I understand why you are sounding the alarm in so many posts. Unfortunately, you’re also preaching to the choir 🙁
The alarm is a starting point for us, a motivation to get going... and do something different. Because whatever we did until now clearly doesn’t work
In this sense, I suggest future thoughts should focus not on repeating the dangers of a Western retreat, but
1. Who could this “we” be which I so carelessly used just now
2. What is the position “they” (the Western majority not sharing your and my concern) can have that obviously a) makes sense to them and b) leads to the (non)reaction we observe
To begin:
A. Clearly, there is no sense of danger in (most of) the West. On the surface of it, that’s plausible: we have heard “wolf” cried so many times, and there are so many “wolves” cried our right now, and at the same time, all has worked out just fine in the end for some generations now.
What is really new today? Or were we just as irresponsible in the past and got lucky so far?
Oh, and the initial answer MUST be much shorter than a typical Claire post of 15 pages 😉. Because there must be a comprehensible underlying cause, and that has to be named, before we can indulge in learned essays about the history of ideas
My take: it’s the economy, stupid. The categorical difference between Western and pre-Western economies has eroded, both by us losing the edge and them learning to imitate us. And now, while we are still richer, they have come within the range where they can compensate material with effort
B. The moral high ground is lost. The only groups who can expect unquestioned credit as to their motives and honesty are in the business of defending the environment and/or disadvantaged groups.
I wonder whether the way forward is to recruit Greta Thunberg to the cause of maintaining liberal democracy, or to induce the captains of industry into politics (instead of superficially surrendering to the woke agenda)
I would wish for a Mont Pelerin Society 2.0 to rise up, but frankly, that was already a miracle -- reviving and modernising a past ideology -- the first time around. And it took decades; we may not have decades
Hence, my take is, we must oppose democracy (as in rule of the crowd) and promote the rule of the experts
I understand why you are sounding the alarm in so many posts. Unfortunately, you’re also preaching to the choir 🙁
The alarm is a starting point for us, a motivation to get going... and do something different. Because whatever we did until now clearly doesn’t work
In this sense, I suggest future thoughts should focus not on repeating the dangers of a Western retreat, but
1. Who could this “we” be which I so carelessly used just now
2. What is the position “they” (the Western majority not sharing your and my concern) can have that obviously a) makes sense to them and b) leads to the (non)reaction we observe
To begin:
A. Clearly, there is no sense of danger in (most of) the West. On the surface of it, that’s plausible: we have heard “wolf” cried so many times, and there are so many “wolves” cried our right now, and at the same time, all has worked out just fine in the end for some generations now.
What is really new today? Or were we just as irresponsible in the past and got lucky so far?
Oh, and the initial answer MUST be much shorter than a typical Claire post of 15 pages 😉. Because there must be a comprehensible underlying cause, and that has to be named, before we can indulge in learned essays about the history of ideas
My take: it’s the economy, stupid. The categorical difference between Western and pre-Western economies has eroded, both by us losing the edge and them learning to imitate us. And now, while we are still richer, they have come within the range where they can compensate material with effort
B. The moral high ground is lost. The only groups who can expect unquestioned credit as to their motives and honesty are in the business of defending the environment and/or disadvantaged groups.
I wonder whether the way forward is to recruit Greta Thunberg to the cause of maintaining liberal democracy, or to induce the captains of industry into politics (instead of superficially surrendering to the woke agenda)
I would wish for a Mont Pelerin Society 2.0 to rise up, but frankly, that was already a miracle -- reviving and modernising a past ideology -- the first time around. And it took decades; we may not have decades
Hence, my take is, we must oppose democracy (as in rule of the crowd) and promote the rule of the experts
Socrates drank poison for this...