I'm back home for a day or so. I'm exhausted. I fell asleep as I started on a yesterday's post.
In his 'The end of globalism' John Ralston Saul writes:
"Ideology, like theatre, is dependent on the willing suspension of disbelief. At the core of every ideology lies the worship of a bright new future, with only failure in the immediate past. But once the suspension goes, willingness converts into suspicion - the suspicion of the betrayed. Our brilliant leaders abruptly appear naive, even ridiculous.And so, in the late 1990s, our disbelief came back, and with it our memory. The years between 1945 and 1973 no longer seemed such a failure. In fact, it had been one of the most successful eras in history for both social reform and economic growth. It was something to build on, to reform; not something to dismiss."
Suddenly, it was no longer a Malaysia or a Brazil defending the nation state against international flows of people and capital. The old world of the conflict of national self-interest in an anarchic world returned, as the US attacked Iraq in trhe name of preventive war.
What also returned was the old language of nationalism, empire and imperium. The 21st century starts with the borderless world of globalization giving way to American empire.
Saul says that:
"What this [the return of the nation-state] might mean remains painfully unclear. Here we are, rushing around one of those sharp corners with no idea of where we are going. Perhaps back to the worst of old-style negative nationalism. Or perhaps on towards a more complex and interesting form of positive nationalism, based on the public good....The world turns, shifts, takes a new tack, or retries an old one. Civilisation rushes around one of those blind corners filled with uncertainties.Then, abruptly, the opportunities present themselves to those who move with skill and commitment."