By Ghassan Kadi: March 2018 seems to continue to be full of surprises, and when we speak about the imminent and inevitable collapse of the Empire, and the consequential demise of global Western influence, we often forget who is the biggest loser, or rather victim, of this forthcoming event.Without a speck of doubt, the biggest loser will be the Western civilian.
The time has come for citizens of the West to wake up and realize that the Western Civilization is under threat, a huge threat. The threat is not from Russia as their politicians have managed to convince them in order to deflect their attention, but from their failed leaders.
When Westerners watch TV news, they hear lies. When they go to their ballot boxes, they hear false promises. When they are told that their sons and daughters are sent to fight a war in a distant country in order to protect the homeland, they are hearing fabricated stories of lies and deception.
Their politicians lie, and their media dance to the tunes of the lies of their politicians.
After their governments lied to them about Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, and they know they lied, they continue to believe their lies about Syria and Russia today.
A few decades ago, the perception of those lies by the populace did not make much of a difference, because the West was “flying high” on many fronts. But this is now changing, and changing fast.
At this juncture, we owe the Western Civilization a good review, and this is a task that requires extensive research, something which is far beyond the content and capabilities of this article. Not even a single PhD thesis can cover this topic satisfactorily. And incidentally, almost every time I wrote an article about the West in the past, and America in particular, some feedback comments insinuated that I should only write about Syria and that I don’t know enough about America to be writing about it. Whilst such statements do not really represent my knowledge of the West, the main objective of this article is for the Western reader, particularly American readers, to have a look at what an “outsider” has to say from a distant vintage point.
After all, a bird’s eye view from a distance sees the overall picture, but a close eye can easily get bogged down in the details.
When we talk about the Empire, we must keep in mind that the citizens of the West and Western politics are two different things.
And when Western politicians chant such mantras as democracy and human rights, and use them to bolster their own positions for personal, or at best, party gain, they would indeed be capitalizing on the achievements of Western people, the Western mind; not Western governments.
The achievements of the contemporary Western Civilization have been a subject of claim and ownership by many now minor Western and other non-Western nations. It is not a secret that the gates for the Western mind to fly and soar were opened up during the Renaissance, but the Renaissance is seen by Arab/Muslim scholars, and for good and substantiated reasons, as a byproduct of Muslim Civilization and the Andalusia factor, which in turn can be attributed to earlier Byzantine, Roman, Greek, Phoenician, Egyptian, Sumerian civilizations.
This is all true, and historically documented. The success of the Ford factory did capitalize on the Babylonian invention of the wheel, it didn’t have to pay the inventor any royalties, but such is the path of civilization.
The Western Civilization therefore did not start from scratch and Stone Age or even beyond. It did take on board the achievements of earlier civilizations; not only from the Near East and closer, but even from as distant nations as India and China.
So let us not underestimate the Western Civilization.
The countless number of the achievements of Western Civilization encompasses virtually all aspects of human endeavor and excellence. Even Chinese medical universities now teach Western Medicine alongside ancient traditional Chinese Medicine.
But it was Galileo, Copernicus and Magellan who proved that earth was a round ball; not Western Governments.
It was Da Vinci and Dali, and many artists in between, who inspired their minds and vision.
It was Pythagoras and Kant, and many other philosophers in between who evoked their souls and sense of awakening.
It was the brilliant minds of scientists like Newton and the recently departed Hawkins who set the Western mind on the path of technological achievements; not Hillary Clinton.
And when the people of France rose against the exploits of the French Monarchy, they were motivated by Voltaire, Rousseaux and Moliere, not by the nobility.
And when other monarchies either tumbled or gave “power to the people”, it was in every instant, a fateful event in which Western governments had to grant their citizens the right to vote, first men then women, and were forced to adopt democracy; by the power and will of the people who had become educated and free-thinking.
The monarchies of Western Europe today are a testimony of royal dynasties that managed to survive by accepting the compromise of hanging on to their thrones as titular figures, and giving power to the democratic process; or at least, this is how it is understood to be.
After having parliaments with elected members who appoint governments, Western citizens believed that they have reached the pinnacle of the rights of citizenship.
And why wouldn’t they feel this way when events were rosy all around?
To top it off, Western citizens were given what appeared to be unconditional freedom of speech, political freedom and the premise of defending and upholding human rights. In view of all of this, Western civilians felt there was no need to ask for much more. They had it made, they thought, and humanity had reached a zenith never expected in the past, a status in which they can live peacefully, with superb medical help, good education for their children, the right to speak and worship, and an economy of abundance. Who could ask for more?
For a while, and this “while” varies a bit from one western country to another, Western citizens did not need to question those milestone achievements.
It was those strong achievements that built wealth and prosperity; not the stock market. That wealth was produced when the West had real productivity, but this is all now dwindling away, and very fast.
Westerners have learned to take their past earned privileges for granted. They seem to totally turn a blind eye to the highly competitive and rising Eurasia. The once strong economies the West had has enabled its citizens to earn more for working less than citizens of developing countries. Furthermore, by inflating their currencies and suppressing currencies of developing nations, the West has given its citizens an unfair advantage over citizens of other nations who manufacture their consumables. But this luxury is coming to a head.
The month of March 2018 has served Western global hegemony with two serious blows; the first was Putin’s 1st of March speech, and the second was the launch of the Petroyuan on the 26th of March.
The Putin speech told the West, and America in particular, that it no longer has the military edge over Russia. And even though STRATCOM Commander General Hyten was initially dismissive and reiterated that American submarines have the capacity to “decimate” Russia and China https://sputniknews.com/military/201803091062379869-submarines-can-decimate-russia-china/ , almost overnight, he made a very contradictory, yet more realistic statement, and said that America does not have the means to defend itself against Russia’s new hypersonic weapons http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5525257/US-defend-against-Russias-hypersonic-weapon-commander-says.html
Later on, the introduction of the Petroyuan heralded the beginning of the end of the Petrodollar and American financial hegemony.
Two almost fatal blows that the West has received this month, and citizens of the West seem none the wiser. They are concerned with the Skripal case and the “shameful” behaviour of Russia and all the ensuing sanctions, not seemingly knowing that this month their military and financial superiorities have been taken away from them.
How bizarre.
We are now on the cusp of a major civilizational shift. The Western hegemony is finished. Eurasia is taking over. This is a major and unprecedented civilizational seismic shift, but few in the West seem to be concerned; let alone aware.
How bizarre, how bizarre, how bizarre.
The tragedy here is that citizens of the West, many of them, most of them in fact, continue to believe that the slogans of human rights and freedom that their politicians dish out to them on a daily basis are indeed the law of the land and that which underpins their governments.
Even after they have been subjected to the falsehood of their governments and politicians many a time, and even after they have seen how corrupt and deceitful their governments have been in the past and recent past, many, in fact most Westerners continue to believe that their system of government is perfect, and that they only need to find a way to eradicate corruption.
And even though talk of the so-called “deep state” has been brought to the surface more than ever after the election of President Trump, many Westerners, most of them, continue to believe that proper reform can rectify this anomaly that is in total contradiction with their respective constitution(s).
When dirt finally hits the fan and the lies and deceptions can no longer be hidden, citizens of the West will wake up and realize that not only have they been lied to, not only have they lost their world stature, lifestyle and wealth, but the whole civilization is now under threat.
Citizens of the West will have all the right to feel let down at seeing that their wealth and achievements have been squandered by their politicians and the business elites.
Citizens of the West will have all the right to be angry because their two-party system took away from them the right to actually choose their own leaders.
Citizens of the West will have all the right to feel undermined and cheated at seeing that their sons and daughters went to fight illegal wars that did not have any justification.
Citizens of America in particular have all the right to be devastated at seeing that 50 million of them are on food stamps and millions others homeless.
Citizens of the West need to ask their leaders and media outlets how they can in recent times throw accusations on other nations without providing a shred of evidence. What happened to the Western principle of “innocent until proven guilty”? they should ask.
Citizens of the West must wake up and realize that all that is left of their lofty principles are hollow slogans, but the core is rotten, corrupt, and has totally lost its morality and integrity.
The Western Civilization is on the cusp of total and utter collapse unless citizens of the West wake up to the ill-deeds of their political apparatus.
This is far more serious than France’s Louis the XVIth days just prior to the French Revolution. Back then, the issue at hand was economic inequality. Now, the whole civilization, at every level, is under threat of dwindling into oblivion.
The West now needs a new intellectual revolution; not a military revolution, because the Western mind has reached a level of civility that should allow its citizens to implement political changes within the democratic process; provided that they manage to find a way to allow them to do so.
Western citizens should be asking for the fruits of their achievements to be restored.
Once again, Western Civilization and the Western Empire are two distinct things. It is hoped that the civilization will survive the huge challenges it is facing, but Western governments seem hell-bent on the path of destruction, and it is time for Western citizens to rise and realize that the clock is ticking, and that it is time for Bastille Day Take II.
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