To start his discussion, Clifford D. May first observed that in 1982, President Ronald Reagan said that democracy was winning around the world.
Clifford May went on to say that after this observation, came
words of wisdom to the effect that, in line with authoritarianism being in
decline, more nations will choose freedom and thus prosper.
But despite the fall of the Soviet Regime less than ten
years later, the prediction of freedom and prosperity did not pan out according
to Clifford May. This prompted him to lament what has been happening ever since
instead of motivating him to try figuring out what exactly happened or what can
be done to remedy the situation.
You’ll see all that in the Clifford May discussion that
came in the form of an article under the title: “Coalition of the unwilling:
Western elites prefer not to fight authoritarianism,” published on February 15,
2022 in The Washington Times. The writer began the discussion by expressing his
shock that the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) contends the following:
“The real challenge for the West may
not be to prevent China from one day becoming the dominant global power, which
seems to be, if not inevitable, at least highly likely — but to manage that
process in such a way as to avoid war and preserve democracy and the best of
the Western enlightenment legacy”.
Is that expression of shock for real, or is it a disguise
hiding something else? After all, these are the people of Karl Marx; of the
Bolsheviks and of Uncle Joe Stalin, the inventors and first practitioners of
authoritarianism. Clifford May himself started life as a Philo-Communist who
studied in the Soviet Union, being a classmate of Vladimir Putin. And so, for
him to come now and pretend that he hates Communism is like the nymphomaniac
who denies she enjoys sex. Surely, Clifford May must have at least a residual
love in his heart for the old glory days. So, what’s his problem now?
His problem is Israel. As usual, Israel bit more than it
could chew, but this time even America will not come to the recue. What
happened was that in the quest to obtain more advanced weapons than its
neighbors, Israel started an arms race that put it at a clear disadvantage with
those neighbors. The consequence has been that there is nothing America can do
now to help it weaken or break the deterrence it faces on all its borders. In
fact, Israel is now forced to sit quietly in its corner, unable to stir trouble
like a self-respecting Jewish entity is supposed to do.
Coupled with a Western alliance that is itself paralyzed,
this situation is alarming Clifford May who realizes that Israel’s days of
capricious behavior are numbered, which also means that Jewish leaders such as
himself will have their powers curtailed. He fears that he and his likes will
be rendered a relic of the past in the same way that the Falun Gong leaders and
the Dalai Lama were turned into invisible nonentities roaming the Earth in search
of someone willing to listen to their words of “wisdom”.
The following paragraph is a compilation of the
lamentations expressed by Clifford May concerning what he sees as the lethargy
that’s gripping the Western World regarding the rise of what he calls the
authoritarian regimes:
“The EIU is untroubled by the prospect
of the Chinese replacing the United States as the dominant global power. It
reflects the views of a broad swath of British, European and American elite
opinion. Members of this coalition of the unwilling do not intend to defend the
institutions that guarantee freedom of speech, the press, property rights, an
independent judiciary and the rule of law. Within this coalition are both
left-wingers and right-wingers. The leftists believe America is fundamentally
flawed, socially unjust and systemically racist. It has no business passing
judgment on Chinese, Russian, Iranian, Cuban, Venezuelan and others. The
rightists believe that America can and should become a fortress, ignoring
conflicts in far-off lands”.
As if stirred by a sharp instinct to the effect that the
Jews will not come out of this experience without being blamed for something—like history says they always do—Clifford May felt the urge to visit the website
of Amnesty International pretending to look and see what it says about the
China Olympic games. He found that thing, but he also discovered something else.
It was the thing he fully expected to see, that which to his dismay, ran as
follows:
“I see on the website of Amnesty
International a note that the Olympic games promise to be a memorable sporting
spectacle. Much more prominently featured on the website: Amnesty’s allegation
that Israel is guilty of apartheid, carrying the implication that [Israel] has
no right to exist”.
Things being this bad, are there solutions to them,
according to the EIU? Yes there are, says Clifford May, and he printed them
despite the fact that he found them inadequate. Here is what he printed:
“So, what policy does the EIU propose
the Free World adopt? It recommends that the US and its Western allies should
focus on rejuvenating their political systems so that they can provide a
desirable alternative to that of China. Far better that the US and the world’s
democracies demonstrate the advantages of their system of government by
re-democratizing their politics, rather than by trying to isolate or contain
China”.
Clifford May would have preferred to follow what he says
is the advice given by Ronald Reagan who said that freedom must constantly be
fought for.