FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
The ideological blindness of Western ruling elites, accustomed for centuries to feeling like masters and arbiters of the world, convinced of their right to punish, restrain and impose their will with weapons and their once overwhelming economic superiority, are leading us towards the abyss.
After the end of the Cold War, American foreign policy elites had convinced themselves that permanent American dominance over the entire world was in the country’s best interest. American elites miscalculated America’s willingness to forever carry the global burden and overestimated its capacity. These words do not come from a Facebook post by some pacifist, anti-Western Putinist. They are the central words of the latest official “National Security Strategy” document of the government of the world’s most powerful state.
There are aspects of this document that appeal to the European right, but not to me. For example, the threat to civilization posed by continued migration. Or even more so, the fierce opposition to supranational bodies. But these aspects seem secondary to me compared to the epochal political change represented by the change in the overall objective of US foreign policy. This change is a ray of light in the darkness of the current international political situation. Biden insisted that the world should be led by the US. The new administration recognizes that this was a mistake. I think he is right. Why?
Because the world is at a crossroads. A dramatic crossroads. Economic progress has spread across the planet, profoundly changing its economic balance. The Western bloc, which until a few decades ago accounted for three-quarters of the world's gross domestic product, has now shrunk to less than half. Not because the West has become poorer but because the rest of the world has, fortunately, grown in economy, education, science, success, self-confidence and strength. This is not bad news, except for those who think that the privileges of the West over the rest of the world are a divine right that must be defended with arms.
There are two possible Western responses to this global economic rebalancing. The first is to embrace a parallel political rebalancing: to embrace global multilateralism, in which Western states are no longer the undisputed masters of the planet, as they have been for nearly three centuries, but sit alongside others in a community of peoples. This is reasonable, and this is the path that, with foresight, the United States’ “New National Security Strategy” points to.
The alternative is for the West to want to defend its global dominance at all costs, often with endless wars, as the United States has recently done. This course, of course, leads us towards World War III and a 21st century that would repeat the catastrophes of the 20th century: 100 million dead and a constant, terrifying dance with nuclear catastrophe.
As always, political elections are shrouded in ideology and noble words. Spain conquered the world and filled its coffers with gold by justifying wars of conquest with the need to spread Christianity. The savage European wars that devastated our continent, such as the Thirty Years' War, were sold as religious wars, with each side defending the "true God" from the diabolical heresies of the opposing side. All of Europe's global dominance, at the root of the current wealth and power of the West, has been justified by the ideology of Progress: bringing "civilization" to "primitive" peoples.
In the name of this Progress, countless genocides have been committed, almost wiping out the population of the American continent and dragging tens of millions of Africans into slavery. Today the ideology is called “democracy,” an empty word, repeated ad nauseam, reduced to a cover for the fierce determination of the rich West to defend its historical privilege. But this determination is short-sighted because the economic rebalancing has already occurred, and the West is at a historical crossroads: either open the road to hell to maintain its military and political dominance over the world a little longer, or accept multilateralism and the legitimate aspirations of most of the planet to follow their own cultural and political path, without submitting to the Western will.
I feared that the shortsightedness and ideological blindness of Western ruling elites, accustomed for centuries to feeling like masters and arbiters of the world, convinced of their right to punish, restrain, and impose their will with weapons and their once overwhelming economic superiority (now lost), were leading us towards the abyss. For all I don’t like about it, the United States’ “National Security Strategy” makes me think that perhaps all is not lost. Perhaps there is someone capable of looking a little further than their own nose in the corridors of power.
Our continent, accustomed to enjoying the privileges of vassals of empire, is reacting to the American political change with disappointment and in a disorganized manner. It feels abandoned by its muscular father, it is afraid. It seems to me a healthy confusion. Instead of hiding behind the hypocrisy of lofty declarations of “democracy”, which only served to cover up the dirty accounts of power, the struggle for resources and the protection of privileges, let us begin to look a little further than our noses and articulate proposals.
Europe does not need the United States. It does not need to arm itself, much less at the staggering level of 5% of GDP, when almost no one in the world spends at that level, not even the United States (China spends 1.6% of GDP on military spending). Europe has no reason to fear Russia, which has always sought nothing more than a way to be invited to the table and avoid oppression. Russia has been repeatedly attacked and occupied by Europe throughout history (by France, Germany, even by the Italians in the Crimean War), and it has never attacked Europe. Nor has it ever dreamed of attacking a NATO country: it attacked Ukraine precisely because it was not in NATO, to prevent its membership. Europe does not need to “punish” Russia and consider itself the arbiter of the world.
Europe, unlike the United States, believes in international law, in the legitimacy and precious value of supranational institutions: it should give them weight as the place where the principles of legality are discussed and applied. Why not? It would suddenly find itself, perhaps even unexpectedly, in alliance with three-quarters of the world. Europe should work to address the real problems of humanity, multilaterally and together: the avoidance and reduction of wars, global warming, the colossal and growing economic inequalities, and the extreme poverty that persists in large parts of the world. On these issues, which are essential for all of us, we are much closer to the rest of the world than to the United States.
Let us move beyond the “democracy versus autocracy” narrative, into a world where so-called autocracies grow economically much faster than we do, gather more internal consensus than we do, and improve the lives of their citizens to levels never seen before in history. Let us think of the world as a community of peoples, each seeking its own path, who sometimes quarrel among themselves, but who must learn to do so in a more civilized way, without constantly slaughtering one another. This is an extraordinary opportunity, one that the world is seeking and one that our cousins across the ocean are opening up to us. / Adapted from “Pamphlet” by “Corriere Della Sera”
Europa është një bashkësi shtetesh që deri dje janë vrarë pafund ndër vete. Dhe dikush, çuditërisht një majtist ose i sponsorizuar nga të majtët, zgjohet një ditë dhe vendos të hiqet zemërgjërë e dashsmirës. E pamundur, por akoma ka budallenj në Europë që besojnë që një shtet i vogël si Hollanda apo Belgjika ka të drejtë morale ose në parim shoqërore, që të përcaktojë çfarë është e drejtë dhe jo ashtu. Aspak, JO! Po citoj nga fillimi i shkrimit, “Verbëria ideologjike e elitave sunduese perëndimore, të mësuara të ndihen, për shekuj me radhë, zotërinj dhe arbitra të botës, të bindura për të drejtën e tyre për të ndëshkuar, përmbajtur dhe imponuar vullnetin e tyre me armë dhe me superioritetin e tyre dikur dërrmues ekonomik, po na çojnë drejt humnerës.” Janë pikërisht të njëjtat elita që kanë krijuar qytetërimet e tyre duke kolonizuar e shfryrëzuar, astroxuar miliona njerëz në këto koloni, kanë përgjakur rrugët me gjakun e qytetarëve të tyre, kanë luftuar pafund kundër komshijve të tyre të paktën dy luftra totale, sot përkohësisht aleatë në BE, që sot moralizojnë. Janë këto shkërdhata që përdhunojnë edhe shqiptarët, për të mos thënë që i historikisht i kanë copëtur, që hiqen se kanë të drejtë morale. Këta janë llum njerëzor. Trump ka të drejtë ti përbuzë, ndonëse nuk duhet tu kthejë shpinën. Europa dhe elitat e saj drejtuese janë kancer. Dashtë Zoti dhe e mbron Europën me Shqiptarët.
Terma te palidhur me njeri tjetren dhe argumente qe nuk qendrojne. E kunderta e democracise nuk eshte uniteti dhe mbarevajtja e kombeve por autokracia dhe luftrat. Shperberja e Europes qe po tenton Putin dhe Trump eshte deshira e tyre per shmangjen e saj si faktor i rendesishem politik dhe ekonomik. Rusia nuk do te sulmoje kurre Europen? E ka sulmuar sapo vuri kemben ne Ukraine. A nuk po tenton shthurjen e BE dhe te NATOs? Pse sulmi ndaj Ukraines qenka i paperfillshem per opinionin e ketij gazetarit? Pse duhet saktifikuar Ukraina per nje paqe falso? Po problemet me Kinen si do ti zgjidhe SHBA? Jo vetem Europes i duhet nje aleance me SHBA, por edhe SHBAve u duhet nje aleate si EU. Nese qilimi shthuret, per tu rikthyer tek rregullat do te duhet LIIIB.