Friends, check out my most recent article, which argues that the U.S./Western obsession with confronting Russia, when China and India are looming much larger as potential future adversaries (or allies?), is a sign of abject foolishness and self-delusion.
The West's Radar Screens Are Tuned
to Find Russian Bears and Very Little Else
This
week brought news that few Americans will ever hear, because few
American news editors will have the imagination to report on it, but
which will nonetheless lastingly alter the global balance of power
and the arc of world history. The U.N. reports that soon – next
year – India
will overtake China
as the world's most populous country. Both countries will have
roughly 1.4
billion inhabitants,
compared to just 330 million in the U.S.
There are several
reasons why this headline ought to fill Americans with equal parts
awe and dread. One is that America, and the West, are currently
engaged in a bitter proxy war with Russia, and the Western media and
security infrastructure are therefore predictably fixated on
addressing threats, both real and imagined, that emanate from the
regime of Vladimir Putin.
The
simple fact, however, is that Russia has a population of just 147
million. Its economy, even measured according to the more generous
PPP (purchasing power parity) methodology, is less
than 20% the size
of America's. If one were to compare Russia to the combined
population, wealth, and industrial resources of NATO, then, Russia is
a mere pipsqueak. No surprise, therefore, that the Russian military
is struggling to wrestle even a minor power like Ukraine into
submission.
The lesson here
is, first, that the only way Russia could ever win a conflict with
NATO is if NATO countries were too cowardly to fight back (a
depressingly realistic prospect, mind you); and, two, Russia is
completely incapable of sustaining the role of long-term strategic
rival to any of the world's current first-rate powers, including us.
Russia is a loose cannon, yes, but it is an obsolete, undersized,
poorly aimed cannon, more likely to explode in Putin's face than in
ours.
The
pusillanimity of the Western elite in the face of China's rise, and
despite China's brazen disrespect for international law and global
norms, is well known by now. President Biden's mumbled
assurances
to Taiwan aside, there is little evidence that any Western country
has the moxie to upbraid China verbally, much less to take the
hard-headed decisions that would be necessary to contain China
militarily, diplomatically, economically, or otherwise. Are we ready,
then, to tackle the Chinese dragon, should it rear its ugly head in
the mid-21st
century? Not remotely.
What's
more disheartening, however, is that another country, India, has
plotted a similar ascent, and Western academics, corporate leaders,
journalists, and politicians have barely noticed. India's progress
since the early 1990s has been extraordinary, increasing the per
capita income of Indians in PPP terms roughly eightfold.
India's GDP is now around
$12 trillion,
half that of the U.S. and climbing quickly. India is, moreover, a
functioning democracy with a history of conflict with communist China
– seemingly, therefore, an ideal candidate for an alliance with the
West aimed at containing future Chinese aggression. India, however,
has seen little reason to hitch its wagon to the West's fading star.
In fact, in the context of NATO's proxy war in Ukraine, India has
actually strengthened
its economic ties
with Russia – sensing that there is money to be made in the short
term, and there is also no discernible Western appetite for butting
heads, beyond the current fashion for arms shipments and virtue
signaling vis-Ã -vis
Ukraine. India seems to realize that the West's bark is a thousand
times worse than its bite.
This
leaves us, the United States of America, in a depressingly isolated
and steadily weakening position. Two rising great powers, China and
India, and one decaying 20th
century superpower, Russia, are circling coyly around one another,
trying to decide the constellation of forces, friendships, and feuds
that will decide the fate of the world in the 21st
century. The West, meanwhile, mired in its ossified, Cold War
mentality, seems hellbent on projecting its own dwindling might into
Eastern Europe, so it can contain an expected Russian armored thrust
into Central Europe that, to be sure, seemed plausible in 1949, but
looks, to any rational observer, downright fanciful in 2022.
Or, to put it
another way, we in the West seem determined to stick our heads in the
sand, as the world moves further and further beyond us, and as new
powers rise and flex their muscles, some of which we barely
recognize, and none of which our bumbling schoolchildren could find
on a map.
It's hard to
escape the conclusion that, as the West fades into self-imposed
irrelevance, the world might actually be better off. That's because
at least a few of the powers and leaders that usurp us might have the
good sense to see the world for what it is, instead of what the
Western ruling elite wishes it to be.
Dr.
Nicholas L. Waddy is an Associate Professor of History at SUNY Alfred
and blogs at: www.waddyisright.com.
He appears on the Newsmaker Show on WLEA 1480/106.9.
And here it is at American Greatness:
https://amgreatness.com/2022/07/13/the-wests-radar-screens-are-tuned-to-find-russian-bears-and-very-little-else/
***
But that's not all! Here's a very intriguing article, by a leftist, about why it's high time that Democrats told the Supreme Court to go screw itself. The rising contempt that many "progressives" have for the Court is, naturally, predictable, and it may eventually lead to a top-tier Democrat, like President Biden, directly and unambiguously defying the Court and denying its legitimacy. We'll see. The other reason the article is interesting, though, is because the author refutes the concept of "judicial review", which, as he points out, does not appear in the Constitution. The Court arrogated to itself the ultimate say over what's constitutional and what isn't, and I personally have some sympathy for the idea that SCOTUS has overplayed the hand that the Framers dealt it. Is the Left's current rejection of the Court's powers entirely self-serving? Sure. That doesn't mean that all of their arguments will be baseless. There are, in fact, legitimate questions to be asked about how powerful the Supreme Court ought to be.
https://prospect.org/justice/the-case-against-judicial-review/
As this article suggests, an enrollment crisis is unfolding in American higher ed, and quite a few colleges and universities may not survive the reckoning that's bearing down on them. One effect of lower enrollments will surely be, as the article says, that outcomes for graduates will become more significant, and students will become more canny in judging which colleges and which degree programs offer the best value for money. Another effect, I fear, is that the traditional liberal arts core of American higher ed will be hollowed out, as more and more students demand career-oriented and "practical" education, in lieu of expanding their skills and knowledge base more broadly. This could be bad news for Western Civ, which is my bread and butter course!
https://www.realcleareducation.com/articles/2022/07/11/college_enrollment_is_down__but_theres_a_silver_lining_110743.html
Yet another sign that a recession is impending is record-low optimism among small business owners:
https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/small-business-sentiment-plunges-48-year-low-inflation-worries-mount
Is loyalty to Trump waning in the GOP, because of the incessant screeching of the January 6th committee? There isn't much polling evidence to support that conclusion.
https://www.newsmax.com/politics/donald-trump-ron-desantis-2024-gop/2022/07/12/id/1078487/
Finally, it may not seem like "news", but, thanks to the James Webb space telescope, our understanding of the universe, and our ability to locate habitable worlds in nearby star systems, are both receiving a major upgrade. Is it time to put a deposit down on a vacation home orbiting Alpha Centauri? Maybe not, but expect some fascinating advances in astronomy in the years ahead, setting homo sapiens up to become an interstellar phenomenon.
https://www.breitbart.com/science/2022/07/12/nasa-unveils-color-images-distant-galaxies-james-webb-space-telescope/
