On Civilisation
An Elegy, in Prose
(For the denizens of the Global South , who will, I hope, cast off their Eurocentric blinkers , and learn , finally !!, to think for themselves , and live lives as per their own Cultural norms.)
***
N.B. All that I write here is both rationally explicable , and empirically verifiable.
I am motivated by neither bias nor bigotry.
But the story I tell upends standard Euromodernist Narratives, whence will invite predictable calumny.
So be it.
The Truth is worth such travails?
*
Note , also, that I provide , here, an Objective Calculus to evaluate such genre of issues across the globe, without , a priori , privileging ANY sector, or segment, of human society.
I mean that: the standard applied to the West, here, may be applied to ANY human society - to see where it leads.
To restate the idea :
my excoriation of the West is NOT to offer some indirect apology for the East, or South.
Good is Good , and Evil is Evil , Anywhere.
The West has ALWAYS applied double standards.
I don’t.
Finally, my Commentary is about the Governing Elites of the Collective West, NOT their hoi polloi who have little to do with the making of Policy.
***
Huntington was almost Right.
It IS a Clash of Civilisations, sort of, that we are witnessing, in our time.
More aptly, and this would have startled him, it is a Clash between Civilisation and Barbarism.
Let me modify that statement?
It is a clash between (Imperfect) Civilisation and (Near Perfect) Barbarism.
Or, put metaphorically, between Mammals and Reptiles.
The warm blooded , and the cold blooded.
I think that suffices to make the point?
*
We live in a European world.
Meaning, a world colonized , and governed. essentially, by peoples of European descent.
This was NOT always the case.
In fact, this (hostile) takeover is only about 4 centuries old.
And most of the world’s populace still lives under European Protocols.
When you say international law, you mean European international law.
When you say ‘Economics’ you mean European Economics.
When you say ‘United Nations’, you mean a European-crafted entity (and this, despite the participation of Non-European societies in it, which have always played either second fiddle, or no effective role at all).
So , you get the picture.
Leastways, here’s hoping you do?
*
Think about this, now.
It is 15% of the globe ruling over 85% of its peoples.
Or, have a peak at a Map.
Europe is the smallest of sub-continents:
NO, it’s not a continent.
It was also the world’s least resource-rich.
Until about the 1600’s.
Until , that is, it learnt to venture out of its confines, to pirate, pillage, and plunder.
In fact, it is because of its abysmal deprivations, that it left its barren shores , to swiftly augment its flagging fortunes, as it turned out, forever.
By moving out.
To the Other.
Like Columbus, Drake, or Pizarro.
Pirates of the , and in the, Main?
*
Compare India , and China, in the same Era.
Opulent, beyond compare, in relation.
They accounted , then, for maybe upwards of 50% of world GDP.
Whence was there no need to go rogue, and plundering.
Let that be understood.
I mean really understood.
Deeply.
And Unforgettably.
All other accounts of the ‘Rise of the West’ are pure , deceptive, moonshine.
*
By the way that Colonizing Impulse never really dissipated.
It turned just a bit less feral , and more deceptive, because Russia and China placed various barriers to it.
Like Decolonization.
And Independence Movements, across the Global South.
Which were mainly possible because of Russia and China.
Which is why the West hates their guts.
With an Unquenchable Passion.
To this day.
*
Until Russia collapsed, in the 90’s, under the relentless pressure of the Collective West.
And China became far more compliant.
Whence they went back to playing the game , all over again, to the hilt, gung-ho, as in the 19th century.
That’s the short , and sordid , story of their might.
No Other story fits the facts better, period.
*
Consider what happened to ‘Great’ Britain , after WW2, once emptied of its empire.
It suddenly stopped being ‘Great’.
And fell back to being the diminutive Non-entity it always was, riding on its Cross Atlantic Cousin’s coat-tails, but still giving itself fulsome airs.
That should make you reconsider the abysmal tripe of First World/Fifth World, designations , all European , self-supporting, appellations.
Time to doff them all?
Forthwith.
*
Important , in fact, NOT to subscribe to ANY Western Narratives.
Germany, e.g., in the first half of the 20th century was never any worse than they were.
It’s Unpardonable Sin was to do to Europeans what Europeans had been doing to Non-Europeans for centuries.
Of course, the Nazis did indescribably horrific things.
But Europe did even more horrific things , to native peoples, in their Colonies, and over a much longer span of history.
So, for Them to suddenly turn self-righteous About Nazi Germany is an outrage (well after Russia stopped the latter , cold).
But the Anglo-Normans always hated the Germans, and always will.
Because the latter were always better, at just about anything , than they were.
Anything.
True to this day.
*
But my purpose here is not really the foregoing.
I was merely providing Context.
It is, rather. to ask the most relevant Query of our times.
Is the West civilized?
The simple answer is:
NO.
It is rich, it is powerful, it is ingenious, it is ever so dominant, Oui.
But NOT civilised.
*
Let me explain.
Civilisation has to do with Two important Parameters.
The Pacification of the Conditions of Human Existence, vis a vis Nature, and vis a vis Man (i.e., Male Nature ),
i.e, the Abatement of the violence of Nature , and the violence of Men (gender intended).
The First Condition is a Primary Prereq. for ANY human culture, so the West, like much of the world, easily passes that test.
But, let’s try the Second.
The West gave us Two Global Conflagrations, already, and are the most active agents , on Earth , right now, to fire off a Third, and Terminal , holocaust.
In particular, its ruling Anglo Norman host , have been , to use MLK Jr’s powerful words, the ‘greatest purveyor’ of violence in this world, in the Modern Era.
In fact, just looking to the US, for only about a dozen or so years of its formal existence, as a Republic, has it NOT been at war.
Consider that.
I dare say, the UK, compares favorably?
*
To delve even deeper, year after year, mass shootings in the US have run at about 1.7 per day.
Indeed, it boasts, in private hands, more guns than citizens?
Its military budget exceeds the next 7 countries, taken together, and its current posturings might raise that figure two-fold.
And its record of (illegal) depredations (coups, regime changes, et. al.) overseas, ably assisted by its from across the pond, leaves the entire world behind.
Besides, a nation , more or less, ‘insured by Smith and Wesson’ , centuries after the so-called ‘Enlightenment, is still living in the Dark Ages.
In the case of Continental Europe, in the Modern Era, it is their egregious violence inflicted upon the Global South for 4 straight centuries.
But with the US, it is Also cataracting, domestic, internecine , violence, of ALL kinds.
I mean violence directed against the impuissant, the indigent, , minorities, women ,animals, and Nature, at large.
So, racism, sexism, repressive brutality, are all part of the uncouth mix.
*
In fact , EuroModernist Templates of economy, state, and society have institutionalized Adversarialism as the organizing principle of societal life, dooming us all to struggle and strife as a way of life itself.
Asocial Individualism, the most reprobate bequest of the West, corrodes , and destroys, any and all impulses of care, consideration, and cooperation , and presents life as a lottery , in a Darwinian struggle for survival creating the basis for permanent angst, anomie, and alienation.
Any wonder that it produces sociopaths, and psychopaths , by the day?
What else can one expect in a milieu where ‘nice guys end up last, and no good deed ever goes unpunished?’
*
Need I say more?
Yes.
I must.
Aside from the universal, all-male ,sport of murder, and war, the West took the whole world one step farther , into the nether reaches of Exterminism Unbound.
They invented, and used, and still threaten to use, the Unthinkable: Nuclear Weapons.
Which now spell the sure, and certain, doom of humankind, sooner or later.
Sure, and certain.
Nor whether , anymore, but when?
NO Other human society went that far.
That degree of dire Misanthropy lay simply beyond even their dreams, I vouchsafe.
*
But, leave alone the Anglo-Normans.
What has the rest of NATO been up to, since its institution?
Avid collaborators of (virtually) every Anglo Norman Project.
I don’t need to provide examples, surely?
Just have a look at the record.
It is endless.
It is , also, now.
*
So , my Thesis is beyond the scope of any refuting Counter-Argument.
Gandhi was Unerringly Right.
Civilisation passed them by, like a cheetah leaves a loping dog far, far, behind.
Or , more aptly, they adroitly sidestepped its due requisites.
[Btw note again that I have provided an Objective measure, here, to use to scale civilizations that can help place any and all societies, on a grid to evaluate their ‘degree of civilisation’.]
*
In far more general terms, Civilisation , as every schoolgirl knows, is, essentially, about the Qualities of Life.
All the West has ever cared about , instead, is Quantities, much like their pseudo-science of ‘Economics’ , which is devoted solely to that.
I will go even further.
The West has now turned , under the influence of its admired bandleader, quite nearly Amoral.
The only Principle it recognizes is Expediency.
But Expediency is NO principle at all.?
Bears thinking.
*
Given this, why does the West still think it’s the very cat’s whiskers?
Worse, why does so much of the world believe that?
It’s purely the GDP Gloss.
The Factory Fetishism.
The Consumerist Hedonism.
The Proverbial Mess of Pottage?
Their system appeals to the lowest common denominator of our species traits, whence its global ‘success’.
It is the inevitable outcome of what I title Kanth’s Law: Bad Ideas drive Good Ideas out of Circulation (similarly, low cultures drives deep cultures underground).
So, NO:
50 flavors of ice cream is NO great watermark of high civilisation.
In short, Europe passed off double-entry book-keeping , and compound interest , as the very Acme of Civilization (Btw even those tools were Not of their original invention, but that’s for another Essay, at another time).
It is Not.
Actually, there is yet one more facet to mention.
*
Materialism was the driving Geist of Western Capitalism.
Materialism is not merely a vapid, ugly, craven, philosophy; it is also bad morals, and bad Science.
That latter is critical.
Since Newton, materialism was embraced by most European thinkers.
A broad spectrum of opinion, from Smith to Marx, et. al., took that as given.
They were Wrong: but , excusably so, since they were duly following the best Science of their time.
After Quantum Physics , that myth now lies securely exploded.
No , matter is not everything, and everything is not matter.
Quantum Field Theory exposes the ignorance of the above.
Fields of Energy constitute the known universe.
It is also not an ‘objective’ universe , independent of the observer, as earlier surmised.
The Observer Effect appears to negate that notion as well.
*
How did the West achieve its hegemony?
Let me count the Ways.
First off, they ruled the world.
They owned all , primary , global media.
They imposed their system of education (their ‘values’)everywhere.
They controlled global finance.
They virtually monopolized military overreach.
And overthrew every regime that challenged them, or simply refused to play ball.
What more did they need?
Today, the South is , albeit far too slowly, shrugging off these mortal coils, and trying to live by its own covenants.
I won’t name names, but one can , likely, guess?
*
So , at any rate, what we have seen in Modern Europe’s behavior , is, stated baldly, Unspeakable Barbarism.
From the Spanish in the Americas, 17th century on , down to the Belgians in the Congo, in the 20th century, to the Brits in India, to the US in Indo-China, to the horrific livestreamed genocide in Palestine, or the incineration of 170 schoolgirls in Minab, in our times, it has been horror , piled upon horror, in ghastly, endless , iteration.
Endless, ghoulish , iteration.
The sheer Numbers of their slaughters, beginning with Columbine atrocities, to our own times, are stupefying.
I have compiled these numbers, so I know.
One has to connect ALL the dots to glean the whole , grisly, picture.
WE might remind ourselves of the gross reality of this , in our very own time, so as to rest the Argument on present-day Irrefutable Facts.
680000 Palestinians , altogether, (according to the report by Ms F. Albanese , UN Rapporteur ) were slain (directly, and indirectly) right before our eyes, savagely, brutally, and fiendishly , whilst ALL of Europe (the Collective West) not merely whistled Dixie , but aided, abetted, and colluded, .in bone-chilling insouciance.
Read that over, one more time.
So, the West has been , stated baldly, the most murderous, most extortionist, most genocidal , force in Modern history.
In fact ‘Modern history’ is little else but the blood-curdling record of Europe’s misanthropy ,and mass annihilation–, of Non-Europeans
Worse , it goes on still, to this day, with nary a shade of compunction, or remorse , -which makes it all the more stultifying.
And yet, they still have the gall , and the gumption , to pass themselves off as Civilization-mongers?
That’s mind-bending , staggering, spleen for you.
Who buys this thundering Travesty anymore?
I called it spleen?
But , what they have only evidenced , in ALL of the above, is their squalid, monumental , cringe-worthy, ‘soul-lessness’.
That is the most telling invective, in my vocabulary.
I will have to leave it at that.
*
Summing up.
Civilisation has to do with the pacification of the conditions of human existence, the abatement of the violence of Nature and the violence of Humans (mainly males).
The Collective West has gone out of its way to make Planetary Life for ALL critically dangerous, unstable, crisis ridden, and fraught with endless war and terror , with no let up since they started their Global misadventures in the 16th century.
Ps btw, All of the above is true, and verifiable, but will alter Nothing.
It just bounces off.
The West is simply inured to Moral critique.
So, they will continue to press on with their Latter-Day antics, and drag us all to the very brink of universal destruction, or even further.
So, I write only for the ET’s who might one day visit the Planet , so they know what happened , and why?
Regrettably, however, there are no ET’s, nor can there ever be , if I know my physics, so even that is also a lost hope.
How forlorn can one get?
You have no idea.
I mean that.