" . . . sabotaged by groups in Europe and especially in the US . . . "
Names?
" . . . Political power is in the end a zero-sum game . . . "
Indeed? Where is there not anything? Political power is a balance of powers, very much a something, very not a nothing, not a zero.
". . . no agreement about what “nation” or for that matter “people” actually meant in practice . . . "
Inviting this effort at clarification: "Civilizations comprise cultures, cultures comprise societies, formal and informal, and societies comprise organizations, most formal and some involuntary. Cultures outside civilizations -- e.g., Jews, Evangelicals, Jesuits, Mormons — are inherently dangerous, as are societies outside cultures — e.g., criminal organizations — and organizations outside societies — e.g., self-appointed governments."
" . . . Sometimes the best that we can do is to manage intractable problems as well as we can. Sometimes there is no way out. . . . "
1- To not misunderstand a situation, it helps to pull back to a wider view of it. For example, our "intractable problems" today may be in themselves intractable but in *their* context elements of a wide, slow, and arguably inexorable civilizational movement from, for example, evolved nation-state to original civilization-state.
2- Such that, what in granular looks like no way out, in perspective looks like -- how did Heraclitus put it? -- the father of all things. Liberal democratic norms don't have to be shunned or opposed. They can just be ignored while being avoided and run over.
"Liberal democratic norms" means, democratic bombardment. Its intrinsic posture is sententious spite.
IMO, the nations are moving from a desire for internal and external *security* based on the Westphalian model of an evolved nation-state to a desire for internal and external *order* based on, shall we say, the Eurasian model of an original civilization-state.
The difference between a nation-state and a civilization-state is at least an order of magnitude. A nation-state rests on a relatively consistent uni-culture. A civilization-state rests on an emphatically diverse multi-culture.
There can never be security, not in this world. Nor can there ever be peace, because to make things, anything at all, there has to be war (struggle). But there can be order. It's order, internal and external, that the nations seek now. Order, not peace or security, characterizes a civilization-state. It also characterizes a successful warrior.
I think Mackinder saw this truth more deeply and widely ("The Geographical Pivot of History") than he perhaps realized.
" . . . sabotaged by groups in Europe and especially in the US . . . "
Names?
" . . . Political power is in the end a zero-sum game . . . "
Indeed? Where is there not anything? Political power is a balance of powers, very much a something, very not a nothing, not a zero.
". . . no agreement about what “nation” or for that matter “people” actually meant in practice . . . "
Inviting this effort at clarification: "Civilizations comprise cultures, cultures comprise societies, formal and informal, and societies comprise organizations, most formal and some involuntary. Cultures outside civilizations -- e.g., Jews, Evangelicals, Jesuits, Mormons — are inherently dangerous, as are societies outside cultures — e.g., criminal organizations — and organizations outside societies — e.g., self-appointed governments."
" . . . Sometimes the best that we can do is to manage intractable problems as well as we can. Sometimes there is no way out. . . . "
1- To not misunderstand a situation, it helps to pull back to a wider view of it. For example, our "intractable problems" today may be in themselves intractable but in *their* context elements of a wide, slow, and arguably inexorable civilizational movement from, for example, evolved nation-state to original civilization-state.
2- Such that, what in granular looks like no way out, in perspective looks like -- how did Heraclitus put it? -- the father of all things. Liberal democratic norms don't have to be shunned or opposed. They can just be ignored while being avoided and run over.
"Liberal democratic norms" means, democratic bombardment. Its intrinsic posture is sententious spite.
IMO, the nations are moving from a desire for internal and external *security* based on the Westphalian model of an evolved nation-state to a desire for internal and external *order* based on, shall we say, the Eurasian model of an original civilization-state.
The difference between a nation-state and a civilization-state is at least an order of magnitude. A nation-state rests on a relatively consistent uni-culture. A civilization-state rests on an emphatically diverse multi-culture.
There can never be security, not in this world. Nor can there ever be peace, because to make things, anything at all, there has to be war (struggle). But there can be order. It's order, internal and external, that the nations seek now. Order, not peace or security, characterizes a civilization-state. It also characterizes a successful warrior.
I think Mackinder saw this truth more deeply and widely ("The Geographical Pivot of History") than he perhaps realized.