The battlefield America – the battle for a new civilizational state

By Santiago Sunset for VT

Reading this article, some people might say: “So what the f..k want this European anarchist (which I am not; I am a utopian)?! Would you, sir, mind your own business and take care about you rotting, around all seams dissolving Europe!” And indeed, under certain conditions they could be right. And yet, this amazingly promising beginning of the 21st century leaves no possibility for national state framework to be considered as an independent historical project – if the US “roof” would set ablaze, then European, the Russian, the Chinese house would burn to the ground too. The modern internationalism therefore finds its the most engaged expression if we all do care what’s going on at troubled neighbor’s courtyard.

So, why I do not believe in Europe anymore? The land of opposed traditions, the land of confronted bitter historical memories, the land that for years tolerates civil war in its historic realm, the land without independent international policy, the land unable to turn to the future and build a real democracy of responsible, equal in opportunities peoples, cannot deserve my confidence. Led by its rotting political and intellectual aristocracy, in critical moments of history Europe in its worst form shows to be a passionate mix of nationalisms, religion and ideology, which hardly leaves any hope about possibility of some future crucial civilizational enterprise – Europe is on its sliding path to repeat the past.

Which means that we have to point our attention towards America – I believe that the battle for a new civilizational state has actually already begun at the soil of the US – let us not forget that the beginning of the modern democracy roots in establishment of America as” land of bold and free” in historic times when Europe was ruled by kings and mildewed nobilities, the picture actually not much different than it is today.

Now let us take a look “under the porch” of our global civilization and examine the ugly beast hiding beneath and ready to bite. Namely, this more than obvious, worldwide present crisis of the Consumer society and its closing, multi-conditional un-sustainability of present way of living in the conscience of the lesser part of humanity – which means that responsible part – is perceived more and more as the crisis of civilizational sense.

When the crisis of civilizational sense would be unsolvable, if there would be not already obvious today’s global movement that calls the world into civilizational change, it would mean that the human race is indeed at the dead end of its evolution. As in every crisis, whether of a personal character or of a broader socioidentity, in each case act powerful forces of well known mechanism of regression; thus, in the case of social crisis trying to roll back the achieved social organization to the form that history has already “tried up”, which proved as successful in its own historical times.

One of the most obvious expressions of civilizational regression is emergence of phenomenon of hyper-imperialism, conceived and conducted by Western super-elite, commonly named as New World Order. The culture of hostility among people represents its main “executive organ”; the culture of fear its foothold. Unfortunately, many public activists, journalists and well known commentators contribute to spreading of this worldwide culture of fear, the majority contributing unconsciously; but some doing so on purpose following agenda of their employers. Thus, in eight out of ten headlines contain expressions “The war is coming”, “murder”, “rape”, “dead people, accidents, pandemics, conspiracies, dead people again, and even more dead people”. If translated into military jargon this words would sound like this: “The enemy is coming in vast numbers; we are surrounded and there is no escape; the casualties are high, and actually we are defenseless”. In combat situation – and humanity is in combat situation – such words would be treated as spreading of defeatism and would be court-martialed.

In the 21st century, this culture of fear was seeded first in the US after the 9-11 events, now spreading all over West. And yet, today’s average citizen of West, especially European, acts like he or she is not concerned at all about emerging civilization crisis, accepting strengthening of the state coercion as something normal. The passive majority of European population still retain confidence into their political elites in spite the fact that nobody asked citizenry about the opinion when it was about dangerous broadening of NATO membership, or about import of millions of refuges. That proves that Europe is no longer a democracy. Instead, it has become what actually has been during the whole Western history, that is, a prison of peoples ruled by narrow elite of aristocratic political-economic-intellectual European nobility.

But the beginning of the third millennium offers a new perspective to the organization of society, and brings huge possibilities of development of control mechanisms of democracy over the phenomenon of state. The current state has been felt for a long time – and with a good reason – as “an eyesore” of anarchism, a painful thorn that the twentieth century tried to pluck out by left revolutions. Ironically, those revolutions created monstrous regimes in which human was worth even less than in the fallen preceding capitalist states. Good example is comparison of “concentrated” sufferings inside totalitarian state of Stalin’s USSR, with by class differences “distributed” suffering within Imperial Russia.

Fortunately, in nowadays the phenomenon of state is destined to wither away on the less painful and more successful way, without repeating social act of revolution as the desperate outcry of the poorest. Already today, the political elites of states of Western democracy have been posted high on the agenda of their citizens to be daily examined through the “public opinion”, and the process of invoicing the bill to irresponsible politicians can only thrive on.

During 2014 and 2015 we have witnessed critical public accusations that have been – by the mediation of the Internet – brilliantly represented by the part of American intellectuals, alerting the public opinion about unacceptability of the situation in which the narrowest part of American society, namely its political-economical elite, monopolistically controls American society exclusively in favour of elite, even if thus contested the core values that are foundation of the identity of America as a nation and as a democracy. Under such public pressure that can only grow stronger inside body of global Western democracy, in the near future can be expected:

– Significant shortening of duration of political mandate

– Parcellization of political promises to precisely bounded period in which they have to be achieved.

– Appropriate sanctioning of politicians who “sell fog” to citizens of their states, as politicians mostly do, especially in countries without a long parliamentary tradition. Not only that such “politicians” should be allowed never more to be engaged in “politics”, but will have to repay for the social and material damage incurred by reckless promises, which have been not able or even did not want to carry out.

In the foreseeable future, I dare say until the half of 21st century already, in the most part of democratic countries will disappear the attribute of politician as a profession, and will be introduced the attribute of an administrator, those people who by their own will freely and with full responsibility accept the honourable task of organizational leadership of the regulated human society, as a space of expression of responsible freedom of each individual.

During these either incredibly fertile or maybe incredibly destructive decades of the second half of the 21st century, human society will opt for the final exclusion of the global generation out of reach of tradition, the exclusion about which Plato had dreamed, but had not had the appropriate tool to realize it. Namely, the upcoming time of ethically responsible Internet either will unite the world through interactive recognition of billions of people through the equality of their elementary humanity (which is the only good common part of all national traditions), or will prevail the personal irresponsibility, supporting hitherto offered concept of the Internet as a collective irresponsible playground (there is a great difference between irresponsible and responsible play of humanity) and in that meaning “emergency exit” from the painful human reality.

The problem is that today’s average citizen of Western civilization, which has become a global civilization, had long ago forgotten the feeling of personal motivation that would lead him to energetic search for his own role in the possible great change of current “sociability” of human society. He is no longer an authentic individual, but a pseudo-individual, discouraged and reduced in his human pride. Therefore, his “will” to produce correctional effect on the “politics” becomes defocused and thus action-less: today’s “society” is composed of countless number of alienated, lonely and frightened people, and hence their inability to cooperate in the defence of social values, such as peace among people, which is unquestionably commitment and need of all psychologically healthy people. For example, in 2014 and 2015, only during the savage attacks of political project but in the same time genuine social phenomenon IS to religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria, the media often transmitted desperate question of people affected by this brutal war: “And where is the UN?!” This question was actually set upon all of us, billions of people to whom generally belongs the custody over political power in all of its aspects, but which custody in practice has been immobilised by so called “representative democracy”, which is only a cover for autocracy of political and economic elites, and thus the negation of the spirit of true responsible liberal democracy.

In the society of developed civil self-governing and self-protection the strictest offense of law would be possession of firearms. Namely, in combat situation firearms gives advantage to morally weak, treacherous, cowardly, cold and socially irresponsible people. A similar model of drastic proscription of possession of firearms was applied in Japan, resulting in a whopping only ten murders committed by firearms per year, at the population of more than 100 millions of people!

But in the present turbulent and fragile time of world history that is far from utopian society of developed social self-protection, while been melting the last former strongholds of civilization as we have known it, the recipe of maintain of peace in human society will have to differ from country to country. Thus, if balanced social situation of today’s Japan is based on the spirit of a strong demilitarization conducted after the World War II, it does not mean that the same recipe would be successful in today’s the US, especially if been conducted forcefully.

On the contrary, inside the social tissue of the United States strengthens the opinion that the American tradition of private possession of weapons is the only guarantee of freedom of American citizens, pressed by the authoritarianism of the national administration (i.e. political and economic elite) upon American society as a liberal democracy and upon basic constitutional individual freedom of Americans. In addition, we witness daily that the Consumer society protects much more property but human itself – thus, the punishment for theft is often more severe than the penalties for serious violence against human being, which is a civilizational shame indeed.

However, in the case of crisis of the US society, actually as a template of emerging of general social crisis inside the body of Western civilization, the solution is in bridging the alienation between citizenry and social groups that strongly identify themselves as “the state” (police and military at first place), which can be solved only through the most demanding process of strengthening mutual interpersonal confidence at all levels of society, at first place on the level of local community. In this way, the pacification of society becomes the two-sided process, requesting the spirit of goodwill among people. The historical battle to finally by-pass inherent ill-naturalness of political-economic elite in its permanent creating the state of hostility among people, can be won in the most easiest way if simply substituting coercive functions of state with self-organising of community, engaging all citizens on the side of pacification, especially those that make police and military forces.

To eliminate once for all today’s harmful state of domination of world’s political-economic elite upon humanity, the most productive way would be to show elite’s absolute redundancy, in all daily aspects of civilization.

This more and more advancing powerful public questioning of today’s civilizational moment is aided by many independent or local projects, by which committed people encourage micro-communities, cities and regions towards self-organizing, no more waiting nor for instructions of the state in which they live neither for the arrival of a tornado of crisis of multiple nature, whose full outbreak is expected in the near future. Extremely turbulent economical and social disturbance is expected especially on the soil of today’s the USA and EU; in the case of the USA particularly due to the specific harmful characteristics of recent US economic policy and “boomerang” of direct consequences which impact is to be expected.

However, when it is about structural social-economic crisis in the USA remains the optimism in the fact that the USA is today, and always was, the source of the fiercest incentive of intellectualistic critic of civilizational moment, especially thanks to work of many highly ethically engaged American writers, journalists and public activists, today or in the past. Thus, to numerous Americans it is intolerable furthermore what is happening today with American society, and the metaphor of the Statue of Liberty all the more clearly echoes in the spirit of the American nation, as the statement about determination to end the further destruction of the best that makes a civilizational achievement of America as a responsible liberal democracy constituted as “Government of the people, by the people, for the people”, that is, “The Republic with liberty and justice for all.”