Political Correctness and New Realities in the West
Western society and the values embodied in it, no matter how controversial today, are an emanation of centuries of development of the European peoples. In the cultural and economic Western civilization, in its role as the metropole, was the “locomotive” that pulled the less developed countries of the world, like the conquest of the New World centuries ago. We are witnessing the same today in the neocolonial era in which transnational corporations seize sovereignty and enslave economically weaker countries in Africa and Latin America.
Let’s say that there is a compromise between corporations and local residents, a “Washington” version of it. The process of emancipation of Western society, its consolidation and drive for cultural expansion, are combined with genuine messianism and paternalism imposed on “barbarian” peoples. The great geographical discoveries, the conquest of vast lands, resources, markets, cultural and religious interference in the lives of indigenous people in the newly discovered territories – made the conquerors intoxicated, causing them to believe that their god and culture are universal. Colonialism and imperialism, an initiative launched through the great geographical discoveries, ended at least officially due to World War II, and led to the subsequent process of decolonization of former colonies. Countries appeared on the map, nations gained independence, but then hte trade and economic expansion of the United States began, acting as a global hegemon and troubadour of the western socio-economic, commercial and political system.
The ratio of center-periphery of the West was in favor of the Old Continent for about two centuries, at the expense of the US, which began its walk on the international political scene, with the deterrent effect of the “splendid isolation.” At that time, Europe was at its cultural, diplomatic, political and colonial heyday. European countries do not follow, they create the rules. They create and determine the course of international relations. Christian religion, culture and the social structure of European states promise prosperity and the spread of Western values as far as is visible in atlases and globes.
But the claimed to be universal Western values can not germinate everywhere. The emerging after the Franco-Prussian War “Belle Epoque” in Western Europe, characterized as a period of accelerated technological progress, economic growth, peace in political relations, flowering of culture and art in many European countries, especially France and Britain, ends just before the outbreak of WWI. This monstrous at the time conflict, almost destroyed both physically and culturally Europe, and spread beyond the continent to became the first global conflict. When one loses, another wins.
The existential for European powers war for supremacy, the refraction of international relations through the prism of the balance of power and the pursuit of the sacred “Raison d ‘Etat” (reason of the state) lead to pervasive and severe economic, diplomatic and political decline on the continent. This is a turning point, after which there is no turning back. Europe no longer creates, but follows the trends in international politics. Imperceptibly the torch is passed on to the US, which entered the war and out of its “splendid isolation.” Europe retained a “pyrrhic victory”, but the political center of the Western world moved across the Atlantic, toward what was considered to be the far more culturally primitive United States.
The US, from a position of increased military and economic power and diplomatic influence, ranks in the ranks of the Great Powers after the war. Europe, the cradle of Western civilization, eventually lost the initiative in the field of geopolitics and is now a US junior ally. This becomes the irrevocable reality when World War II ended and changed the face of Europe, which from ashes was divided into spheres of influence between the only two superpowers – the US and the USSR.
In this bloody bacchanalia eventually being buries the ambitions of the continent to be the center of international politics. It played the role of US assistant in the ideological and geopolitical confrontation during the Cold War and stuck in their sphere of influence, Western Europe lost the initiative and the momentum that it gained in centuries of cultural and political expansion. As one of the poles of the extremely polarized and torn by ideological confrontation world, the United States began to see the countries of Western Europe, Japan and the whole of the Western Hemisphere as a territory in which to enforce and promote its socio-economic and cultural view on the world.
In particular, the countries of Western Europe, supported financially and economically from the “Marshall Plan” after the war, consolidate and begin to restore their economic capacity. The latter are transformed into a staunch ally of the US, occupying second place in the post-war international political and economic structures. Western society takes on the configuration by which we identify it, geographically as well as culturally and ideologically. Forgetting about the isolation policy of non-interference in political and cultural life on the continent, the United States launch a frantic race with its ideological “arch-enemy” to fulfill the messianic target for the transformation of the XX century in the “The American Century”. They do not distinguish between the protection of national interests and patronage over its allies in Western Europe, over which the US pours political and cultural influences.
At present, Western world is in neoliberal torpor and aesthetically captures the values of political correctness, multiculturalism and tolerance displayed as ethical dogma, outside which remain marginal and meaningless political systems, which lack liberal democracy and market economy. The world changed after the Cold War following the collapse of communist ideology. The unipolar world order and the current “struggle against terrorism” radically changed the worldview and values of the residents of the western hemisphere, particularly in the US and European Union countries.
In the past few years another process is occurring as a consequence of the “Arab Spring” in the Middle East, North Africa and Syria. It forces Europe to make an existential choice. Today, we have the vast migrant wave, meticulously imposed by the Brussels administrations values and norms of behavior, in the spirit of extreme liberalism. The choice placed before Europe and European Union, is whether to continue to accept the endless flow of migrant them find their place in the social system, to provide them with the undisturbed right to carry with them their religion, culture, values and traditions in host countries, or to move towards traditional national and cultural values rather than their ultimate liberal antipodes.
Political correctness is a cultural-sociological term that refers to replacing certain concepts with others to mitigate possible social tensions. In other words, the real problems are not named, euphemisms are used to replace “politically incorrect” language. The media imposes upon society a political “speech” that must share altruism and a global vision of neoliberal values. The focus of public attention is shifted towards minor topics. Western political elites are trying to design the world with their vision of a world order, and seek artificial confrontation with inconvenient and potentially dangerous for them diametrically opposed political and economic systems.
The recently conceived “political correctness” and its liberal companion tolerance, are fused with the official government and state rhetoric of the US and their ideological followers in Europe. By not naming the problem, it does not disappear, but deepens and eventually escalated as a result of the depleted social backbone of any country – the middle class. The latter naturally does not hold the levers and mechanisms for the management of the state, does not draw the map of foreign policy and does not determine policy and the economy. The foundation of the nation state is eroded from within. People’s perception of religion, culture, civilization and national identity are deliberately blurred and blunted by the dictates of liberal values. The latter are tremendously influential and are followed like an unwritten rule, almost like a law of nature.
In this case however “politically incorrect” it sounds, the immigrants coming to the EU do not seek to integrate into a Western-style society. Most of them, except perhaps the most educated and skilled in a given field will not contribute anything to the socio-economic welfare of Europe. Rather, they will segregate in their communities, live with the religious norms of Islam and the traditions of the Muslim society. We all know what happens when one group prevails over another. If the trend continues, Europe will change its cultural, religious and ethnic appearance. Europe, where generations of Europeans have lived and made the cultural superiority of the Old Continent possible, will be lost in the ruins of liberal pseudo leadership into the self-destruction of themselves. Migrants do not suffer from such scruples as Europeans, and if they manage to achieve numerical superiority, they will inevitably try to impose their laws, traditions, norms and rules.
This threat seems deceptively far away from us and is invisible to the eye of the political elites who choose to blindly following the neo-liberal ideology, instead of the preservation of sovereignty of their countries. Any person of average intelligence can understand what I mean. Maniacal intrusion and unquestioningly following the liberal dogmas of tolerance will lead to social unrest and change. Government that can ensure peace, prosperity and protect the rights of voters, are threatened to be replaced. Political correctness will lead to the inevitable reboot of the socio-political system and the compromised liberal values will be replaced.
Trump is the most visible symptom of this processes.
Reality is no longer dominated by the liberal regulation of the US and the EU. The Unipolar order is cracking before our eyes. The Dystopia that is forced on us today, limits the resistance and consolidation before the threat of irreversible change in Europe. “Rubicon” has not yet passed. However, when this happens the last stronghold of state sovereignty, social security and cultural identity of Europeans will be dismantled, and future generations will be submitted to the will of the “liberal” mindset of migrants. It is uncertain whether the latter will be so politically correct and tolerant toward Western society. It is more likely that when a migrant group becomes large enough, it will try to impose their vision of social structure, and change the cultural, ethnic and religious outlook of Europe and the EU or what would eventually be left of it.
Confrontation with political correctness in Western society could mutate into odious extreme forms of nationalism and chauvinism, which could motivate the EU and even Germany, to defend by all means its sovereignty, state security and cultural identity. The forthcoming decades (the process will be long and painful) we will witness the end of the neoliberal lethargy that has stuck Western society. Motivated either by sober considerations rather than dogmatic bias and servility to neoliberal covenants, or by the electoral anger of ordinary people, the political class will make a simple calculation. And it is this: the sacrifice of national sovereignty and identity, social justice and the welfare of the people will ultimately sacrifice themselves as well. The latter will be thrown in the trash of history, so that in their place come people able to perform meaningful accountability toward society and state.
This is not my romantic utopian deduction, but the wave that will reverse the trend of neoliberal course in the modern western world. Unfortunately, this course is unidirectional and the final destination will probably include repeating the mistakes of the past – namely, wars and extreme right authoritarian regimes. Besides cycles in nature, there is a cycle in history, which the modern system will ultimately face and be deposed just as Communism before it. The imposition of the neoliberal dictatorship on a global scale has become a “Procrustean bed” into which the transnational elites tried to shove the world’s population. If after the Cold War the “wind of change” was blowing into the sails of the contemporary neoliberal system, the events triggered by the destabilization of the Middle East created a cyclone, which changed its direction. This wind has not stopped blowing, but today it seems that the direction is correct.
By Delio Delev
Translated by Borislav
Source: Memoriabg via SouthFront
