Global Polarization

by Eduardo del Buey

Global Polarization

We are living in a world where the political poles are in constant flux and where uncertainty is the name of the game.

Can the global community manage this situation in which definitions are blurred and allegiances are constantly shifting?

From the fall of Nazism to the fall of the Soviet Union the world was divided into three major camps: the right followed the United States, the left the Soviet Union, and a third a non-aligned movement that more often than not followed the Soviet Union’s lead in response to the West’s history of colonialism that had affected most of their membership.

The fall of the Soviet Union heralded a world in which the hope was that economic globalism would bring with it a global move towards democratic governance.

The coming to power of Vladimir Putin in Russia in 1999 put an end to the dream.

Once again West and Russia were at odds.

Putin’s expansionist dreams and despotic rule area return to the past and the goals of the former Soviet Union. His support for dictatorships has provided tyrants like Syria’s Al Assad what they required to massacre his people and for other tyrannies to grow and prosper.

What about China and the role it played first in courting the West and now in balancing between the capitalist west and Russia to pursue its expansionist objectives?

China is no longer of the left or of the right.

It is a state that has developed into a cult around President Xi, much the same as Russia is a cult built around President Putin and the Republican Party is a cult built around Donald Trump.

It appears that many states are becoming cultish and that there is no ideology other than raw power.

Today, many observers claim that the world is no longer divided between left and right but, rather, between democracies and dictatorships.

I think reality has already surpassed this conclusion.

In most societies, fear rules and divides entire populations. And leaders who depend more on raw power than ideology rule.

The basis for their rule is fear.

Fear of globalization – of seeing your job move to China and having no way to earn a living.

Fear of multiculturalism that dilutes national cultural values and the ties that bind.

Fear of a globalized economy, and a shift in economic power will make our children the first generation that will be less prosperous that their parents.

Fear of religious hostility from other religions that seek to destroy your way of life.

Last, but not least, the fear of artificial intelligence that could soon make not only employment but also entire political systems as we have known them obsolete.

Democracies are ebbing and flowing as we speak.

Former US President Donald Trump worships Russian President Putin and is in every way his agent. He has orchestrated the Republican rejection of aiding Ukraine against the Russian invasion. If he wins in November, will the U.S. continue to be a beacon for the democratic West?

If Trump manages to implement his 2025 agenda, can the United States avoid the social and political polarization that will arise, or will social strife and political divisions lead to violence unseen since the Civil War?

Can the West survive with its fundamental values and institutions under attack from within and from nefarious sources led by Iran, Russia, North Korea, and China?

NATO faces extreme divisions with Hungary and Turkey on one side, and many other member states on the other? Can NATO democracies survive with right wing isolationist opposition parties in the wings of many of its member states, some of which align with Russia – including Trump, who seems committed to weakening NATO and destroying his country’s constitution and democratic tradition?

The left now aligns with right wing dictatorships as do right wing parties, as demonstrated by Cuba’s, Venezuela’s, and Nicaragua’s close relationships with Putin’s Russia. They also blatantly align with terrorist organizations and support them on the streets and campuses of our cities despite the existential threat they pose to Western institutions and values.

The right supports those who claim that they are leftists. Putin’s Russia supports Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and other “leftist” dictatorial regimes, as does Iran.

There is no longer a “center”.

Democratic believers are bereft of leaders who can overcome the political and social divisions that plague us and that play right into the hands of autocratic leaders who are today more united than ever.

Those of us who live in democratic societies don’t know whom to believe anymore.

Lies and liars govern our politics. Values have been abandoned. The spiritual and cultural beliefs that once provided a framework for Western values and the cornerstones of our societies have been usurped by the unscrupulous and unholy for their own ends.

Social media prevents free discussion of issues since it tends to congregate people who think alike whether their thinking is based on fact or fiction.

People are reading much less and depending much more on unverified ideas and conspiracy theories that appear on-line that appeal to their inner fears and hatreds rather than to fact or truth.

The result is that consensus is absent, and confrontation is being exploited by the unscrupulous.

What can be done?

I have no answer, but I think it is important to start by exploring and agreeing upon the issues that we face and openly discussing solutions both on a national and global level.

This requires personal leadership, beginning with the determination of each individual to cease behaving like lemmings and, rather, support and vote for those who speak the truth and provide options that respect the rights of the individual and reject the politics of fear and division.

There is no left nor right.

There is only truth or lies.

The sooner we accept this new reality, the sooner we will be able to challenge it.