by Pepe Escobar with permission and widely cross-posted
Assaulted by cognitive dissonance across the spectrum, the Empire of Chaos now behaves as a manic depressive inmate, rotten to the core – a fate more filled with dread than having to face a revolt of the satrapies.
Only brain dead zombies now believe in its self-billed universal mission as the new Rome and the new Jerusalem. There’s no unifying culture, economy or geography knitting the core together across an “arid, desiccated, political landscape sweltering under the brassy sun of Apollonian ratiocination, devoid of passion, very masculine, and empty of human empathy.”
Clueless Cold Warriors still dream of the days when the Germany-Japan axis was threatening to rule Eurasia and the Commonwealth was biting the dust – thus offering Washington, fearful of being forced into islandization, the once in a lifetime opportunity to profit from WWII to erect itself as Supreme World Paradigm cum savior of the “free world”.
And then there were the unilateral 1990s, when the once again self-billed Shining City on the Hill basked in tawdry “end of history” celebrations – just as toxic neocons, gestated in the inter-war period via the gnostic cabal of New York Trotskyism, plotted their power takeover.
Red Square
Today, it’s not Germany-Japan but the specter of a Russia-China-Germany entente that terrorizes the Hegemon as the Eurasian trio capable of sending American global domination to the dustbin of History.
Enter the American “strategy”. And predictably, it’s a prodigy of narrow mindedness, not even aspiring to the status of – fruitless – exercise in irony or desperation, yielding as it is from the pedestrian Carnegie Endowment, with its HQ in Think Tank Row between Dupont and Thomas Circle along Massachussets Avenue in D.C.
Making U.S. Foreign Policy Work Better for the Middle Class is a sort of bipartisan report guiding the current, bewildered Crash Test Dummy administration. One of the 11 writers involved is none other than National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. The notion that a global imperial strategy and – in this case – a deeply impoverished and enraged middle class share the same interests does not even qualify as a lousy joke.
With “thinkers” like these, the Hegemon does not even need Eurasian “threats”.
Wanna talk to Mr. Khinzal?
Meanwhile, in a script worthy of Dylan’s Desolation Row rewritten by The Three Stooges, proverbial Atlanticist chihuahuas are raving that the Pentagon ordered the partition of NATO: Western Europe will contain China, and Eastern Europe will contain Russia.
Yet what’s actually happening in those corridors of European power that really matter – no, baby, that ain’t Warsaw – is that not only Berlin and Paris refuse to antagonize Beijing, but mull how to get closer to Moscow without enraging the Hegemon.
So much for microwaved, Kissingerian Divide and Rule. One of the few things the notorious war criminal really got it was when he noted, after the implosion of the USSR, that without Europe “the US would become a distant island in the coastline of Eurasia”: it would dwell “in solitude, a minor status”.
Life is a drag when the (global) free lunch is over and on top of it you need to face not only the emergence of a “peer competitor” in Eurasia (copyright Zbig “Grand Chessboard” Brzezinski) but a comprehensive strategic partnership. You fear that China is eating your lunch – and dinner, and nightcap – but still you need Moscow as the designated enemy of choice, because that’s what legitimizes NATO.
Call The Three Stooges! Let’s send the Europeans to patrol the South China Sea! Let’s get those Baltic nullities plus pathetic Poles to enforce the New Iron Curtain! And let’s deploy Russophobic Britannia Rules the Waves on both fronts!
Control Europe – or bust. Hence the Brave New NATO World: white man’s burden revisited – against Russia-China.
Chongqing Night
So far, Russia-China had been exhibiting infinite Daoist patience in dealing with those clowns. Not anymore.
The key players in the Heartland have clearly seen through the imperial propaganda fog; it will be a long and winding road, but the horizon will eventually unveil a Germany-Russia-China-Iran alliance rebalancing the global chessboard.
This is the ultimate Imperial Night of the Living Dead nightmare – hence these lowly American emissaries frantically scurrying around multiple latitudes trying to keep the satrapies in line.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, China-Russia build submarines like there’s no tomorrow equipped with state-of-the-art missiles – and Su-57s invite wise guys to a close conversation with a hypersonic Mr. Khinzal.
Sergey Lavrov, like an aristocratic Grand Seigneur, took the trouble of enlightening the clowns with a stark, erudite distinction between rule of law and their self-defined “rules-based international order”.
That’s too much for their collective IQ. Perhaps what they will register is that the Russian-Chinese Treaty of Good-Neighborliness, Friendship, and Cooperation, initially signed on July 16, 2001, has just been extended for five years by Presidents Putin and Xi.
As the Empire of Chaos is incrementally and inexorably expelled from the Heartland, Russia-China is jointly managing Central Asian affairs.
In the Central and South Asia connectivity conference in Tashkent,
Lavrov detailed how Russia is driving “the Greater Eurasian Partnership, a unifying and integrational outline between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans that is as free for the movement of goods, capital, labor and services as possible and which is open to every country of the common continent of Eurasia and the integration unions created here.”
Then there’s the updated Russian National Security Strategy, which clearly outlines that building a partnership with the US and hitting win-win cooperation with the EU is an uphill struggle: “The contradictions between Russia and the West are serious and are hard to solve.” By contrast, strategic cooperation with China and India will be expanded.
A geopolitical earthquake
Yet the defining geopolitical breakthrough in the second year of the Raging Twenties may well be China telling the Empire, “That’s enough”.
It started over two months ago in Anchorage, when the formidable Yang Jiechi made shark fin soup out of the helpless American delegation. The piece de resistance came this week in Tianjin, where Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng and his boss Wang Yi reduced mediocre imperial bureaucrat Wendy Sherman to stale dumpling status.
This searing analysis by a Chinese think tank reviewed all the key issues. Here are the highlights.
– The Americans wanted to ensure that “guardrails and boundaries” are established to avoid a deterioration of U.S.-China relations in order to “manage” the relationship responsibly. That did not work, because their approach was “terrible”.
– “Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng hit the nail on the head when he said that the U.S. “competition, cooperation and confrontation” triad is a “blindfold” to contain and suppress China. Confrontation and containment are essential, cooperation is expedient, and competition is a discourse trap. The U.S. demands cooperation when it is in need of China, but in areas where it thinks it has an advantage, it decouples and cuts off supplies, blocks and sanctions, and is willing to clash and confront China in order to contain it.”
– Xie Feng “also presented two lists to the U.S. side, a list of 16 items requesting the U.S. side to correct its wrong policies and words and deeds toward China, and a list of 10 priority cases of China’s concern (…) if these anti-China issues caused by the U.S. side’s bent are not resolved, what is there to talk about between China and the U.S.?”
– And then, the sorbet to go with the cheesecake: Wang Yi’s three bottom lines to Washington. In a nutshell:
1. “The United States must not challenge, denigrate or even attempt to subvert the socialist road and system with Chinese characteristics. China’s road and system are the choice of history and the choice of the people, and they concern the long-term welfare of 1.4 billion Chinese people and the future destiny of the Chinese nation, which is the core interest that China must adhere to.”
2. “The United States must not try to obstruct or even interrupt China’s development process. The Chinese people certainly have the right to a better life, and China also has the right to modernization, which is not the monopoly of the United States and involves the basic conscience of mankind and international justice. China urges the U.S. side to expeditiously lift all unilateral sanctions, high tariffs, long-arm jurisdiction and the science and technology blockade imposed on China.”
3. “The United States must not infringe on China’s national sovereignty, let alone undermine China’s territorial integrity. The issues related to Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong are never about human rights or democracy, but rather about the major rights and wrongs of fighting against “Xinjiang independence”, “Tibet independence” and “Hong Kong independence”. No country will allow its sovereign security to be compromised. As for the Taiwan issue, it is a top priority (…) If “Taiwan independence” dares to provoke, China has the right to take any means needed to stop it.”
Will the Empire of Chaos register all of the above? Of course not. So the inexorable imperial rot will go on, a tawdry affair carrying no dramatic, aesthetic pathos worthy of a Gotterdammerung, barely eliciting even a glance from the Gods, “where they smile in secret, looking over wasted lands / Blight and famine, plague and earthquake, roaring deeps and fiery sands, / Clanging fights, and flaming towns, and sinking ships, and praying hands”, as Tennyson immortalized it.
Yet what really matters, in our realpolitik realm, is that Beijing doesn’t even care. The point has been made: “The Chinese have long had enough of American arrogance, and the time when the U.S. tried to bully the Chinese is long gone.”
Now that’s the start of a brave new geopolitical world – and a prequel to an imperial requiem. Many a sequel will follow.
Renewed attacks on Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua show the US retrenching into a chaotic Western Hemisphere today moving towards more “independent” policies: Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru are soon to be joined by Chile, where there is an anti oligarchic progressive new Constitution being approved, as well as coming presidential election. And the two main regional allies of the US remaining, Brazil and Colombia, both are about to enter electoral processes that, if not prevented by coups, will favor left and independent oriented political organizations (Lula in Brazil). A difficult and painful “imperial retrenchment”, in any case, for both the US and Latin America.
Eduardo, I’m sure you’re aware that the USA has always been about expansion and exploitation. American journalist John O’Sullivan wrote in 1845 that it was “our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us.”
This is very similar what the European Ashkenazim are now doing in Palestine. Zionism is after all, a European invention, based on the racist notion that certain Europeans were “chosen” by God to range around the planet, displacing the indigenous, stealing their land and resources, and eventually bringing human history to an end in an apocalyptic final battle between “good” (them) and “evil” (everyone else).
This is why US Christian Zionists get on so well with the Likudniks who are now brutally occupying Palestine. Their crazy end-times scenario is that once this final conflict occurs, their warrior messiah will return to Earth to smite the unbelievers, everyone but them, apparently.
Yes, Eduardo, I noted the absence of anyone from the continents of America or Africa in Pepe’s Eurasian alliance of Germany-Russia-China-Iran. I am afraid those two continents must work out their own salvation like Russia, China and Iran have done, each in their own way. As you say, America at least has 3 active role models: Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. I doubt if those 3 small countries can do the heavy lifting for the entire continent of America, but at least they can inspire effort.
“A heavy load, and it takes real men” — Liberation song.
The threat to Washington’s hegemony in the Americas are not the loud anti-imperialist movements in Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Bolivia but the quiet and steady rejuvenation and assertion of sovereignty by the major economies after the devastating neoliberal crusades and anti-Bolivarian counter-revolutions of recent decades.
By GDP: Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru.
Of course, the recent success of these smaller anti-imperialist movements is an indicator of where the geopolitical tide is headed.
Pepe writes all the time of the Global South. That is part of BRI. China and Russia are occupying geopolitical space in both continents, Africa and South America, as well as Central America and the Caribbean.
The strategy in those places is different but the goals are the same. Development, sovereign nations, security, and attachment to a multipolar global economy and international law, not the Hegemon’s rules.
When this is decided, the USA will continue to exist, perhaps no longer hegemonic, but as one of the powers in a multipolar world, with Spanish America in its area of influence (and who have a long way to go to mature politically and geopolitically. Until now under the aegis Anglo-usa, for 200 years already) … and with Russia and China far away …
On the other hand, it is not clear to me if what is happening in some South American countries is an “anti-imperialist awakening” or is it one of the many “colored springs” of G. Soros et. al in order to destabilize emerging nations and impose its hegemonic globalist agenda. The same slogans that come from the swamp of the empire and the same strategy are observed, both in Chile, the USA and Colombia (Simultaneous attack on the police, massive looting and destruction of cities and fundamental means of transport) Especially in Chile, there is no understands that the “outbreak” has occurred as the most prosperous country in the region, already at the level of Portugal and rising, with the highest GDP per capita and a poverty rate of no more than 10%
Lyndon Larouche said that one of the tricks of the Anglo-USA empire was to encourage insurrections, separatisms, “liberation” movements, etc., in countries that could become a threat (read: competition): Chile was about to leave the underdevelopment; Colombia was already getting rid of the scourge of drug guerrillas that prevented it from taking a definitive path of development (and, therefore, it would no longer justify the presence of North American militias in its territory), etc.
There are many inequities and injustices to be resolved, but you must be awake to the pseudo anti-imperialist harangues that rather play your game.
Best not reuse the monster of 20th century destruction & two world wars as glue pasting north & east onto western ewe. The sweeties from mighty deutschland still struggle to reign in their superiority, their jewish banking dynasties. Maybe suit y’all peacocks & oligarchs but till distant fields are green & the earth ain’t in the poo, we all have a problem.
Na wszystkie prawie kwestie, odpowiadaja dwa dziełka.
“Żelazne prawo oligarchii”
“Teoria elit”.
Imperialne elity zawsze popełniają w pewnym momencie te same błędy.
Upadek jest ich konsekwencją.
Elity anglosaskie nie wyciągaja wnioskow z doświadczeń swoich poprzednikow.
A powinny się uczyć na swoich błedach.
Pycha i arogancja zawsze dają takie same efekty.
Więc chyba czas na wymianę elit?
Te zachodnie straciły zdaje się “mandat Niebios”?
—–
Machine translation:
For almost all issues, there are two little pieces.
“Iron Law of Oligarchy”
“The theory of elites.”
The imperial elite always make the same mistakes at some point.
The fall is their consequence.
Anglo-Saxon elites do not draw conclusions from the experiences of their predecessors.
And they should learn from their mistakes.
Pride and arrogance always produce the same results.
So it’s time to replace the elite, is it?
The Western ones seem to have lost the “mandate of Heaven”?
Erudite, acerbic, humorous and pithy observations by Pepe. Very importantly, he proffers Germany in consort with Russia and China as a western pillar of Eurasian Integration. There is a logic to that, but I don’t see the same signs that Pepe sees. Germany is weighted down with US military bases and laden with chains to NATO and EU anvils. Germany is not free to choose and move like a true sovereign nation. Gravity pulls it eastward, but it requires leadership.
What is true is China is throwing its weight around, unfettered by diplomatic niceties or even a strategy of peace at all costs. The Chinese have put the continuing development and betterment of its people forward and its territorial interests next to that, and China won’t budge a nanometer.
Deftly, Pepe indicates Russia’s chips at the table. Lavrov’s word and Shoigu’s hypersonic missiles. No need to reference Putin. He remains in the Kremlin. The Hegemon will have to arrange the meeting when it sees the light and accepts the death of its Empire. It will send Sleepy or the next imposter to arrange a soft landing and proper memorial service. Putin will be eloquent.
Requiem indeed. The Empire cannot handle 75,000 sandal-wearing Taliban, couldn’t stop the NS-2, even its mad dog proxy Israel can’t get its missiles to Syrian targets.
Oh, the ideologues in those think tanks Pepe mentioned haven’t smelled the smoke nor noticed the flames. The fires are burning domestically, and the winds will sweep and scald through the corrupt institutions of government. Rotten to the core America has a reckoning with its citizens.
The Empire dies abroad and at home.
you wrote:
There is a logic to that, but I don’t see the same signs that Pepe sees. Germany is weighted down with US military bases and laden with chains to NATO and EU anvils. Germany is not free to choose and move like a true sovereign nation. Gravity pulls it eastward, but it requires leadership.
to quote hemingway a quintessential 20th century american
“How did you go bankrupt?”
Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”
― Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
and suddenly is how it will be for the pentagon and all those far way military outposts. when it finally arrives ”’unexpectedly” for washington those soldiers and personnel will be lucky indeed if they can get back home from some of their stations.
Right? Not sure why Pepe doesn’t see that Germany is waging (very successful) war against Russia since 1989? They got after every single European country which could be sympathetic to Russia and beat it into submission starting with breakup of Yugoslavia, then Cyprus banking crisis, then Greece. Ukrainian coup was also sponsored by Germany.
On the other hands Germany is not stupid and willing to extract benefits where possible and put herself in the position of EU gatekeeper for energy security.
What Germans do with Russia is what US wishes to do to China.
Even free from the US influence Germany will never let Russia to join euro-structures as this will seriously undermine their position as de-facto ruler of EU.
“Beware Germans bringing the Nord Stream”
A NATO- and US-occupied Germany, to be exact. How much of this was done under the behest of the USA/NATO?
//Germany is weighted down with US military bases and laden with chains to NATO and EU anvils. Germany is not free to choose and move like a truly sovereign nation. Gravity pulls it eastward, but it requires leadership.//
Such leadership is not likely to attain power in the next German elections. The far-left-leaning Green Party is the favorite to win the election, and they would probably side with the Hegemon.
In what world is a Green Party that “is in lockstep” with NATO’s Atlantic Council on foreign policy considered “far left”? Perhaps such vacuous terms should be dispensed with.
The Greens are also not a clear favorite. It will be a close election.
@jürgen
Let’s assume that the CDU would gain the upper hand and would stay in power. Even if that happens, it’s crystal clear with the latest submission of Germany to the US demands over NS2 that the German ruling elite are in no position or do not have the intention of decoupling with the Hegemon and prioritizing Germany’s interests.
With Merkel stepping out, it’s hard to assume that the next leadership of Germany would be up to the task of pursuing a more independent foreign policy.
No-one WINS elections in Germany. The system is designed to prevent Winners. The Greens are a joke and led by jokers.
Merkel intends to stay on after 26 Sept as “Caretaker” during the 6-12 months assorted parties debate coalitions. She worked to ensure no majorities.
German Government has been SPD + CDU + CSU leaving AfD and FDP and Linke as real Opposition which have been demonised by Media.
Merkel showed her cards in Thuringen by having CDU keep the Communists in power after they lost the election in 2019. – so her party keeps the SED + Greens + SPD in power just as in the GDR
To Larchmonter445
Both you and Pepe are joy to read today! Pepe’s piece is truly outstanding – I will save it for future reference and also send it to family and friends. He got inspired!
The winds of change are gathering speed now.
As for Germany, you are right – it requires leadership to lead it way from it’s Stockholm Syndrome, but what is lined-up after the dutiful to the Empire frau Merkel, does not give one much hope! Perhaps the events that will be played out now on this Grand Chessboard might give Germany a guiding hand, or at least a push in the right direction. I am also hoping the NS2 and Germany’s mighty industrial base will play an active part as well. That country truly needs to be rescued from itself..
Katerina,
You hit it with Germany’s industrial base. They will be the “weight” just as they were for NS-2. Eurasian markets will be an enormous attraction. If the Germans don’t participate, Russia and China will get all the riches of selling high value products, establishing their brand dominance and producing with cheaper labor and cheaper energy within Eurasia.
Growth and profits (stockholders and executives) and union pressures to keep Germany in the competition will take awhile to form into geopolitical power. But, as the US ebbs and desperately tries to hold back German industry, a fissure will erupt.
Thus, the geopolitical alliance with Russia, China and Iran will be limited for quite some time and manifest only as economic participation and later, integration. Economics will be the “leader”.
Larchmonter: thank you for your always interesting commentary. Regarding Pepe’s vision of a ‘Berlin to Beijing’ prospect … in Europe and elsewhere the political and military elites have grown fond of American largess and would like the happy days to continue. But simultaneously, their socio/economic requirements mandate open relations with the emergent East Asian centred world market. So we have forces moving in two directions. This is a major dynamic in a situation that constantly evolves in the direction of Western stasis right across the board. Eurasia grows; the West stagnates, fractures, and devolves into a multifaceted milieu of strife. Alistair Crooke is always interesting on these and other matters.
Pepe is on strong ground when he suggests that economic gravity will have it’s way. But your reservations indicate how things will really go – as seems to me. Germany in particular remains an occupied country. And it’s not just bases. Back in the heyday of the SPD what was good for VW and Mercedes was good for the Federal Republic. But these days Frankfort rentiers call the shots and industrial capitalism seems to have lost its former political clout. The media is kept on a tight Atlanticist leash. The funding machine for ‘rules based’ idiocies is well lubricated. But maybe most importantly the ruling class of Europe in general is, and always was, well disposed to an anti-Russian viewpoint that has warm feelings for their eastward expanding Fourth Reich. The folks who attend the annual Bilderburg get togethers are, one and all, old dogs who will croak before they learn to play new tricks.
All up then I do not see a Eurasian ‘Holy Alliance’ shaping up. Instead we are likely to see more of the same forces pulling the West in two directions, or forces pulling in every direction. But even so I expect Eurasian economic integration to proceed anyway and even a fractured Europe serves Eurasian strategic purposes. What the Shanghai partners should avoid above all is a two front .. struggle. A divided Europe is a neutralised Europe. That’s fine. The American Democratic Party is committed to it’s ‘pivot’. We’ll see if they can really shake off the neocons. But be that as it may, the great powers of Eurasia should pivot to. A neutered ‘trans’ Europe is maybe a good thing.
It would us well to pay attention to the massive grab of FED $$ that allows the multi-billionaires to grab as much as they come to bolster their treasure chests even more.
We see this happening every day.
These thieves are taking every penny, dime, and quarter to ensure they WON’T FEEL any pain afterwards.
INSTEAD, this “Empire that’s dying” is being hoisted every day upon the hapless American public. In the midst of this “death” the intense pain will be for the stupid Americans who have put up with this Neo-Liberal tripe for decades. THEY don’t even see it coming. We do not feel sorry for their abject ignorance.
We few Americans are all too aware of what is coming because we are informed citizens with critical thinking skills. That’s ALL it takes: use your brain you stupid citizens.
Glad to see Pepe has still got his sense of humor, which is valuable in an era like this. Humor unlocks minds which are frozen in fear.
NAUKA module docking to MKS successful
Congratulations Russia
Lachmonter is right: A Germany-Russia-China alliance is a (bad) dream. It will never happen because Germany’s elites are submissively “atlanticists” and any collaboration between Russia and Germany will remain limited to narrow, special deals like the North Stream-2 pipeline. Any German cultural influence on Russia would be harmful to Russia and must be avoided, as a growing part of Germany’s population is also degenerate, woke, clueless and ignorant and could only have a bad influence on Russia’s youth. And the woke Green Party is entirely anti-Russian and will anyway prevent any rapprochement. An alliance between Russia and Germany was wished by Bismark, who knew what was good for Germany. But Germany is no longer a healthy country. It is a degenerate country where the building of a new airport takes more that ten years, where infrastructure is nearly as decrepit as in the USA and where students now rather study gender sciences (sciences??!!) or psychology than mathematics, engineering or physics. Russia is a healthy country and must remain so as long as possible.
Germany certainly has its loud and colorful liberal nasties but there is also a solid base of quiet pragmatism. Let’s hope that better half wins out rather than dismissing the entire country for a ghoulish minority. For at least is has a better half, unlike some other Western nations…
Many of us no longer know what Germany is. We know it was something once upon a time but we find it hard to understand the German identity of today. Perhaps it has been reduced to your description. If so, better divert more effort to Iran and the Turkish riddle.
Although Pepe has positive views of a future Russian-German strategic partnership, my feeling is that it is likely to be hampered after the next elections in Germany. The far-left Green Party are the favorites and most probably, they would bend towards the hegemon.
I have to correct: The Germany Green Party is not far left, it is far right. Green Politicians have been meeting with Neonazis in Ukraine, supporting them, aiding them. They want to supply Kiev with German weapons. They want to reinforce the German military. They are full on line with the Neocons in the United States…
The Hegemon buys them all, one way or another. All politicians are in it for themselves.
Pepe, that was a pleasure to read. It expresses what I feel about a ridiculous disgusting joke that the US is.
The idea of a Russia-Germany-China alliance sounds interesting, but I think France would more likely play that role than Germany. France always was THE western European power, both economic and political that was able to help balance the interests of the eastern and western blocs. The French were always crictical towards an anglo-saxon dominated world and brights minds like Charles de Gaulle or Jacques Chirac had a big heart for Russia.
Western Germany is an American satellite states. One might say Germany is the Puerto Rico of Europe; a territory fully dependent politically, military and by its general policies on Washington, yet they are not offically considered to be a member state like Florida or Massachusetts…
I think France and Germany will definitely partner to the Heartland and that this will proceed in the very late 2020’s/early 30’s. It could be under terms refined in Moscow though.
If things continue to fall apart as fast as during the last 6 years, then in the very late 2020’s/early 30’s Germany and France will no longer be of any relevance to the future development of Russia and China.
Forever until it ends? Georgi Derluguian, professor of social research & public policy at New York University, Abu Dhabi
https://www.rt.com/shows/worlds-apart-oksana-boyko/517436-derluguian-gorbachev-perestroika-capitalism/
Teaser for an amazing interview:
Boyko: “Isn’t it striking how the discourse of capitalism changed just in the last five or six years?”
Derluguian: “It was predictable. Still, it is striking. It is always striking, you know, when….. when you see this happen. In social science, the most difficult part is not predicting a trend; it is predicting the speed. Twenty years ago we got together with several great ….. major, actually…… historical sociologists ah who study ah the development of social evolution… since ancient Mesopotamia ..you know….. so all historical systems have gone extinct. Ah, so we study why do these systems rise, and how do they collapse? And what we all noticed that, in economics, for instance, you know, there is not even a theory of decline of capitalism. You know, this is something untouchable. Because capitalism always overcomes its crises …….that’s all.”
___________
We no longer need a theory of the decline of capitalism. Nothing has to be said or spelled out. We are now witnessing capitalism’s decline (the brand of capitalism in “the West” is the first, but not the last, as Derluguian explains about “profit”-based systems) into more and more severe political, economic and social chaos. Ironically, this state of affairs is, intentionally or unintentionally, broadcast 24/7 by the Elite’s MSM. The broadcasts are in reality an ongoing expos’e of western-style capitalism’s paroxysms. (Competitor nations must either emulate the West’s insanity or be punished.)
On the world-wide playing field, what is going on is, as Derluguian puts it, “very much like we are playing very sophisticated 3-dimensional chess ……. and at some point you reach for a brick and hit your opponent”. The latter is the point that the US has already reached and the US is attempting to use its new-found “values”, printed-out-of-thin-air “drone-standard” USD, military, mercenaries and sanctions as bricks to bludgeon its competitors into submission.
What’s very predictable is that the competitors are quite justifiably going to effectively strike back against western aggression. I agree with Derluguian that the speed with which that will happen is what is unpredictable. But whenever it inevitably happens, what will the US and its vassals do after they experience firsthand what they have been dishing out to other nations for decades? Will they wake up, lick their wounds, become more sane and live from that point forward in peace with the nations of the world, or will they “go for broke” with their nuclear weapons in order to make the world a better place?
Do you know the meaning of the idiom “go for broke?” Use of Nuclear weapons does not break even.
Do you? “Go for broke” means to risk everything, not to “break even”.
Sorry but that is not what ‘go for broke’ means in the USA.
It does. “Broke” is used in the sense of “going broke”, i.e. having nothing.
Thanks Pepe, also for the insightful and erudite comments here.
I don´t pretend to understand the technicalities of what is occuring in these turbulent times, but I can almost feel the desperation of the supranational “loose affiliation of millionaires and billionaires” that Paul Simon referred to all those years ago, as they try to keep beneficial control of the world´s finances, not only that but to extend the political dominance which they enjoy in Europe and the US, to assimilate the recalcitrant governments of especially China, and Russia.
I do believe that they will fail in this project, and while there is a certain satisfaction in this belief, for sure the transition to the next phase of western history will be devastating for the citizenry, at a minimum on the scale of the collapse of the USSR.
The US is like the Catholic Church, pretending to spread the word of God but more interested in spreading minors butt cheeks.
“A long train held up by page on page
A hard reign held up by rage
Once a railroad
Now it’s done
I hear the roar of a big machine
Two worlds and in between
Hot metal and methedrine
I hear empire down”
Lucretia My Reflection, Sisters of Mercy (I think Pepe knows this one ; > )
A unanimous favorite of my household.
This the end of the New World and the resurrection of the Old World.
The USA is headed toward a break-up anyway: there is such a fundamental divide in values between the ‘liberals’ (who are so illiberal, anti-democratic, exclusionary and totalitarian it is laughable) and the ‘HIllbillies’, the core rump of 100m+ Americans who stick to ‘the Father, the Flag and the Family’. Covid19 vaccines may be a flashpoint, but I do not see Texas, Florida and the ‘redneck’ mid-Western States sticking around if Bidenesque nonsense is imposed upon them from on high. Pretty easy to spilit the USA into three if you have one nation west of the Rockies; one encompassing the Missouri-Mississippi-Ohio basin states; and one encompassing the Atlantic seaboard. That would stop Californians telling Texans what’s what; would let the NE Liberals forget about the rednecks in the Midwest; and would let Middle America free itself from the straitjackets of Wall Street, Blackrock and the Bay Area PE mafia.
The biggest question, of course, is what the US’ equivalent of Ukraine will be?
Where do foreign troublemakers see the greatest chance to subvert sovereignty right on Uncle Sam’s doorstep, eh?
I hope Pepe is right. However his vision of a Russia-China-Germany-Iran alliance seems like a Fata Morgana. We were told by Strafor George Friedman, that a Russia-Germany alliance is “an existential threat to the U.S.”
from min 53:30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeLu_yyz3tc
Taiwan doesn’t belongs to the PRC, and neither does Tibet. Pepe’s commentary is rather imbalenced in that it focusses on US colonialism in the Middle East but glosses over China’s exact equivalent.
How did the US get Puerto Rico?
Guantanemo?
Hawaii?
Texas?
The means by which major national powers gain territory are very similar.
War, conquest, destruction of aboriginals, division of spoils in regional conflicts.
Nothing is much different in China.
How is it that Japan has administrative control of the Daiyou Islands? China was too weak to do anything post-WWII. Same with Taiwan. As soon as China was powerful enough to demand it, Taiwan was given to them, tossed off the Security Council and relegated to China’s territorial claims. They got Hong Kong returned because of the reality of its power. The British understood that reality.
Tibet was a threat engineered by the US against China. The Chinese cancelled the threat. And they rid Tibet of the serf system that was beneath human cruelty.
China’s colonialism? You don’t have facts, you have a fantasy. Or you don’t know what colonialism is.
“Taiwan doesn’t belongs to the PRC, and neither does Tibet.”
Taiwan and Tibet make interesting historic parallels.
During the height of the “Great Game” the British encouraged the Tibetans to thumb their nose at the government in Peking. Act with autonomy. Don’t listen to the Emperor. Do your own thing.
But for goodness sake, Do Not Declare Independence.
Don’t bother, because even if you do we won’t recognize that declaration.
The Tibetans did anyway, and the British not only refused to recognize it but also did not lift a finger when the PLA marched into Tibet to reclaim the territory for Beijing.
And now, Taiwan…..
Let’s hope the Americans have learnt their statecraft from the British, otherwise this is going to end badly. And not for Beijing.
Quite why Escobar gives Germany such importance eludes me. 20-40 years ago maybe, but today Germany is not pre-eminent industrially as many of its key industries have gone – been consolidated away into global nomads.
Other core competencies depend on energy resources which are hugely overpriced in Germany and where capacity constraints from a crackpot energy policy will make key industries non-viable. Germany will have energy rationing. The thought of building semiconductor fabs in a country with overpriced water and overpriced energy must cause producers to reach for the subsidy-salts.
Germany will lose its car industry within 5 years. Its infrastructure is corroding – especially in the west where construction from 1960s is now collapsing simultaneously across West Germany.
Germany is no longer a cornerstone for the Eurasian Bloc. German companies are more likely to migrate to Russia than stay in Germany.
US policy to co-opt German elites for policies detrimental to the long-term future of Germany and Europe are just that. Russia may have hoped from the days of Lenin for a “German Dividend” but apart from joint weapons projects in 1920s it has never materialised – and even Stalin found in his Soviet Zone – that having Germans in German factories required huge energy subsidies from USSR to sustain a basket case economy
Sir Paul Greenwood,
Methinks you are way too harsh on Germany when you speak of the German auto industry disappearing in 5 years and that key industries have gone. There is still a majority(albeit a quiet one) which is pragmatic and with a solid sense of « pflichtbewusstsein » that will keep Germany humming along.
Yes German industry has established a footing in Russia and is reaping benefits with skilled Russian employees who are not as « expensive » as Germans. I am not a fanboy of Germany per se but I take note of its capacity to adapt and make better products which serve the interests of consumers the world over.
Respectfully submitted,
Tikhon
Imho the empire wants to die. Lbqt or whatever is the best sign for it. But…big but..giant but..then there is covid and the gene editing shit and that lil town called Davos. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the real deal of which everybody is part of. Otherwise the kind but non conforming leader has had accidents and fatal illnesses. Sadly. And until Mr Escobar explains this, I take it all with a lil bit of salt, or rather a lil more.
Pepe eviscerates the empire of chaos as only he can.
As this empire goes through its death rattle the likelihood of it using All the weapons in it’s fascist stash is a near certainty.
This literally cannot end well.
It’s all very well to see the present ethical superiority of China over the United States. But it is sad to see Pepe Escobar making shark fin soup of his own soul by so crassly cheerleading the destruction of the traditional Tibetan and East Turkestan ways of life.
One wishes China well. May its rulers finally get their metaphysics right.
And Pepe, too. May his exertions on behalf of China bring him immense material success. And may he finally realise that it’s the wrong goal.
Uma escrachada para dois séculos
Eu nunca na minha vida, e lá se vão várias décadas, tive conhecimento de uma escrachada tão potente, tão severa com tanto tapa, cospida na cara e chute na bunda como esta última do Pepe. É de lavar a alma por todas as décadas de guerras desnecessárias, repressão, tortura, mortes e desaparecimentos causados por um sistema que desenhou tudo e hoje se esfumaça na moribundice de um puff em vez de um bang.