The terrorist attack in Moscow showed that, overwhelmed by news from the battlefields in Ukraine, Gaza and the cultural war that is taking place in our country under the banner of the Green Deal, we forget that the world is much more complex. And that the war in Ukraine is not only a completely obvious aggression of Russia, but that it is the result of the movement and actions of our civilization as well. In a commentary printed in the British political and cultural magazine “The New Statesman” under the headline “New Age of Tragedy” https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2023/04/new-age-tragedy-china-food-europe-energy -robert-kaplan-helen-thompson-john-gray
its authors Robert D. Kaplan, John Gray and Helen Thompson talk about their view of the current situation in which the world finds itself.
Contrary to the statements of a large number of politicians of our Five Coalition, who look at the world, for example the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, through a simple prism, they see the world as more complex. We “know” who are the “bad” and who are the “good”. And we have the truth and the only truth. As it was possible to listen to on 24/03/2024 in a discussion on CNN, where the pirates were represented by the vice-president of the PS Olga Richterová. She stood on the unequivocal position that the only and fundamental criminal of the entire world is Putin and Russia, which we must destroy. How, she couldn’t answer.
Unfortunately, such a political position is not supported by reality, but rather by wishful thinking. Here I would like to say that, according to our ideas, Russia is an unequivocal aggressor, but unfortunately, the governments of more than 80 percent of the world’s population do not have such an unequivocal view. See UN vote. Even in the EU, not all states share the opinion of, for example, our pirate foreign minister. And even the Czech Republic’s proposal presented by President Pavlo to replenish military ammunition for Ukraine was not met with enthusiasm everywhere, as our media admitted. By this I do not mean only currently cursed Slovakia and Hungary, but also Spain, Italy and other European countries.
The above authors, considered renowned political commentators in the Anglo-Saxon world, see the world situation, I quote: “… as the result of rivalry between great powers and the lack of resources and the breakdown of the liberal rule-based order.”
Robert D. Kaplan, author of the well-known book “The Coming Anarchy”, when assessing the current situation in the West, and especially in Europe, returns to the period of democratic but dysfunctional “Weimar Germany” (1918 to 1933). Which is considered a paradise of modernity, especially by the left-wing humanitarian and artistic currents. However, RD Kaplan himself speaks of the Weimar Republic as an era that gave birth to fascism and totalitarianism. According to RD Kaplan: “complicated and prone to bickering, the Weimar was classically a problem-burdened political regime that existed in a state of permanent crisis.” Such is our world today. It has no truly effective global agreement on functioning and relationships. Due to the shrinking of the “globe” caused by technology, there is an emerging new world system in which crises can rapidly migrate from one part of the country to another, or from state to state. According to him, today’s world is a total “Výmar”, where there is always a crisis.”
This is proven today not only by the terrorist attack by Muslims on Moscow, but also by the fact that the government of a politically insignificant country in Africa – Nigeria – dares to expel the American garrison from bases on its territory, and the US does not even dare to say a word. The semi-literate Houthis can block the Suez Canal traffic. The most powerful and still leading state in the world, the USA, is one step away from starting a “hot” civil war (a cold one is in full swing) and both political parties have made the US Constitution a tear-jerking calendar. And the courts are often just “gear levers” of political forces.
John Gray, a distinguished British journalist and writer says: “A global ‘Weimar Republic’ torn apart by new technologies and resource scarcity is our default state today. Our task is not to support a semi-imaginary and defunct Western-led ‘order based on [euro-amerických] rules’, but to avoid catastrophic conflict in a post-hegemonic world.”
Even in today’s world: “…the USA will remain a great power. Yet America’s decline is a trajectory that human actions cannot change. The idea that a nation that is so unmanageably divided today could build a new international order is far-fetched.”
From our point of view, taking into account that the USA has saved Europe twice and we fully signed up for an alliance with the USA after November 89, this prediction is quite tragic for us and Europe.
Helen Thompson, an economist and professor at Cambridge University, then ends her part of the article by saying: “For the better part of two decades, Russia has been the world’s energy exporting superpower. But the imposition of Western sanctions after the invasion of Ukraine has made it difficult for Russian companies to develop, without which Russia’s oil industry will decline. As governments around the world attempt to drive a low-carbon energy revolution, this competition for resources involves an ever-growing list of raw materials (not just diesel).”
“The idea of linear progress has always hidden the problem of resource depletion behind the a priori assumption that technology will come to the rescue. Our tragedy in the West is that despite all the disasters of the 20th century, we still carry this arrogant worldview that blinds us to the complexity of our collective human predicament on Earth today.”
An example of the complete decline of our politics in the Czech Republic and the discussion is that if someone wanted to present these ideas on his own behalf, he would immediately be labeled from many quarters as a “pro-Putinist”, as an enemy of our democracy, and as the latest insult sounds, for ” I don’t want to”.
I personally feel that today’s “Weimar” politicians are leading us and the EU to tragic ends. After the end of the First World War, the main slogan was: “Never again Verdun!” – a crazy battle that solved nothing with 300,000 dead.
Today we have Verdun in Ukraine, in Gaza, Syria, Somalia and a terrorist assassination in Moscow as well as a murder organized by Hamas in Israel, which can be transferred here to us in the blink of an eye.
If you are interested in the events and the war in Ukraine, you might be surprised to learn that the Czechoslovaks have been participating in the wars in Ukraine with small breaks for a hundred and ten years. About 1914, when our people fought in the ranks of the Austro-Hungarian army from July 28, 1914, and against them the Czech party, the predecessor of the Czechoslovak Legions, entered the war with the Oath, which it took on Sofia Square in Kyiv on September 28, 1914. If it is said that today’s fighting in Ukraine is similar to the fighting of the First World War, you will certainly be interested in the book “Life, struggle and death under seven flags” – Czechs and Slovaks 1914-1920.
You can find it at https://www.dobreknihkupectvi.cz/zivot–boj-a-smrt/
