Virtue can only flourish among equals.
Mary Wollstonecraft
1759-1797
Fareed Zakaria
January 24, 2019
Washington Post
“This, then, is the post-American world.
Not one marked by Chinese dominance or Asian arrogance. Not an outright
anti-American one, but one in which many yearn for a greater U.S. presence. One
in which countries are freelancing, narrowly pursuing their own interests, and
hoping that the framework of international order remains reasonably stable. But
with no one actively shoring up the international system, the great
question remains: In a world without leaders, will that system over time weaken
and eventually crumble?”
This is the Gloom and Doom Fareed. Below
is an essay a week later where he comes on as Mr. Sunshine and Hope. In both
essays he ignores the fatally flawed, thousand pound gorilla in the room – consumer crony capitalism.
Now, let’s consider the above, his first
essay.
Regrettably, the US is not withdrawing
from world leadership because it believes the system is flawed and it is looking for a
more sustainable, equitable way forward. We, our current leaders, are
withdrawing because they (wrongly) believe their nationalist power, wealth and
world hegemony can be increased and more assured by going it alone.
Trump, his GOP members generally but not all of them, claim
and reassure their patrons and voter base with this ill-founded notion: “It’s a
social Darwinist* world out there! No more operating as one nation among equals.
We shall take the lead, dominate through economics and military threat and force,
and let all others fare as best they can in our wake. The only globalism** we adhere to
is one where the U.S. economically dominates but allows political spheres of
influence among its adversary nations. Globalization for us is
a very flat pyramid of the world’s nations with the U.S. at the apex. So help us God!"
This national versus international approach
is an analogous, individual-skewed take on the individual-group dynamic, the
most fundamental aspect of being human. We recently looked at this dynamic in
depth at Owl & Ibis – A Confluence
of Minds, through my presentation of The Evolution of Western Individualism, Part
I and Part
II. The analogy being made here is between the individual-group dynamic and a nationalism-globalism dynamic now favoring nationalism.
From a consideration of prehistory, history
and current events O&I concluded that a political and economic approach skewed
in either direction - one favoring sustained, hardline, libertarian, individual freedom
or one that favors fascism, slavery, group dominance - is not better for human wellbeing and
flourishing than a sustained balance between the two. That, since the origins
of agriculture and urbanization the balance has shifted back and forth between favoring collectivism then favoring individualism. O&I believes there is a deep need among most of Humankind, something fundamental to our cultural nature, to ensure that one
approach does not dominate the other indefinitely.
Here's another aspect of that same human nature, something contradictory:
