens as well as those in the so called “Belt and Road Initiative” nations.
As this battle of ideas is unfolding, America and by extension its unrelenting flow of liberalism and resultant Neo-Liberal value system is being seen throughout the world – both East and West – as being in a state of diminishing relevance.
One reason is that the American gives full rein to the dark neurotic psychotic me/me/mine side of the human impulse. Those who adhere become blinded to the suffering of the downtrodden. An offshoot is that personal influence through wealth is given the highest priority. Autocratic power becomes the rule.
China would appear to be moving toward a counteraction to this American/Western societal dysfunction. For example it has been able to control the coronavirus crisis as well as take necessary climate emergency initiatives; also it has been able to contain the threat of internal terrorism; religious, psychotic and other. The list goes on.
The following Countercurrents essays attempt to explain why China, if it succeeds in its experiment, may have a better chance of becoming the template for a new and creatively cohesive global human civilization – a reordering of the world. Its success however remains conditional – only if it succeeds in controlling the “dark side” of human nature now so prevalent in the West and long in evidence throughout its own history.
It should be noted here that China is having some success; not so easy with over 1.3 billion people!
The essay by Irwin Jerome about the state of confusion that exists in Texas and the inability for such an American “Democratic” society to correct the problems that its Freedoms have over the years engendered is not just about Texas. It is an illustration of American dysfunction. (I lived in Texas as a senior officer in the largest bank. I have travelled extensively throughout the country. I know)
