THE RULE OF HETERODOXY ?

Of all yesterday's prophets only Samuel Huntington survives. His predicted clash of civilizations (?) has only gotten worse. It has become less measurable, a hybrid which affects groupings in collision as well as countries in collusion. 

The former 'enlightened' have packed or lost their benchmarks. There are a few situations in the past wherein the relative weight of cynical pragmatism was as prevailing as it is today. The non-aggression pact between Russia and Nazi Germany might have been be a short-lived example of what has become the norm today.

The US has their hands full, dealing with their home-grown Tyrannosaurus who, if elected, would create havoc worldwide. The EU chose to cozy up in Brussels and fights for relevance. The odd Russian/Chinese couple is an ad hoc arrangement wherein both stray when it fits their interest. The South at large is a pack of wolves.  Davos becomes some religious service, open to all and attended by few.

There remain some lifeless gatherings, regarding climate, the Amazon, female genital mutilation, that change nothing but support the service sector in the successive host countries.

Suffice to look at Ukraine to experience the cowardice of the West and to measure its apprehensive composure. In the Middle East only money talks. Niger and Sudan are treated as 'embarrassment'. The list goes on. The Leitmotiv could be that too few do too little too late, the contrary of the coalition of fools made by Bush père et fils. 

At 100 Dr. Kissinger is forgiven his Chili and Cambodia incursions since he too has become just a daguerreotype of a world gone. His tool kit worked then though.

There is plenty of disparagement and backstabbing that should oblige individual countries to rearrange the furniture at home rather than to bother the neighbors. Leave the Chinese & Co. deal with their own contradictory impulses and claim back the high ground where it counts. The European 'frugality' versus Ukraine is a moral affront.

The former times of measured involvement pending on ulterior motives are over. Outrage is unsparing when the crime is of such a defaming magnitude. Churchill's words remain applicable.

Spinoza said that a man's duty, when he surveys the world, is 'neither to laugh nor to weep, but to understand'.