Governments, NGOs, world leaders, and especially businesses miss the mark on detente, negotiations, and compromise for lasting peace and human growth. For many, a “multipolar world” means gaining a leveraged position rather than expanding possibilities.
Here are some interesting and meaningful observations showing our steadfast journey to all-out failure as a species. To better understand our downward spiral, we need only know why we are at war instead of talking.
Beneath the Veneer
Vested interest. In legal terms, the term means “an interest in land or money held in trust that is recognized as belonging to a particular person or entity.” This is how domestic and international relations are carried out – with self-interest as the basis. This is natural and not the problem with modern detente. Our current problem is that our government and business leaders have lost the ability to define long-term value, profit, peace, or whatever realm we choose to mention. Everything is a knee-jerk exercise based on yesterday and this morning. Like Wall Street, and mainly because of the trading there, the distant reward or vision is no longer there. I will give you a few good examples.
I was reading calls for pitches from journals and magazines this morning when I came across a perfect example of why we fail to address several crises. The publication seeking stories from writers and experts is the Green European Journal, which is published in English and translated into 21 languages. Supposedly, the journal publishes analyses, debates, and interviews on current affairs, political ecology, and other topics of interest to the so-called green movement. However, the call for ideas/stories below reveals an egregious mistake affecting all humankind.
“The next print edition of the Green European Journal will analyse Europe’s far right and the ways to combat it. We are open to essays, essays, interviews, and comics/graphic journalism.”
I know most of you see it. The Green European Journal and its people have no interest in forging a worldwide coalition to address climate change, food and water scarcity, or proper resource management. Terms like regenerative economics or agriculture are less critical than waging war on half the world. In fairness, the same can be said for the so-called “right”, climate change deniers, and so forth. Defeating or destroying the enemy and all their ideas is the mission. Can you see the problem?
Any Ideology Will Do for the EU
Those who know that the Green European Journal is funded by the European Union (through the Green European Foundation) already know humanity’s true enemies are the vested interests controlling every institution on our planet. If you look at the structure of this GEF entity, much can be gleaned from all the problems the world faces today. As unrealistic as this may seem, please allow me to demonstrate.
The EU-funded GEF is made up of vested interests that are Marxist or fascist-like at their core. Take the Alexander Langer Foundation in Italy. Named for a martyr of the Greens movement worldwide. Few will recall, however, that Langer was part of a far-left militant organization in Italy known as Lotta Continua. This group was responsible for social turmoil and violence during the period known as the “Years of Lead”. One of Langer’s associates during this time was journalist and Lotta Continua leader Adriano Sofri, who was convicted of ordering the assassination of Milan Police officer Luigi Calabresi in 1972. Both Sofri and Alexander Langer were heavily influenced by the Autonomist Marxism theories and ideas of Antonio Negri (also a journalist). Negri was also associated with Zionist socialism and the avowed enemy of the far-right. This brings us to a critical reason for today’s surreal global situation. The deep-seated hatred and loathing of the liberal order and anything they associate with the far-right (or even conservatism).
The far-right extremists have played a similar role in the creation of our disjointed relations; we must admit, however, if we examine Negri’s Autonomism, also known as Autonomist Marxism, fully, we see a form of feudalism (as in today’s technofeudalism) which pretends to be for the workers, for the women’s movement, and for anything that will bring about victory for their movement. The practitioners even claim to be against the Neo-Liberal Order, which is partly true since they are the theorists of the original Liberal Order destroying detente and diplomacy right now. This is a topic too far-reaching to discuss here, but I urge the reader to delve more deeply into the roots of divisiveness that separates us all today.
A Conservative Russian Enemy
Returning to the GEF, further digging leads us to organizations like the powerful Heinrich Böll Foundation, whose poster child (whining lunatic) is Russia and Putin hater Masha Gessen. Other stakeholders include Gréng Steftung in Luxembourg, Grüne Bildungswerkstatt in Austria, and facilitators like Klára Berg, who train the youth of Europe like soldiers in the battle against the enemy—or any conservative on the planet.
The list of university professors, think tanks, journalists, publishers, politicians, extreme and pacifist activists, monied backers, and those “vested interests” I mentioned from the start is endless – no, truly infinite. And their goal, which I must say is unachievable without compromise and discussion with conservatives, is to obliterate anyone or any institution that does not agree with them. Remember, “Europe’s far-right and how to defeat it?” Perhaps presenting facts, scientific methods, and a more cooperative approach to “convince” the opponent (perceived or actual) has just lost importance. The concept of proper discussion has been replaced by name-calling and damaging terms like “defeating’ where those who object are concerned are out of the question.
It’s looking more like we are locked into a conflict that can have only one resolution. Either the left will be obliterated, or the right will. I wish the “middle” would finally create a trillion dollars worth of reasoning think tanks, newspapers, cable channels, and university grants. Then, perhaps, we may survive both extreme camps.
Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller «Putin’s Praetorians» and other books. He writes exclusively for the online magazine «New Eastern Outlook»
