Between Times: On the Titanic
On the Problems and Threats of the New Era
Grigory Yavlinsky’s Telegram channel, 23.12.2024
Picture: “The Sinking of the Titanic” by Willy Stever, 1912
The key crisis of our time lies in the imperceptible but ever-increasing loss of human values and meanings in world politics combined with the lack of understanding of this problem, rather than in the geopolitical confrontation. This is the essence of what is happening. Neither economic success nor strengthening of military capabilities compensate for the deficit of these ideas.
In the current time, the area of primary responsibility of politicians is to move towards the key meanings, values, and goals: preserving human lives, freedom, dignity, and realisation of opportunities.
It is important to emphasise that historical experience proves that in politics, if you miss the moment, then real opportunities will be lost for a very long time, and in some cases – forever. But humanity will pay a high price for this.
The world order formed after 1945 is in deep crisis. It looks like the disappearing of this previous model is already irreversible. The peculiarity of today’s global changes is the lack of adequate understanding among current politicians responsible for decision-making of what is happening, as well as any serious ideas about the future. This is the reason for the emergence and further growth of chaos.
The increasingly observed desire to adapt to current circumstances can be compared to the desire of the Titanic passengers to find a more comfortable cabin on a ship that is inevitably approaching a catastrophic collision with an iceberg. For example, all the delight about Trump’s stunning return to the White House, while ignoring the meaning of the context of this comeback, is also a triumph on the Titanic. Because in general, the developments, including Trump’s victory, is a process that threatens a large-scale, and possibly total defeat for all passengers on the ship, regardless of what class of cabin they have.
There is no point in hoping that in the current conditions it will be possible to find a convenient and safe place. Something else is needed: to begin, as quickly as possible, to purposefully and consistently design, build and coordinate qualitatively new international security systems and at the same time create fundamentally new national state institutions. Both must be based on basic human values, which can be called European, Christian or universal.
I am certain that the most important thing for the future is the awareness, understanding and acceptance of the system of human values as a common central core of multipolar world development for all, as well as the readiness to institutionalise these values. That is, we are talking about creating a programme for the practical implementation of values by the entire system of international and national state structures and institutions.
It is fundamentally and extremely important that all this is really protected (and this is a big, but so far unsolvable task) from the deforming influence of the latest digital technologies and rapidly developing artificial intelligence.
In other words, it is necessary to be ready to implement such reforms that will put the latest technologies, the state as an institution and the world order in general at the service of people, and not vice versa.
READ FULL ARTICLE AT THE LINK BELOW:
Posted: December 27th, 2024 under Foreign policy, Freedom of Speech, Governance, Human Rights, Politics, Russia-Eu relations, Russia-US Relations.