This post ended up being a little longer than my usual, even after I cut out a big piece which just did not fit well with the flow. I decided to put it into this comment, as it is a great example of the problems I was talking about in the post.
Alexander Mercouris in Forever wars w/ Aaron Maté said:
"The audience here and Alex in particular knows how utterly dismayed I am by that and I think the same is happening in the United States we're having legal decisions and legal processes working out, which Once Upon a Time would not have been possible, backed by statutes passing through Congress like the new FISA extension act, which once upon time would have certainly been resisted or at least commented upon or criticized in a way that they are not anymore.
Anyway that's my little thing about where do we go from here how do we get out of this,
because we're talking about the forever Wars but the forever Wars are escalating they're getting more dangerous.
I think this war which is a proxy war between the Russians and the Americans in Ukraine is an extremely dangerous war.
Macron is again talking about sending troops to Ukraine. Today he says it really depends on the Ukrainians whether they invite us, which is almost an invitation to the Ukrainians to invite French troops and European troops into Ukraine which is an absolute disaster but sooner or later it's not just going to be a ‘Wars that we cannot win’ or ‘Wars that we might lose’, but wars that can end in disaster, so how do we get back?
I mean is it possible, or is this a runaway train that we can never stop or break - or will something change? You talked about disillusion that exists in the media …."
Then Máté Áron (yes, that is the proper spelling of his Hungarian name) asks him about Macron and his position. Everything they are saying is correct, but still amount to little more than navel-gazing without considering simple questions like: why is it so much more important the issue is to Macron than to the rest of the European leaders?
The answer is simple: the loss of the Western hegemonic order and the influence of its institutions over France’s former African colonies would mean the ultimate loss of all the economic benefits France still derives from them. France is relying on such benefits more than any other European country. Cheap uranium for France is the equivalent of cheap gas for Germany from Russia. Germany may still restore his relationship with Russia, but I doubt that France can do the same with its brutally exploited former colonies.
The answer to Alexander Mercouris’ question: “…how do we get back?” is another set of questions: get back to where? Just from the brink of self destruction we face now? Back to the happy days of Western liberalism? You know, “The end of history” moment? The answer is, again, simple: WE CANNOT. There is a serious, multi-layered and multi-faceted crisis that needs a resolution before the Western World can take a new direction. The fall of the Western hegemonic order is a likely resolution and a multipolar world order is a possible new direction.
Great post Zork. The BRICS has been on my radar for some time, but your observation about Putin is quite insightful. The dominance of the US institutions in global affairs became the Godzilla that had to inevitably be vanquished. The UN, NATO, the WEF and IMF and all symptoms and tools of American imperialism which has been evident for a long time, particularly after Covid. If time in Canada returns to the simplicity of the 1950s after the BRICS+ become economically dominant, I don’t see this as a bad thing.
This post ended up being a little longer than my usual, even after I cut out a big piece which just did not fit well with the flow. I decided to put it into this comment, as it is a great example of the problems I was talking about in the post.
Alexander Mercouris in Forever wars w/ Aaron Maté said:
"The audience here and Alex in particular knows how utterly dismayed I am by that and I think the same is happening in the United States we're having legal decisions and legal processes working out, which Once Upon a Time would not have been possible, backed by statutes passing through Congress like the new FISA extension act, which once upon time would have certainly been resisted or at least commented upon or criticized in a way that they are not anymore.
Anyway that's my little thing about where do we go from here how do we get out of this,
because we're talking about the forever Wars but the forever Wars are escalating they're getting more dangerous.
I think this war which is a proxy war between the Russians and the Americans in Ukraine is an extremely dangerous war.
Macron is again talking about sending troops to Ukraine. Today he says it really depends on the Ukrainians whether they invite us, which is almost an invitation to the Ukrainians to invite French troops and European troops into Ukraine which is an absolute disaster but sooner or later it's not just going to be a ‘Wars that we cannot win’ or ‘Wars that we might lose’, but wars that can end in disaster, so how do we get back?
I mean is it possible, or is this a runaway train that we can never stop or break - or will something change? You talked about disillusion that exists in the media …."
Then Máté Áron (yes, that is the proper spelling of his Hungarian name) asks him about Macron and his position. Everything they are saying is correct, but still amount to little more than navel-gazing without considering simple questions like: why is it so much more important the issue is to Macron than to the rest of the European leaders?
The answer is simple: the loss of the Western hegemonic order and the influence of its institutions over France’s former African colonies would mean the ultimate loss of all the economic benefits France still derives from them. France is relying on such benefits more than any other European country. Cheap uranium for France is the equivalent of cheap gas for Germany from Russia. Germany may still restore his relationship with Russia, but I doubt that France can do the same with its brutally exploited former colonies.
The answer to Alexander Mercouris’ question: “…how do we get back?” is another set of questions: get back to where? Just from the brink of self destruction we face now? Back to the happy days of Western liberalism? You know, “The end of history” moment? The answer is, again, simple: WE CANNOT. There is a serious, multi-layered and multi-faceted crisis that needs a resolution before the Western World can take a new direction. The fall of the Western hegemonic order is a likely resolution and a multipolar world order is a possible new direction.
Great post Zork. The BRICS has been on my radar for some time, but your observation about Putin is quite insightful. The dominance of the US institutions in global affairs became the Godzilla that had to inevitably be vanquished. The UN, NATO, the WEF and IMF and all symptoms and tools of American imperialism which has been evident for a long time, particularly after Covid. If time in Canada returns to the simplicity of the 1950s after the BRICS+ become economically dominant, I don’t see this as a bad thing.
I am very happy to know that you see my point.