The Order of the New World Order
Keeping the Initiative in the Hands of the Resistance Movements Is Crucial
As we approach the Year End, assess the achievements of the past year and lay plans for the coming year, we cannot escape the fact that the peoples of the world are experiencing grave insecurity. This insecurity is a result of economic conditions, climate crises and constant threats and acts of war, up to and including nuclear war. Threats of invasion and occupation, and actual invasions and occupations and extreme forms of violence have become the new normal. Other terrible catastrophes due to the climate crisis, growing impoverishment of ever greater numbers of people, the starvation of entire peoples, forced migrations, famines, irrationality and more are to be accepted as commonplace, ordinary, the new order of things.
This is what the U.S. rules-based order, to which Canada is glued, has brought to the world.
Assessments, analyses and different interpretations from all quarters are often given without looking at the actual developments or even knowing how to look at the developments. Instead, humanity is to accept the narrative provided by the governments of the United States and its allies, including Canada, and spokespersons from academia and think tanks as well as pundits and talking-heads of various kinds. The reference point they tend to give for discussion, which is generally taken up worldwide, is based on the image of the world created at the end of the bipolar division of the world. This image is given from the perspective that the international system is now unipolar, dominated by one superpower, which -- in the words of Madeleine Albright, the first woman to hold the position of U.S. Secretary of State (1997 to 2001) -- demanded its place as the "indispensable nation."
This perspective that the world is unipolar and the U.S. is the "indispensable nation" is in the course of being debunked but has yet to be replaced. In fact, it is already evident that a crucial mission of the new Trump administration in the United States -- which will be officially inaugurated on January 20, 2025 -- is to make sure the U.S. remains the main reference point in the world order. Meanwhile, everything is being done to divert attention from the order of the new world order.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, the image of the U.S. as superpower was no longer tied to a territorial base. The argument of nation-states being autonomous and having their own sovereignty was given short shrift. It was the image of this unique superpower which became the reference point for any discussion on the significance of current developments.
This international system is now being challenged by countries striving to create a rule of law grounded in multipolarity, or an end to polarity altogether. But the difficulty persists in establishing a reference point which is not the one given from the end of the Cold War on down to today, in the U.S. and elsewhere, of the U.S. as world leader, the superpower, the country responsible for world peace and for the crimes that go along with being the superpower.
Also elusively floating around the world is the mirror image of the superpower as the image of a global "War on Terror." This global "War on Terror" also does not occur as a phenomenon solely within nations but as an international threat based on definitions provided by the same superpower pursuant to its "rules-based order."
Without discussion this image is given as analysis. The logic is that the U.S. is the superpower because of its economic capacity, military projection, cultural influences, and so on. That is the idea which is projected of a superpower that sits atop the world. It is not limited to a nation-state or its territorial integrity. So too its mirror image of the global "War on Terror." On the basis of this reference point, what is passed off as discussion is about issues like whether the economic power of the U.S. is declining as compared to the economic power of other countries or other countries in combination; whether its military arsenal is adequate to tackle the global "War on Terror" now that the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become the norm and essential in the development of weapons systems; whether "nuclear deterrence is sufficient, effective, just, or ethical," and the like.[1]
Thus we have the narcissistic image of "superpower" and "terrorism" not rooted in the actual trials and tribulations of the peoples or their struggles in seeking independence, peace, freedom and democracy as they choose their own way of life, their own system of governance, and so on. We are presented with supranational phenomena beyond our ability to comprehend or control.
What is most significant is that,
other than holding the threat of terrorism including nuclear
annihilation over humankind, those who seek to limit discussion
in this way ignore that if there is a problem of major war on
the horizon, or catastrophes of other kinds, these are problems
that affect everyone. This means they pertain to the sphere
which concerns the general interests of the society, and of the
whole world.
Also ignored is that humankind is living in a period of extreme transition, disequilibrium and rapid changes. This came with the collapse of the international system called a "bipolar system" where the world was supposed to be divided and decisions were made between two superpowers that built their own coalitions and alliances to carry out divisions, contention and collusion in the world on their own. The collapse of the state system of the former Soviet Union and the collapse of the international system it was part of, the bipolar system, left the world situation in flux.
All of us talk about the various problems which are increasing, such as the great violence that exists; and all the criminal acts of the imperialists and reactionaries of all types. But something is very actively intervening to prevent the people from actually cognizing the relations that exist that give the basis for society, the relations between humans and humans and humans and nature and what they reveal -- which is the absence of political power in the hands of the peoples of the world.
It is the Resistance Movements of the peoples of the world which represent that striving to create a New World, the historical necessity to settle scores with the old conscience of society which deprives the peoples of the world of a role in making history. Everything possible is done by the ruling elites to deprive the peoples of an outlook of their own and their own agency as history makers. By dismissing the Resistance as evil, as the raison d'être for the global "War on Terror" which is not to be questioned, the aim is to eliminate the striving of the peoples to create a New World.
When talking about war as inevitable, the discussion cannot be taken up without also looking at this problem that people are deprived of an outlook by permitting so-called analyses on the inevitability of war that are based on the narcissistic image of "superpower" and "War on Terror." Such analyses are not rooted in the actual trials and tribulations of the peoples or their struggles for peace, freedom and democracy. It is also important to recognize that it is not a choice between the U.S. "rules-based international order" and the existing rule of international law. What is required is to rely on neither and instead develop a new world order and international institutions and law, where it is the peoples who decide, not the big powers.
Keeping the initiative in the
hands of the Resistance Movements has been one of the greatest
achievements of the past year in which the big powers and their
cartels, coalitions, blocs and institutions have done everything
within their power to deprive the peoples of their own outlook
and agency. And on the eve of the New Year, they continue to do
so, going so far as to say that by espousing a reign of terror
in Syria, along with the genocidal regime they continue to prop
up in Israel, the Resistance is defeated.
Far from it. Just as their claim to be democratic and uphold human rights died in Gaza, their claim to be champions of the "War on Terror" has bitten the dust in Syria. The terrorist enemy they themselves created in the first place, has now become their friend and champion. Thus the need for the peoples of the world to stand steadfast as one with the Resistance forces when they lay their plans for the coming year. Far from being defeated, the Resistance Forces stand tall and strong, steadfast in showing the way to achieve peace, freedom and democracy.
The more the danger of war and crises of much greater proportions loom on the horizon, the obvious point which is eclipsed in discussion is how to build an alternative by engaging in Resistance. It is more necessary than ever for peoples everywhere to establish through their deeds how they can overcome the situation of being deprived of power and can empower themselves. It is necessary to devise a new order which permits the conflicts which exist in the world to be settled without resorting to the use of force.
This is the crucial work to be taken up as the world prepares to enter a New Year in which the challenges facing the peoples require unity of purpose to make sure the initiative remains in the hands of the peoples and their Resistance Movements.
Keep in mind the key feature of official narratives and those coming from both left- and right-wing sources is to deprive people of the thought material and outlook they require. This is done by putting them on the defensive when their reference point remains the twin images of indispensable superpower and the world of terror from which the world must be saved.
It is presumed the world order, and that of each country, is the sphere of activity of the state, its raison d'état. The order is imposed by the state from on top or from without by foreign states, when in fact it comes from the ensemble of relations humans enter into with one another and between themselves and nature. It comes from the striving of human beings to humanize the natural and social environment. Any other conception of order serves systems in which people are deprived of decision-making power and their own thought material and agency.
It is consequently important to understand disinformation as not simply the lies and misinformation and all the racism and anti-people ideas, fascist ideas, medieval ideas, which there are tons of, but as the actual intervention in the system of world thought which leads to the disruption of actually looking into the situation and the possibilities which lie within it.
Prepare for the New
Year by Making Way for Renewal!
Make Canada a Zone for Peace!
Note
1. An example of what is considered an ethical use of nuclear deterrence is "to avoid use of nuclear weapons against any target that could be neutralized by conventional weapons" (Just and Unjust Use of Nuclear Deterrence, Scott D. Sagan).
(With files from the work on modern definitions carried out by CPC(M-L)'s Ideological Studies Centre (ISC). Photos: TML, A. Querry)
This article was published in
Volume 54
Number 11 - November 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/M540111.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca