Great article (as usual), thank you for that! However I cannot understand how it is possible to refer to certain principles of natural law "...(justice, love, goodness, etc)...." and "creative reason, or human nature", while at the same time pointing to some of the ideas of the current leaders of Russia and China. For neither state (not their culture, mind you, there's a difference) is particularly well-known for its policies regarding principles of natural law. As you rightly mentioned industrialisation, urbanisation and militarisation do not jive with elements such as care, solidarity and (personal) choice. Russia and China behave like an empire and their ruling elites are part of the same global oligarchy.
From the standpoint of individuals, love, goodness, justice expresses itself as action we take to our fellow citizens. From the standpoint of nations, these principles are expressed as action in policy. Beyond much of the fake news misinfo out there, China has pulled over 800 million out of abject poverty and are actually promoting the creation of full spectrum economies among colonized destroyed nations of the world that have been victimized by 80 years of IMF Conditionalities. China has one military base external to its borders while the USA has 900 and an operational budget 10 times greater with a track record of regime change. The western trans atlantic is dominated by a unipolar anti-nation state depopulation ethic while China is part of a pro-nation state multipolar program defending population growth. Russia too. So where are you getting the strong conviction that "Russia and China behave like an empire" and their ruling elites are part of the same global oligarchy?
Shall we agree to disagree? Having lived and worked in Indonesia for many years I've seen China's One Belt One road in action - beautiful roads, bridges and tunnels, but designed for extraction, exploitation, new markets and, ultimately, making profits. Nothing "wrong" with that in itself, but being transparent about it is important, yet lacking, as is listening to the people who get trapped in such a grand scheme. If China would have been defending population growth, would it have implemented its one-child policy? Again: aren't personal freedom, choice and the possibility to make something of one's life important elements (principles) of natural law? As far as 'us normies' can make out from the outside, both in Russia and China there are distinctively different interpretations of some of these ideals. Both Russia and China also have strict unifying policies regarding cultural minorities, instead of being proud of and further developing their vast cultural diversity. Yet many similar unifying rules and regulations are being rolled out in Europe, where nobody likes EU policies and their bureaucrats except, you guessed it, the global oligarchs.
We are all part of the same global system, and I would say one Empire. This is perhaps best illustrated by the unified global and disastrous response to the emergence of Cov-19, in which everyone played his designated part. So even though seemingly very different and poised at different sides of a global political and ideological spectrum, the various national elites all have their own part in the same schoolplay, ultimately pursuing the same expansionist goals, while certainly not adhering to the principles of natural law.
" Both Russia and China also have strict unifying policies regarding cultural minorities, instead of being proud of and further developing their vast cultural diversity. " Ten years ago I might have agreed with this, but since the unraveling of the Soviet Union more light has been shed on minority policies. The Russian Federation includes autonomous areas like Dagestan, Karelia etc. where educational instruction is determined locally. From what I glean Russification policies varied during Soviet times and were often intensified by Cold War policies that aimed at encouraging internal subversion, only heightened by the dismemberment of the S.U. under Yeltsin. Ukraine didn't become independent by a mandated vote of its population but by an act of the Soviet parliament, resulting in the rather messy border conflict of today. The Chechnyan War was more the result of the radicalization of Muslim youth though CIA activity than a desire of a significant part of its population for independence( It's no coincidence that so many of the leadership of ISIS were Chechnyans). https://consortiumnews.com/2013/04/19/chechen-terrorists-and-the-neocons/
By the same token I tend to believe the oppression claimed by Western media concerning Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Tibet is largely exaggerated( China has invited UN inspection in Xinjiang). This doesn't mean that I don't think the situation in these areas doesn't need to monitored by outsiders, but let's not be selective about those countries that top the State Dept's enemies list.
As a student of the Basque language no one could agree more with you about the importance of cultural diversity. France has consistently denied autonomy for the ancient Basque provinces; cultural repression has many forms.
thank you, very good points. The Chechnya "situation" I recognised early on as having a clear whiff of CIA (NB typo: though = through). If anything we don't like globalisation and we're very unhappy with the unifying EU efforts, after all the smaller the better. Enjoy the study of languages (ethnomusicology is more my thing). GB
Great article (as usual), thank you for that! However I cannot understand how it is possible to refer to certain principles of natural law "...(justice, love, goodness, etc)...." and "creative reason, or human nature", while at the same time pointing to some of the ideas of the current leaders of Russia and China. For neither state (not their culture, mind you, there's a difference) is particularly well-known for its policies regarding principles of natural law. As you rightly mentioned industrialisation, urbanisation and militarisation do not jive with elements such as care, solidarity and (personal) choice. Russia and China behave like an empire and their ruling elites are part of the same global oligarchy.
From the standpoint of individuals, love, goodness, justice expresses itself as action we take to our fellow citizens. From the standpoint of nations, these principles are expressed as action in policy. Beyond much of the fake news misinfo out there, China has pulled over 800 million out of abject poverty and are actually promoting the creation of full spectrum economies among colonized destroyed nations of the world that have been victimized by 80 years of IMF Conditionalities. China has one military base external to its borders while the USA has 900 and an operational budget 10 times greater with a track record of regime change. The western trans atlantic is dominated by a unipolar anti-nation state depopulation ethic while China is part of a pro-nation state multipolar program defending population growth. Russia too. So where are you getting the strong conviction that "Russia and China behave like an empire" and their ruling elites are part of the same global oligarchy?
Shall we agree to disagree? Having lived and worked in Indonesia for many years I've seen China's One Belt One road in action - beautiful roads, bridges and tunnels, but designed for extraction, exploitation, new markets and, ultimately, making profits. Nothing "wrong" with that in itself, but being transparent about it is important, yet lacking, as is listening to the people who get trapped in such a grand scheme. If China would have been defending population growth, would it have implemented its one-child policy? Again: aren't personal freedom, choice and the possibility to make something of one's life important elements (principles) of natural law? As far as 'us normies' can make out from the outside, both in Russia and China there are distinctively different interpretations of some of these ideals. Both Russia and China also have strict unifying policies regarding cultural minorities, instead of being proud of and further developing their vast cultural diversity. Yet many similar unifying rules and regulations are being rolled out in Europe, where nobody likes EU policies and their bureaucrats except, you guessed it, the global oligarchs.
We are all part of the same global system, and I would say one Empire. This is perhaps best illustrated by the unified global and disastrous response to the emergence of Cov-19, in which everyone played his designated part. So even though seemingly very different and poised at different sides of a global political and ideological spectrum, the various national elites all have their own part in the same schoolplay, ultimately pursuing the same expansionist goals, while certainly not adhering to the principles of natural law.
" Both Russia and China also have strict unifying policies regarding cultural minorities, instead of being proud of and further developing their vast cultural diversity. " Ten years ago I might have agreed with this, but since the unraveling of the Soviet Union more light has been shed on minority policies. The Russian Federation includes autonomous areas like Dagestan, Karelia etc. where educational instruction is determined locally. From what I glean Russification policies varied during Soviet times and were often intensified by Cold War policies that aimed at encouraging internal subversion, only heightened by the dismemberment of the S.U. under Yeltsin. Ukraine didn't become independent by a mandated vote of its population but by an act of the Soviet parliament, resulting in the rather messy border conflict of today. The Chechnyan War was more the result of the radicalization of Muslim youth though CIA activity than a desire of a significant part of its population for independence( It's no coincidence that so many of the leadership of ISIS were Chechnyans). https://consortiumnews.com/2013/04/19/chechen-terrorists-and-the-neocons/
By the same token I tend to believe the oppression claimed by Western media concerning Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Tibet is largely exaggerated( China has invited UN inspection in Xinjiang). This doesn't mean that I don't think the situation in these areas doesn't need to monitored by outsiders, but let's not be selective about those countries that top the State Dept's enemies list.
As a student of the Basque language no one could agree more with you about the importance of cultural diversity. France has consistently denied autonomy for the ancient Basque provinces; cultural repression has many forms.
thank you, very good points. The Chechnya "situation" I recognised early on as having a clear whiff of CIA (NB typo: though = through). If anything we don't like globalisation and we're very unhappy with the unifying EU efforts, after all the smaller the better. Enjoy the study of languages (ethnomusicology is more my thing). GB