Publications
Partners
Russia is a mafia state. China is a one-party dictatorship. Iran is a brutal theocracy. However, these countries appear more stable and are acting more rationally than the West.
Does this mean I would want to live in one of these countries and we should start emulating them? No. In the long-term, liberal democracy is still the best option and South Africa should continue on this path and maintain the strong and historic cultural, economic and political ties it has with the West. Nevertheless, at the present moment, the West is looking very chaotic and dangerous while Russia, China, Iran etc are more “sane” and are less of a threat to world peace.
The Americans, British and some European countries are deliberately stoking “Russophobia” sentiment in their media, politics and society-at-large. The supposed “Russia hacking” of 2016 US Presidential election and Brexit vote is a case in point. Sure, there were probably Russian internet troll farms creating adverts on Facebook, social media and the internet fomenting racial and other social divisions in the West. Whoopie doo! The internet is stuffed full of millions of spurious adverts from dodgy investment schemes, sexual and pornographic sites, weird and wonderful political groups, religious fanatics, vendors selling all sorts of junk etc. In fact, there were probably tens of thousands of troll farms in America alone supporting Hillary or Trump.
Is any of this morally-right? No. But to single out Russia when everyone is up to nefarious activities, including meddling in other countries’ elections, is plain ridiculous. The West and organisations like George Soros’ “Open Society Foundation” and “British Council” have been meddling in other countries’ elections for decades. Just look at how white British “Bell Pottinger” behaved in SA! The “Skripal” case in Salisbury is another example of a disinformation campaign. Maybe some Russian spies did poison Sergei Skripal and his daughter or maybe they didn’t but, before the British government made accusations at Russia, it would’ve helped to build a proper case first (with real evidence). However, with Brexit going extremely badly and Russia having some real successes of late (winning war in Syria, hosting 2018 World Cup, a chaotic West), one wonders who does benefit from the “Skripal” case? The West should accept that Russia is back in a big way and let Russia have its place centre stage. Starting World War 3 because “Russophobia” is a great domestic political tool, to distract from the real problems in the West, is extremely reckless.
Similarly, the racial, class and economic divisions in the Western countries (especially US and UK) are extremely alarming. Take for example, mainstream media (MSM) in the US: the anti-Trump (and his supporters) hate evinced non-stop in New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and MSNBC is incredible.
Also US and UK universities are becoming indoctrination labs. Anyone who espouses conservative or nationalist views is ostracised and often physically intimidated. There is an increasing shut-down of free speech and alternative view points. Identity politics is now out of control. Name the hashtag and it’s there: #BlackLivesMatter, #Metoo, #TimesUp, #OscarsSoWhite etc. The fraying of Western societies along racial, cultural, class and religious lines is becoming acute and this is affecting the stability of these countries.
Normally these would be internal issues and have little to do with the rest of the outside world – yes, that’s true, if you’re talking about Brazil, Myanmar or Zimbabwe – however these countries (especially US) are global players and armed with enough nuclear weapons to destroy the planet 10 times over. Throughout history, empires almost always end violently (their rise is typically peaceful) and, arguably, the US is the greatest empire to have ever existed.
As a white South African I have western roots but regard myself as primarily South African so I’m no western apologist; in fact, I’m strongly supportive of SA looking to the BRICS but still believing SA’s western heritage of representative government and capitalism (albeit both distorted by apartheid) should be maintained. Nevertheless, it pains me to see the West as now the greatest threat to humanity.
The West was the global top dog for about 500 years (1500 – 2000), however the current main flag bearers of the West (US, UK, France) and to a far lesser extent (Germany, Italy, Spain etc) are, quite frankly, losing the plot. The US and UK have had it too good for too long. They won World War 2 and grew massively rich, immoral and corrupt ever since. Despite Cold War propaganda, the Soviet Union was always a much weaker opponent so, in effect, the US and UK had everything in their favour. I do believe there were lots of great things about US and UK but this is a classic case of “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.
Therefore countries like Germany, Japan, Iran and even Russia and China have become much “fleeter of foot”. Now that the US and UK are losing their power, the high levels of corruption in their systems means they represent a clear and present danger to the rest of the world. We can only hope that the vast, vast majority of their populations, who just want peace, can see the danger that their leaders represent and throw the bums out.
