I am going to think the unthinkable here.
I am going to make the case for the statement that the end of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact was the most destructive event in all of living history and certainly in the lifetimes of those who lived through it and those who live now.
With the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact nations in existence a balance existed that is now no more.
I would not attempt to describe the system of governance within these nations as ideal, nor as fair to all. Many were discriminated against and treated as potential enemies due to their views, beliefs or ties to nations inimical to the socialist principles attempted with varying degrees of success or calamity within them.
It is a fact however that these societies were not as described in the West, they had many redeeming features and, if compared to a great many nations loosely described as developing, or within the Third World, conditions were reasonably good.
Yes, there were shortages at times. Yes, there were abominable show trials at various stages. Yes, there was an intolerance toward those who advocated for greater intellectual, artistic and and other freedoms including that of speech and travel. But there was also an attempt to give all those seen as loyal citizens the fundamental basics of life, a job, a home, an education, health care and much else. Attention too was paid to those aspects of life that were not directly related to material survival, entertainment, the enjoyment of local customs, folklore and culture. Cultural houses were a common feature in towns, even small towns. Schools, polyclinics and hospitals were built, often in well-planned developments integral to housing where families had easy access. Recreational facilities were built, parks were created and a spectrum of free or very inexpensive services were available to almost all. Local industries employed local people. Factories and service industries were run and staffed by the same people who benefited from their products in the area nearby or further afield.
Conditions were not as in the West when it came to easy access regarding luxury goods. That is evidently true. But how well distributed were these luxury goods within the West at that time... or even now?
It is a mistake to see the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries as either wholly good or wholly bad. They existed within a spectrum, a wide range of societies across the planet. Some societies were markedly more poor to the point of destitution, many had extremely poor planning and engineering expertise. Within the socialist sphere the engineering was exemplary with much of its output still surviving until today. Where it failed it failed with the coming of greater demands, with the rise of modern desires and expectations. The basic models were no longer seen as good enough. A sizeable number had seen something of the West and wanted what they saw. Artists, actors, writers and other intellectuals longed for the total freedom of expression they saw as the norm in the West,
But the everyday worker had experienced significant benefits to full employment. He or she could safely plan a future which included a home where costs were reduced for them by the state, they could predictably raise a family knowing their employment was secure, that their children would get a good education and be assured of employment after it. They knew their health needs would be seen to and that if they needed a cure involving a health spa they would be able to go at minimal or no charge.
Compared to nations outside of either the socialist or capitalist orbits and sphere of influence the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact nations had a relatively high standard of living, of existence. The basics of a stable life were guaranteed, albeit without the frills and freedoms seen elsewhere.
I don’t mean to minimize the mental anguish of people like Vaclav Havel. He was an intellectual and like all intellectuals he found the restrictions placed on his freedom of thought and speech intolerable.
But what were the authorities to do? Their almost unique system in all the world, their singular attempt to provide the basics to all loyal citizens and end a system that largely saw the masses as potential contributors to their own fabulous wealth, was vulnerable. They knew precisely that every agency of the West almost was using each and every second that passed to undermine them and their system.
Yes, they often became overly oppressive. In their devotion to maintaining the socialist experiment for the benefit of all as they saw it, they presided over many injustices. Those who promoted Christianity were targeted as a threat, their names and those of their families listed, higher education was denied them, higher value employment also. They could be interrogated at any time of the day or night, bullied, threatened and even jailed for their beliefs and the activities they engaged in.
An entire range of intellectual, artistic and religious belief systems were seen as potential vulnerability points which could potentially widen and broaden and bring chaos if not total collapse of the project. Of course there would also be the usual criminally-minded sociopaths and psychopaths that appear in every society and bring it into disrepute, those who when they put on a uniform feel superior to all others without one.
But I digress somewhat from my main theme, that the ending of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact was a disaster for the world which has led directly to the struggle for dominance we see occurring now and for the mass deaths which have resulted from regime change wars in recent years.
With the end of these structure the U.S. and western elites clearly believed all that was necessary was to mop up the remaining outliers from their orbit. As the winners they would take all. Russia was finished. China was turning capitalist. All would be well in a new era policed by the West until all others were brought into line once and for all. There was now ‘A New World Order’. End of story.
But it hasn’t worked to plan. Not at all.
The nations to 'mop up’ remain resistant to U.S. power. Russia has proven she was not 'finished’. China may be partially capitalist but she continues to maintain a system of central planning using communist principles for the good of all loyal citizens. The dominoes western elites hoped would fall after the end of the Cold War failed to even waver. Vietnam stays communist. Cuba remains resistant to its ultra-powerful neighbour. Venezuela continues its fight against takeover. Nicaragua awaits its turn in the regime change queue. Iran bristles against any attempt to conquer it. Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen remain largely devastated by western attempts to coerce them into obeying the needs of western elites denying them the promotion of their interests.
The balance of the superpowers was undone at the conclusion of the Eighties and early Nineties. The equilibrium of two powers that were able to talk with each other to the degree necessary to preserve peace was maintained (with a few hairy moments here and there).
One superpower was brought to its knees (and never for a moment believe that the fifty and more years of western efforts to bring this about had nothing to do with it and it was only the result of 'people power’.) The balance was undone. Now the one remaining superpower would conquer all and most of the time using the same methods of partial truth, mostly lies, demonization and destabilization from within and without... propaganda, seeded misinformation and incessant pressure from political, media and military sources.
This is why the West was able to do Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and currently Yemen. This is why it still thinks it can do Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and any others it chooses.
But the elites know time is now running out. Russia has its pride back and a degree of its strength and determination to remain independent of control, from the West or any others. China is an economic powerhouse and though temporarily weakened by the coronavirus is now cranking up its industry once again to rise ever higher as the West descends from the virus into a parlous, chaotic and internally divided state.
This is why we have the present diplomacy-free situation that is so much worse than the discourse and discussion which took place even at the height of the Cold War.
This why Vladimir Putin is savaged with accusations and China too.
The elites of the West see time running out on them. The ambition was huge but thought doable, to take over or at least be able to predictably manipulate all nations where there interests predominantly lay. The elites of the USA has an even greater goal, to attain full spectrum dominance across land, sea and space, a goal given rocket boosters after 9/11 whereby only full spectrum dominance would make America feel truly and predictably safe again.
So, this is where we are at.
A superpower was humbled by a concatenation of pressures and measures. The elites of the other superpower rejoiced... then got to work using NATO and other entities to take as many other nations into their orbit as possible with the goal of eventually encompassing them all.
The West’s goals have been thwarted. Its elites are in panic mode. A potentially terminally wounded animal is lashing out determined to kill enemies it sees all around it.
Of course this analysis is off in left-field. Almost no one will think this way. The fall of the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies was wholly good and everyone is much better off without them, free and with the maximum number of choices in the best of all possible worlds.
But increasingly I don’t think so. And I suspect an ever-increasing number are thinking the same way.
Balance is vital. It is being restored now by China.
But if China is made to fail during the war being waged by the West there will be interminable chaos, conflict, division, misery and death. And the prospects for World Peace will remain constantly, perhaps permanently, out of reach.
‘Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.’
(From ‘The Second Coming’ by William Butler Yeats.)
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