the big world now

1500 to 1991 control by the west

At the end of the 15th century Europe was tiny. They were lucky to have thrown the muslims out of Spain.

Imperialism:This means when one country takes over another.

The west, for various reasons, started to take over the world.

In 1800, European and america controlled 35 percent of the earth’s land surface. By

1914 they controlled 85%.

For four hundred years intercivilization relations consisted of the suibordination of other societies to Western Civilization.

((And the west won the world, not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few of other civilizations were converted))) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence.

In 1900 civilization meant western civilization.

The second half of this century

The cold war was two western models fighting for your allegience. But in 1991 this came to an end.

The new question: Who are you?

During the cold war the question was which side are you on.

The question which side are you on has now been replaced with who are you. Each state must answer. And they are doing so by forming groups.

people are dropping into separate groups.

Electoral competition instead stimulates them to fashion what they believe will be the most popular appeals and those are usually ehthnic, nationalist and religious in character.

Democritization conflicts with Westernization. Democracy is inherently a parochializing, not a cosmopolitanizing force.

DAY @ MONDAY People are moving towards groups

People seem to going further and further into independence and groups. Often this is really horrible.

The groups are changing?

Why do you think we are going towards groups?

First the increased salience of cultural identity is in large part, the result of modernization at the individual level and alienation.

Second, Competition those things which have always generated conflict between groups: control of people, territory, wealth and resources and power are alive. Cultural issues cannot be mediated like material ones.

Third To get elected you need “others” at any level, personal tribal racial etc, can only be defined in relation to the other. French Germans, belgians etc increasingly think of themselves as Eruopean. Muslims and asians too.

Fourth Hate and Conflict are normal throughout history. T his is a bad sign.

Three choices

Choice one - we go to smaller and smaller groups.

SHOW RAWANDA VIDEO

questions: Does this hate make sense to you?

Would you invest in this country?

This could happen as we have people hating eachother in Pacoima: Black v. Latino. 43rd Avenue fighting 42nd avenue.

Question Which groups do you belong to? Which would be the best basis for a country?

Describe the difference between malos, chicos and spiders or 57th ave or 43rd ave.

What makes the groups on the school yard. How do people form groups.

Yugoslavia. Croatia is Catholic and their difference is defined by history. Bosnia by religion (muslim). Serbia by race (slavic) and Kosovo by god knows who.

Choice Two - We go to big groups that get along

choice Three - we go to big hostile groups.

Before independence

Originally the west controlled all countries. (Western ways made us all so wealthy)

-Originally imperialism was shook off by asserting the universality of western values.

(Create a nation with rights and self determination)

-The rights of all nations to have the same rights that the West enjoyed.

People use the western values to get independence.

People got their independence. Nations were created.

After independence

Groups want to assert anti western ideas.

When we ruled much of the world wanted to follow our ways. People believed that you have the right to make up your own mind about your life and your government.

Culture follows power and European colonialism is over and America’s hegemony is receding.

Decreases in economic and military power lead to self-doubt, crises of identity and efforts to find in other cultures the deys to economic, military, and political success.

As western power declines, the ability of the West to imose western concepts of human rights, liberalism and democracy on other civilizations also declines and so does the attractiveness of theos values to other civilizations. It already has. They used to envy us.

you don’t win elections by saying you love the west.

SHOW ETHNIC CLEANSING VIDEO

The Groups that have emerged are WEST, ISLAM and ASIA

What makes the west the west? Human Rights

1) the classical legacy including Greeek philosophy and rationalism, roman law, latin and christianity.

2)Division of Religion and Government. We fought for so long we got tired of it. It took hundreds of years.l the clashes between church and state authoriy are uniquesly western and contributed greatly to the western freedoms. (Also our experience in division is unkown in Russia or Latin america).

3) The concept of the importance of law to civilized existence was inherited from the Romans. Medieval thinkers elaborated the idea of natural law.This laid the groud for constitutionalism and protection of human rights.

4) Social pluralism. We have diverse autonomous groups not based on blood relationship or marriage. First guilds, merchants, clergy, aristocracy and monastic orders. Our independent aristocracy limited absolutism.

Representative government. These bodies came from social pluralism and provided the frame for democracy

5) individualism, The romeo and Juliet revolution. And the idea of equal rights for all individual. This value is among the most important to us and among the least important worldwide.

ISLAM AND THE WEST

Review islam a bit-

We have been enemies with Islam for 1400 years. The cold war is only fleeting compared to it.

They used to follow us, but as we go down in power...

In the cold war we saw the commies as godless communists.

We now are seen as the godless west.

Public condemnations of their terror is rare. Our anger at our strikes on them is non-existence. In international conflicts, unlike ideological ones, kin stand by their kin.

One big problem we have with them is that they don’t separate religion and government (church and state). So we are the great Satan and their governments job is to get us.

Western government thinks that what individuals do is the individuals business. Islamic says that the governments job is to enforce religion.

The conflict also stems from the common universalistic missionary view of each. We think human rights and individualism are for the whole world they want obedience to the will of god.

other issues with them:

The islamic population growth, fundamental resurgence, our efforts to universalize. Also weapons issues, control of oil, migration, mass of terrorism and Western intervention.

Recently they have made overtures of peace but I have no hope it will work.

Islam’s hope

Read an article on Islamic Terrorism

A disproportionate number of small wars and terrorism involve islam. Why?

1) It is a religion of the sword. If you die fighting for Allah you go to heaven. It started with warring bedouin nomadic tribes. Muhammead himself is remembered as a hard fighter and skillful military commander.

2) Islam is undigestable they don’t assimilate and don’t deal well with minorities (their culture leaves less room for adoption and adaption than other religions and beliefs). So in india...

3) also their 19th and 20th century subjugation

4) demographic explosion: A large percent of their population is under 15 years of age.

5) Islam spread by land and so has many pockets of folks scattered around. The west imperialized by sea and so had no proximity to the conquored people.

ASIA, CHINA

Our trouble with China

Culture is our conflict.

Review Confucianism

At the broadest level the Confucian ethos pervading many asian societies stressed the values of authority, hierarchy , the subordination of individual rights and interests, the importance of consensus, the avoidance of confrontation, “saving face” and the supremacy of the state over society and of society over the individual. Also they tent to think of the evolution of their societies in terms of centuries and millennia and to Give priority to maximizing long term gains.

These attitutdes contrasted with the liberty, equality, democracy and individualism and distrust of governments, checks and balances, competition, human rights and ignoring of the future and past and focus on immediate gains.

Trouble negotiating with japan:

Because of our penchant to identify “good” relations with friendly relations, we have a disadvantage in competing with Asian societies who identify good relations with one’s that get them victories.

They don’t appreciate concessions, they expoit them.

Batlle problems

At the base is a cultural - historical question

The Easts economic success has bred euphoria from western economists. They are thinking of money!

But Economic growth creates political instability within countries and between countries.

Our conflict with china includes including economic questions, human rights, tibet, taiwan, the south china sea and weapons proliferation.

Chinas increasing needs for oil are likely to cause it to expand its relations with iran iraq and saudi arabia.

The question here is the Confucian question. The confucian system is unequal and if we were to see a 6th relationship, it would be China, the rest of the world.

They certainly see themselves, historically, as the head of Asia. They are the only country that uses bombs as part of their diplomacy. They bombed all around Taiwan during their election.

Secondly, they see themselves as the top of the World. As they grow, and outgrow us, economically they see it as truer and truer.

And the other component here is unequal. They aren’t interested in fair and equal. They see every time we give in as a not bargaining, but winning. If we do nothing on human rights they see that they are winning and we lose. when our trade tarrifs are unequal, they see winners and losers.

For two hundred year we’ve worked to stop the emergence of an overwhelmingly dominant power in Europe. For 100 we’ve done the same in asia with the open door policy towards china.

after rapid industrialization and economic growth every major power (Britain, japan germany the soviet union) has engaged in outward expansion assertion and imperialism when or immediately

Western theory takes balancing. Balancing requires primary and secondary balancers. We’ve been the primary balancer in Asia. Will Japan step up? Indonesia and Vietnam are the two most blancers from SEAsia. All countries there have said they want our military support, but have accomodated china

And, they are angry that they were dominated by Europe briefly. Tell of my time with Annie.

It will not align itself with anyone, but will not shirk from helping islam (especially if they need the oil).

Countries will either join to contain (balance) china or bandwagon with them.

THE CONFLICT CAN COME FROM WHERE WWI STARTED LITTLE ex YUGOSLAV

Why we might not win

Asia and islam say they are superior. We are too comfortable to think of it.

We’ve had an overwhelming impact on all other civilizations since 1500. We may think we are the only and dominate forever. Civilisations often think that they are forever and history has stopped and this is usually a bad sign. That might be us.

Modernization and industrialization are world wide. But the Islamic Resurgence and the economic dynamism of Asia demonstrates that other civilizations are alive and well.

Also, is the West not in decline? We show classic signs. When rich the leaders of a country spend money on themselves then people get poorer and iliterate and invasion comes when the country is no longer willing to defend itself.

Far more significant than economics and demography are problems of moral decline. Culturual suicide and plitical disunity.

1) Weakening of the work ethic and rise of a cult of personal indulgence

a) increase in anti social behavior (stealing, drugs, crime etc) The thing that secures the state is the mind.

b) family decay (teenage, out of wedlock families, multiple fathers)

c) decreasing commitment to learning and intellectual activities

The future of the West depends on how it copes with these trends. Failings give rise to the assertions of moral superiority by Muslims and Asians.

2)split into fighting nations in our nation

We are a weak country because we are only defined by ideals. If people don’t understand this we die.

We need to defend our belief in parlimentary democracy, the rule of law, liberal capitalism and free trade and the shared European cultural heritage eminating from Greece and Rome through the Renaissance to the shared values, beliefs and civilizaiton of our own century. Including human rights and cultural freedom. These are European ideas, not asian nor african nor middle eastern (except by adoption)

diversity

We can reinvigorate with immigrants but minorities make us a cleft country. With potential for strife. Also we could lose our central theme, western civilization, which has defined our national identity.

Can you name one country in which two languages and two cultural groups live side by side peacefully?

Immigrants now represent about one in 10 US residents. This is the highest since3 the 1920s. Immigrnts accounted for 15% of the nations population in 1910.

Immigration and births to immigrant women have accounted for 70% of the US population increase during the 1990s. About 42% of the school age population is made of immigrants or the children of immigrants.

Last year there were 800,000 immigrants legal and 275,000 illegals. (40% of illegals anre here).

In the name of multiculturalism the identification of the USA with western civ has been denied.

The founding fathers saw diversity as a reality and as a problem: hence our national motto, e pluribus unum, chosen by a commitee of the Continental Congress consisting of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. Teddy Roosevelt said Becoming a tangle of squabbling nationalities could ruin us.

The US doesnt’ have an ideology, it is one! When we put the group over the individual (gender sex, religion). When people define themselves in cultural terms what place is there for a society without a cultural core?

The rejection of creed and of Western civilization means the end of USA. If the US is de-westernized, the West is reduced to Europe and a few lightly poopulated settler countries. A miniscule and declining part of the world’s population

CLASHES OF CIVILIZATIONS

THE WEST AND THE REST: INTERCIVILIZATIONAL ISSUES

The major clashes of the future are likely to arise from the interaction of 1) Western arrogance,

The west and the rest - how to make peace

Three things to fear: Western arrogance, Chinese aggression or Islamic intolerance.

Universality of western civ is false immoral and dangerous. Culture is relative, morality is absolute.

Ways to achieve Civilizational peace

1) abstention-

we must not be imperialistic culturaly. War could come from escalation of a fault line war in which aspiring muslim core states compete for the lead. The imbalance of power from rising china could also cause conflict.

2)negotiation-

Each civilization should have a permanent seat on the security council of the UN.

3)commanalities-

Also we should look for commonalities in our cultures. We have different priorities.

4) We must remember the clash between civilization and barbarism (internationalism has given refuge to mafia and drug cartels and terrorist gangs). Just as Europe and America must hang together or handg separately. Civilizations with their rich acocomplishments in religion, art literature, philosophy, science technology, morality and compassion will either hang together or hang separately. Clashes of civilisations will quickly end civilisations.

2) Islamic intolerance

3) Asian assertiveness.

choice three - we all become one world.

The other option is that we all become one. That is that we unify.

But if we unify, how many of us would be willing to Live according to the laws of Islam? How about living according to the dictates of the Chinese government?

If we unify it would have to be according to the priniples of the West.

There are many who think that all people will see that we are right and that the others are wrong. That we shall all turn on to consumerism and democracy and respect for human rights.

The UN’s declaration of the universal rights of mankind. The UN is caught because it wants to respect all cultures and yet cannot accept female genital mutilation or oppression of women in most of the world (the West is the only country with womens rights protected by anything nearing law).

It is against racism and so must be against racists countries like China and Intolerant countries like Iran.

You can see signs of this. China is creating areas where individuals can make choices in business (though not in politics).

Last week the President of Iran made some talk of being willing to have his government talk with ours. But the religious leader of Iran said no. He reaffirmed that we are the devil. infront of a crowd that chanted “Death to America”

One world under global capitalism - Read slingshots “Race to the Bottom”

Comparison of posibilities

MultiCulturalism Single Culture

War Peace

Differences Sameness

Group Individual

Belonging Alienation

Past Future

Multi world West or Asia or Islam

Accepting, But pride in ones own Not accepting, stamping out diversity

Nationalist Imperialist

Environmentally difficult Environmentally easier

God Man

History as cyclical History as progress

No choice (obey individual culture) No choice (obey modern values)

Do hate in the USA video