“A leader leads by example, not by force.” Sun Tzu, The Art or War

Empires are prone to self-delusion, particularly those at their apogee and even more so in their decline. Such is undoubtedly the case with the imperialist and colonialist Western empire that has ruled the planet for the last 500 years. Different parts of that empire took a leadership role at different times, depending upon the success or otherwise of their then current efforts to humiliate, invade or subvert other countries in what has come to be called the global South, or indeed in doing the same to another of their own ilk. By and large, the history of this empire is drenched in blood from wars of aggression and vast destruction of the planet’s environment, aimed at securing and maintaining global dominance over the vast bulk of humanity.

In order to quell internal opposition to this mass slaughter and pillage, there was a need to construct and propagate a reverse image of reality. The qualities that it has sought to project, both internally and to the rest of the world, are of democracy, human rights, and liberty for all. That these qualities rarely existed in practice was not seen as an impediment while the oligarchies that had risen to power in each of those societies maintained control of the instruments of public persuasion. Alec Carey wrote the definitive analysis of the way in which the US oligarchy perfected that method of neutering democracy in the US (Taking the Risk out of Democracy).

After World War II, when several of the bastions of the Western empire lay in ruins in Europe and Asia, the task of continuing that Western domination of humanity fell to the clear economic winner, the US, which, on the advice of George Kennan, it took to with a will. It is worth quoting him to illustrate the path on which the US engaged from then till now. “We have about 50% of the world’s wealth, but only 6.3% of its population… In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity… To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming; and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national objectives… We should cease to talk about vague and… unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratisation. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better.” Kennan was a State Department adviser and originator of the idea of “containing” the USSR. The consistent policies pursued through almost every US president since has been based largely on this advice.

Over recent decades the iron grip of control which the West had over international affairs, based on the early set-up of the UN, has come under increasing challenge from those countries not a part of the West and who constitute 85% of the world’s population. So who is a part of this West? What you learn when looking at this concept is that it is quite slippery in its contents depending upon its geo-political use of the day, but generally it can be said to contain the United States. Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Portugal, Greece. The oddest geographic counties to be included are Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea. Together they add up to about 15% of the world’s population and about 11% of the countries in the world, yet they exercised control over the UN for decades following World War II through blackmail, violence, bribery and intimidation of that great bulk of countries.

In that context, what is the “international community” that the West continues to refer to in attempting to convince the world of the US point of view on any geo-political matter of the day in the UN? The interesting thing is that like so many concepts bruited about by the leaders of the West in international forums, the term has no clearly defined meaning. That is, of course, deliberate as it is intended to be used as a way of pressuring that rest of the world into agreeing with the West’s or the US position. The best you can get out of extensive searches of the literature is that it generally “denotes a group of countries and international organisations that share common values such as democracy, human rights, and the rule of law". Of course, their sharing of these values is in accordance with the quote from Kennan, purely for public relations purposes. This self-identified group includes the US, Canada, members of the European Union, and other allies such as Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

What we glean from this attempt to define what is a deliberately obscure group by those who mouth it is that the opinions of 85% of the world’s population, as expressed through their leaders, are irrelevant to the determination of geopolitical issues that affect all members of the UN. The UN, by implication should simply pay heed to the superior beings that inhabit those 11% of the sovereign countries on the planet. The scam worked for nearly 80 years, but doesn’t anymore. We, in the West, would do well to recognise that and seek to work constructively with the rest of humanity. If we don’t, the fall of Western empire will be fast and devastating.

The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.