The World Turned Upside Down — Again

[Geee]

National Review:


Will the strains in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe resolve themselves — or are we on the brink of epochal change?

Every once in a while, the world is turned upside down in just a few years, whether by ideological ferment or force of arms. We may be entering such a phase now — unsure whether the unrest in the Middle East, the rise of China, and the crisis in the EU will sputter and dissipate like the upheavals of 1848 or make the world unrecognizable in the way that Alexander the Great’s ten-year romp, the fall of Constantinople, World War I, World War II, and the collapse of Soviet Communism changed the very map of Europe and Asia.


The question is not whether Greece will default on its massive debt, but, rather, when it does, whether the inevitable default will spread to Spain, Portugal, or even Italy and unravel the European Union, or simply be confined to Greece, returning it to its genteel poverty of the 1970s. Either way, a much weakened Greece will watch an ascendant and Islamist Turkey exercise, in Ottoman fashion, its newfound influence in the Aegean, Cyprus, and the Eastern Mediterranean.

But in geopolitical terms, these are small potatoes compared with the position of Germany, which for fourth time in 140 years is beginning to feel, fairly or not, that it is put upon by its neighbors. Again, the key is not whether EU countries to the south and the east are living beyond their means by virtue of German capital, but whether Germans believe that they are — and feel that they are doing so willing and knowingly. If the latter, then we will began to appreciate why the original architects of both the EU and NATO were not utopians like their grandchildren, but hard-bitten realists who were desperate to find a solution to the “German problem” of a dynamic but often aggrieved culture, by making its foreign policy indistinguishable from that of the rest of Europe and the United States. A united, economically dominant Germany that feels it is being conned is a very dangerous thing indeed.

In many ways, China resembles the Japan of the late 1920s — singular economic growth, modernization, and defense ascendancy by virtue of cherry-picking the Western paradigm: embracing capitalist modes of production and Western science and technology, while rejecting Western notions of individual freedom and institutionalized constitutional government.

[nickydog]

Really interesting take on world events. And great look at the U.S. in comparison. We just have to get the current administration out of Washington!

[Argyle58]

Really interesting take on world events. And great look at the U.S. in comparison. We just have to get the current administration out of Washington!

 

Not just the administration.....most of the Congress Critters and ALL of the professional congressional staffers need to go as well.

[pollyannaish]

This is a fantastic article. I read it while eating my lunch today at work. He nails a bunch of things...but the thing that struck me the most was the point that our debt problem, our greatest crisis, is a problem of will not resources. That is a great observation.

 

We are like a celebrity who has beauty, brains, talent and money...and still sets a course of self destruction because of a lack of discipline. Very depressing.

[Casino67]

This is a fantastic article. I read it while eating my lunch today at work. He nails a bunch of things...but the thing that struck me the most was the point that our debt problem, our greatest crisis, is a problem of will not resources. That is a great observation.

 

We are like a celebrity who has beauty, brains, talent and money...and still sets a course of self destruction because of a lack of discipline. Very depressing.

 

Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment - Jim Rohn

 

//Swiped from a tweeter//