My Take | The world is against Western dominance, not democracy
- Most people can see through the pernicious Western hypocrisy of weaponising democracy to invade others, impose sanctions and bring about regime change to maintain and legitimise its global dominance
“A moral ideal is not an aim but a weapon in the political struggle.” – Karl Kautsky, Czech-Austrian Marxist
In a moment of moral exuberance, the West thought, for a short while, that the world was behind its crusade against Russian aggression in Ukraine. Old habits die hard; a handful of leading rich developed nations have long taken their own stances as representative of global public opinion.
While it’s not always the case, it’s very often that the opinions of the “global south” don’t really count, materially or morally. In the one case, they don’t have the economic, political or military clout to matter. In the other, they are far too often dismissed as intellectually underdeveloped or backward – without, as the Chinese often complain, “discourse power” – to be able to think straight and make a case for themselves; or just to generate a favourable headline in The New York Times or the BBC.
But in the case of Ukraine, it’s especially hard to blame the West for its grand illusion when after a long period of discord and dissension, the “Five Eyes” English-speaking nations and the European Union suddenly have had to fall in line behind the United States. For a very brief moment, leaders of the Western world must have thought they saw the rebirth of Atlanticism and marvelled at their new-found “unity” which must extend to the rest of the world.
This illusion is shared not only among Western policymakers, but many of their own citizens, too. After all, we all live in our own Platonic caves, that is, our socialisation and indoctrination or what people sometimes call “education”. The illusions of free thought – “free press”, “freedom of speech”, “freedom of expression” – make it all the more dangerous and insidious because they make you think you are free and that only others are trapped or brainwashed.
I came across this fascinating quote the other day from Clarence Darrow, an American lawyer who was involved in the Leopold and Loeb murder trial and was a leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union.