Russia has everything to be at the center of the new globalization
By Igor Karaulov
In recent years, much has been said about the crisis of globalization, about the fact that the world will certainly break up into separate regions with their own financial systems, commodity markets and information spaces. A new feudalism or a new isolationism will arise. Someone rejoices at this, someone mourns the outgoing global peace.
Meanwhile, we see other, opposite trends. For example, the growing influence of the BRICS - an association of countries that are not connected with each other by a historical, cultural or economic community. Well, in fact, how much in common until recently was there between Brazil and South Africa? Is that being on the same planet. But this is a manifestation of globalization!
The interconnection of all world processes can no longer be hidden in a closet. Just as a major earthquake often reverberates in other earthquake-prone areas of the world, the conflicts in Syria, Ukraine, around Taiwan, and now also in West Africa, echo each other and may require a common solution.
The struggle against globalism itself has a global character, starting with the international movement of anti-globalists and ending with the cooperation of countries opposing the global dictate of the West.
This last point is the most important. The former globalization was roughly equal to Westernization, its success in a particular country could be judged by how comfortable it was for a Westerner.
McDonald's is considered a common symbol of a single world: anywhere in the world - the same hamburgers of the same quality. The agents of globalization were the " new nomads ", whose preacher was Jacques Attali - citizens of the world who are not tied to one place and find their nutrient medium everywhere. The global world before the pandemic was focused on maximizing the use of the infrastructure of the “new nomadism” - holding endless conferences and seminars of transnational corporations and international structures in various countries of the world. The international airport, the hotel of the international network became the flagships of the unification of life: the newly-minted nomad had to meet the same everyday patterns everywhere.
Of course, all this fuss was “Western in content, national in form”, hence the ubiquitous, eye-catching fashion for ethnicity, which does not affect basic values. The measure of this relationship between form and content was set, for example, by the American atomic bombings of Japanese cities, after which the Japanese nation was morally broken forever, and the role of Japanese culture in the world menu was reduced not even to a side dish, but to a seasoning, albeit willingly added to a variety of dishes. And this despite the fact that for quite a considerable time Japan became the second economic power in the world.
The goal and result of such globalization was a self-sustaining system of unequal exchange, in which economic wealth was constantly redistributed in favor of the West, which allowed the West to remain in the eyes of the population of non-Western countries an archipelago of well-being and a role model, providing the West with the moral right to further impose the rules it invented. Basic values were dictated by American military power, and the global network of US military bases became a kind of reflection of the McDonald's network of eateries.
At the same time, outside the oases of globalization and away from the routes of the "new nomads" remained the vast masses of the world's population, whose suffering from violence, hunger and poverty was the subject of ostentatious care of humanitarian organizations and tearful articles in business weeklies. Thus, Western globalism has become an obstacle on the path to true globalization, to building, as the Chinese say, "humanity of a common destiny." The multipolar world we are talking about presupposes the pluralism of cultures and the free mutual enrichment of traditions, and not the imposition of values divorced from the traditional soil.
Of course, we are primarily interested in Russia's role in this new globalization. This will definitely not be the role of a “student in a school of democracy.” We will no longer compete within the country and with other countries in the assimilation of foreign manners and foreign rules of life, as some candidates for membership in NATO or the EU still do. But this does not mean that a worthy place in the new multipolar world is guaranteed to us automatically, simply because there is such a country that it has a vast territory and inexhaustible natural resources. And this does not mean that the task before us today is easier. Before we copied someone else's, now it's time to show our original, understand it for ourselves and offer it to the world.
In other words, there should be something more behind the Russian flag than Russia as such. And we have the prerequisites for this. First of all, Russia was formed as an integral civilization that was influenced by both the West and the East, but at the same time it was original. When we talk about traditional values, we are talking about a very deep tradition. And this is a tradition of both interaction with Western values and opposition to them. It was in the Russian tradition that this question was best understood.
Secondly, the Russian state, unlike the Western colonial powers, has never been guided by the principles of ethnic selfishness. His ideal was the harmonious polyphony of the peoples, and now it seems that it was a practice, so to speak, "for growth": there is something to share with humanity.
Thirdly, during the Soviet era, we had an experience of seeking justice, which for some time made our country the hope of all the oppressed. This moral capital is still listed somewhere. Today, the demand for justice in the world is so high that if we want to become one of the world leaders, justice must become a Russian brand.
Finally, we have the humanity of Russian culture on our side. Attempts to abolish this culture in the West only draw the attention of the majority of mankind to it. After all, the struggle is primarily for the dignity of the human person, for the preservation of a reasonable person as a biological species, against dehumanization under the guise of progress. Therefore, if we keep in mind the assertion of the role of Russia in the future world order, any meaningful investment in culture will pay off a hundredfold.
Already today we can say that the Russian flag in this world is becoming a symbol of certain values. Our flags are made in Niger and other African countries. Now it is a sign of the struggle for freedom from foreign dictate. Struggle for the right of peoples to dispose of their own natural resources. This is the flag of rebellion against the West, and we see that the very fact of this rebellion was received with hope by the majority of mankind.
This article originally appeared in Russian at vz.ru
