Shortly
after the end of the Second World War, the idea of the world being divided into
a half that’s led by democratic America that won the war, and a dictatorship
half that’s led by the Soviet Union that may have lost the war (sort of) but
remained as dangerous as ever.
People such
as Winston Churchill and many other warmongers saw in this occurrence the
opportunity to lead the democratic half of the world by engaging in a brand of
demagoguery that made those who experienced the war, drink from the Churchillian
cup of poison with passion. They feared the Soviet Union and its allies, the
nations whom Churchill labelled dictators.
The result
of this development has been a Cold War that lasted about half a century
between America and its “Western allies,” and the Soviet Union with its “Eastern
Allies.” The Cold War quieted down for a while, but then flared up again – played
out this time by both the same old players and new ones.
What we have
today is a reformed Soviet Union that took up the name Russia. Though one of
the two pre-war superpowers, it is ceding its top position to its old ally China,
thus allowing the world to be dominated by a rising old ally, and by America, its
now fading old rival.
Because we
live in “interesting times” as the Chinese would remark, people around the globe
have their attention taken by the new drama that’s unfolding as they see it
with their own eyes on television and the screens of the newly invented social
media. And lost in this hullabaloo is the reality that there existed, and still
exists a sizeable majority of countries whose political system remains non-aligned,
refusing to dwell in the orbit of any superpower.
It is among
these nations that you find the non-fanatic populations and leaders who just
want to lead a normal life; one that may not reflect the exact image of a dictatorship
or a democracy but remains pleasant to those who have adopted it. And yet, it
is among these nations that the superpowers are exerting great effort, aiming
to recruit into their own political systems if not their way of life as well.
For a
while, America and its Western Allies seemed to win the heart and soul of the
those countries, but then something changed. It is not that they flipped and
endorsed the rival system. It is that they reverted back to their non-aligned
status having tried and rejected the Western approach. In so doing, these
countries are showing the rest of humanity how countries can adopt a system
that neither fears the other nations nor scares them.
Even more
than being ideal in their interaction with other nations, these countries
provide a model as to how a governing body should deal with its own population.
A contentious Area where the value of a system is gauged, happens to be the
Human Rights field. In fact, where the West used to hammer the East using Human
Rights as a weapon, the East is now responding by pointing out the failings
which are displayed at every level of life in the Western countries, especially
the United States of America.
Where
permissiveness used to count as a triumph of the Western system of governance,
it is now seen as the scourge for which the political leaders cannot even begin
to postulate a possible solution. In fact, killing others and committing
suicide have made America look like a slow burning but expanded civil war in
which even the children are killing their classmates.
And when it
comes to committing everyday sort of crimes, the situation has gone so far out
of hand that store owners now punish their own employees for trying to stop the
looters, than help in this endeavor by calling the police who may engage in a
shoot out that has the potential to ruin the reputation of the store.
It is important
to note that this new culture of America
is so contagious, it spread not only throughout the United States, but also across
the border to Canada. From being keen at projecting the image of the sinless virgin,
Canada now insists on being treated with respect despite its shortcomings.
And whereas
the Eastern countries that used to govern with a tight fist to protect the
country, they have gained enough confidence in themselves that they are now
loosening their grip on the population. Not only that, but they feel they owe the
West a taste of its old medicine. And so the Easterners are interfering with
the Western system, so much so that it is the West which now cries uncle.
The trouble
with Canada in this melee is that it fails to realise how short its
shortcomings are, especially in the Human Rights field where it used to preach
to the world what an ideal treatment of their citizens would look like, now
seen to treat its own citizens like a magot that joined other magots in a criminal
syndicate that kills and feasts on the rotting cadavers of its citizens.