Abandon Ship!

The West is going down

Now that I’m back writing proper books again - currently one on anxiety and one on alchemy - I’m noticing that my urge to put opinions out on Substack is diminishing. I’ve also been busy with my new flat in Istanbul. But, hey, I still feel the urge now and again. So let’s do it, free form as ever…

What I think is going on in the world is that the West is in a heap of trouble. It is, I think, a classic case of taking one’s eye off the ball in the belief that we’re pretty much past the finishing line.

I’m reminded of Arsenal’s last-minute loss to Zaragoza, at the hands of Nayim, in the 1995 UEFA Cup Final.

Just when it looked like we were home and dry, and that global free-market neoliberalism was a done deal, suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere… come the Chinese and the Russians.

Wind back to the early nineties. With Russia down and out in Moskva, wallowing in post-Soviet collapse and decay; with the Chinese on the poverty line, grovelling to Carter and Clinton to be allowed to produce trinkets for the US market; with the S&P through the roof and Western inflation flatlined for decades, yes it probably did look like the global domination game was over. And that the West would win.

So we took our eye off the ball and started celebrating too early. We got rid of all the diplomats and negotiators. Who needs those guys any more? We got rid of all the polymaths and geniuses. Don’t want those guys upsetting the applecart. And we brought in a heap of good-looking, media-friendly puppets who would sing the party song, no matter which supposedly-different party they were representing. We brought in narrative control and propaganda.

And then… it all started falling apart. Trump, Brexit, populist pushback, Covid, vaccines, conspiracies, Ukraine.

And this generation of Western leaders believe all the propaganda created by the last generation. They don’t realize that it’s just propaganda. They don’t seem to have anyone left to whom they can turn for real, honest advice. When you make propaganda your business, no one is anymore honest with you.

So we seem to believe that if we can get every Westerner behind our narrative on Ukraine, then surely Putin will lose? No. It’s a real war, with actual people dying and land being taken. It’s not on Netflix or GTA. It makes no difference if 800 million Westerners hate the Russians. Not one iota.

The very philosophical cornerstones on which Western culture was founded are breaking apart. For the simple reason that they never were sound. The sneaky, geopolitical tricks that the British in particular developed over the centuries are no longer working. People have wised up and we have nothing new to keep manipulating them with.

The West to me resembles one of those drug-dealer movies. There’s always the phase where everything is going great and everyone wants to be your friend. You’re rolling in money. Then it all starts to turn. You’re just “getting high on your own supply.” The drugs are taking you over. You’re unravelling and the end is near.

We have had our season in the sun. We have done our bit in creating change and development in the world. We have supported the emergence of new levels of consciousness. But now it’s time to bow out gracefully and hopefully let go of control without too much drama.

I was amazed to learn, a couple of years ago, that the Chinese had actually held conferences on how to disempower the West without them triggering all out nuclear war. How to take us down slow. I think this was pretty responsible of them to do.

Of course, we’re still fighting for now. Desperately trying to keep our citizens’ dopamine circuits active and pumping, with tales of Russia losing next week. Or will it be the week after? Desperate to convince people that their opinions matter, when it’s increasingly clear that what we think matters way less than we would like.

One thing that has become clear to me is that, behind all the positive visions for humanity that have come out of the West, that I have witnessed and supported for decades, beats a brutal, colonialist heart. As the Chinese and Russians started to push back, so Western leaders had to take off the kid gloves and the Ronald McDonald outfit. We are starting to see the kinds of people who are really running the show. And I don’t think we can return from that. US presidents are not nice people. And you wouldn’t want Western powerbrokers at your dinner party.

What’s missing for me in the West is any sense of actual caring. We seem happy to use Ukraine and its citizens for our own long-standing geopolitical battle with Russia. We don’t care if thousands of them are slaughtered mindlessly in this brutal Slav-on-Slav bloodbath.

I don’t think this attitude will work in the long run. We can’t occupy the moral high ground and pressurize other countries to die for our causes. It won’t wash over time. And we won’t be able to wash out the blood either. We can’t talk world peace, but then say only on our terms.

We need to let go of control and allow the world to develop from a space of trust and care. Western society was founded on a denial of there being a “God” somewhere calling the shots. But that doesn’t mean that only Westerners can make decisions.

The thing with empires, I think, like any other enterprise or even a life, is knowing how and when to bring it to an end with grace and courage. In a way that leaves people with good thoughts about you, not thank god he’s gone.

That’s what I’d like to see Western leaders now busy with.