I’ve been thinking of this for some days and can not convince myself whether it has some point or not. I live in Europe and we’re experiencing a terrible crisis (whose worst part has not yet come) and all the media tell is that is “because of the war”. Inflation is due to the war, economic regression is due to the war, high taxes and cuts to welfare are due to the war, etc. But my sensation is that there’s more to it… Public expenditure has skyrocketed to buy weapons and not all countries were prepared to do so. Sanctions contributed too, as well as financial speculation (which is more related to human greed rather than the war itself). But my idea is that the whole western model was flawed and could only sustain itself on the bases of colonialism where rich countries dominated (or established market rules) to the detriment of poorer nations. Today these suppliers refuse to undergo western rule and this is why everything is collapsing here. Which is a good thing, because a society based on inequality and exploitation must collapse. What’s your opinion about it?
You’re pointing in the right direction. I don’t know of any thorough analyses on the topic, but they probably exist. From a surface level analysis, though, pointing at colonialism is the right direction. Here’s a rough timeline:
Feudalism -> expansionism -> colonialism -> capitalism -> multi-polar imperialism -> uni-polar superimperialism
This is what the North Atlantic bloc is built on. The revolutionary movement for communism inevitably involves dismantling each of these things, and a lot of it is going to be in reverse order. First we are rolling back uni-polar superimperialism. Then we will roll back imperialism. Then we eliminate capitalist dominance. Then we will fully decolonize, including rematriation of land and wealth. Then we will have established mutual disincentives for expansion. And finally we will have developed the world’s nations beyond the need for subordination through force.
Each step up the structural ladder enriches the North Atlantic. Therefore, each step down the ladder impoverishes the North Atlantic.
The crisis you are seeing is the end of superimperialism. It only gets worse from here.
Agreed.