THE TIDE OF CHANGE IS RISING FAST

There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.

(William Shakespeare, 'Julius Caesar')

China has the most successful economy every seen on Planet Earth. The efficiency with which the economy of China has been run in the last thirty year period is unparalleled in the history of humanity. One hundred million Chinese have been assisted out of abject poverty during that time.

While western capitalist and hyper-capitalist societies divide ever more into the haves and the have-nots, with an elite soaring out of sight leaving an ever greater number excluded China is ensuring that every member of Chinese society gains from the hybrid economy it has fostered.

Western pundits and politicians talk of the benefits of their so-called democracies and how accountable they are. If you live within one of them just how accountable to you do you believe your government is with your one in four year vote? Is your government truly accountable to you or instead to the lobbyists who twist their arms to fall in line with the corporate institutions who donate to them? In China around 90% were found to support their government by a poll by a Harvard-based company. When a government displays confidence and gets results it receives and deserves the confidence of its people. What results if any can western governments currently show that might generate similar to that which is afforded to the Chinese government?

While the Chinese government demonstrates competence their counterparts in the West career from catastrophic Covid policies to up-to-their-necks-in-debt disaster. China’s GDP is already on the rise again as it recovers from the pandemic. Britain and the USA continue to wallow in an anarchy of total incompetence with economies ready to tip over and tank.

Where on one side we see interminable confusion, chaos and rampant headless-chicken syndromes on all sides where everyone pulls in a different direction, in China there is a general understanding that they must all pull together to get best results. There is a calm order to things, a businesslike attitude with harmony placed at a premium. And there is time for relaxation and fun too, we traveled through China staying at various locations along the way. The Chinese actively seek good health in the parks and on the evening streets. The atmosphere is one of total safety where families and children can experience the feeling of being in a clean environment where pleasure and potential is at a maximum.

China is powering ahead with enthusiasm and exhilaration while the West slumps into a sickeningly grey lethargy which reeks of invisible danger and imminent economic and social chaos.

The future example of a high-tech society where there has been an ever-greater leveling up across all society is what China will increasingly represent to the world. Already in Latin America we can see the rise once more of what was called ‘The Pink Tide’. People are realizing that capitalism and hyper-capitalism alone cannot be the engine of lasting equality, stability or happiness, they ultimately bring division, elitism and atomization. The future will be hybrid in economic terms. Not communism. Not capitalism. But a hybrid mix. In China and much of Asia the way forward has been arrived at and agreed to and most importantly works well for them.

In the West the culture is radically different from that of the far east and cannot possibly follow in exactly the same way. Not even Russia, a close ally of China’s mirror the same economic system. It is too western and always has been. Given a chance and without the perceived need to spend billions on military defenses due to the aggression of the West the Soviet Union might have shown a third way. There was a very great deal that was good about that society and those of the Warsaw Pact. At their best they demonstrated a unity of purpose, a willingness to all work together for the common good and a heartfelt desire for peace that permeated their societies at a goodhearted, idealistic base. The unity of thought and action at its best mirrored that which is so fundamental within the Chinese system today.

For many diverse reasons the Soviet Union and her allies in the Warsaw Pact fell apart. Some of those reasons were internal, some external, but fall apart they did. However, many now regret the passing of the best of those times while realizing that their dream of how things would be after were unrealistic, have not been fulfilled and instead feel the dread of knowing that a creeping corruption within is ensuring that they never will now be realized.

The western way of free market capitalism is only working for a minority. Increasingly only a certain few find the money within society finding its way into their pockets. In the West artificial intelligence, online shopping, robotics and the automation of anything that can be transformed into zeros and ones is undermining societies at their base. What possible unity can be found in such a system devouring itself ultimately leaving only the top feeders truly anything like alive? In the USA the concept of the ‘American Dream’ is all but dead. It has become totally unaffordable for most. The cost of everything continues to soar and upward mobility is a non-starter. Meanwhile both main political parties look increasingly alike and devoid of ideas on how things can be changed for the better. Both are joined at the hip to the corporations which deliver them cash. The average citizen in America has lost all power through the decimation of unions in general and the barring of unions within an increasing number of existing companies and new start-ups.

The only hope I can see for some re-creation of a feeling of unity in the West lies in the creation and implementation of a universal basic income in each western nation. The urgency for this is great and in my opinion is almost the only way western societies can be saved from the collapse which is becoming more imminent with each passing day. Perhaps it was needful in times past to emphasize the individual and the credo that every human being ought to be as self-sufficient as possible, standing strongly on his or her own feet needing almost nothing from anyone else, least of all the state. Nations wanted to advance economically in competition with others, much progress was required after WWII to build economies and strengthen western societies decimated by the war in many cases. But new times demand new ways, another ethos and focus to match present condition where certain thresholds have been reached and new dangers present themselves.

The West cannot go on as it is now constituted. Surely most of those living within it see that. It is floundering and failing, cracks are appearing in every part of its structure. The tide of history regarding the West has gone out. It has retreated almost out of sight leaving a bleak horizon devoid of signs of renewed life that might generate hope.

The tide that has retreated from the West is now adding to the crest of success in the East. There the tide of beneficial lifeblood into every sector of society is a constant, fed by smart thinking, unity of purpose, insightful planning and a dedication to ensuring things are done well for the benefit of all.

And... there is one more result of the rising tide in the East which I have not mentioned until now. As it approaches and reaches Europe in full flood it will gradually cause the tide of malignant warmongering and divisive aggression that infects Europe through the influence of U.S. elites, to dissipate and die away. Trade builds partnerships and those partnerships create strong mutual interests which form a matrix of agreements. All of this transforms into influence and in this case a benign influence which seeks peace to put in place a virtual circle of mutual benefit to all parties. The aggressively selfish and divisive influence of the USA will atrophy and die within Europe and thus also its ability to strongarm European elites to its will, to its murderous will at times, a will that feeds on selfish exceptionalism, a quasi-fascist superiority complex. All this will be swept away in time, swept back to its own shores with all other rabid factors remaining totally quarantined.

There is MUCH to hope for. We are on the cusp of a new beginning for the world. The malign and destructive era of the hyper-selfish western nations is ending. A new wave from the East is about to sweep all before it bringing much that will enhance all of us by an imminent, beneficent and unstoppable tide.