Synopsis : beyond the geopolitical competition between the de facto Sino-Russian alliance which has behind it most of the emerging countries and the Western powers, this rivalry can be viewed, based on marxist theory, as the contemporary stage of the class struggle which Karl Marx considered to be the engine of history because history hasn’t reached its end with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990. The triumph of liberalism which followed the fall of the USSR has failed to solve antagonism between groups of humanity created by economic and social inequalities. It is the outcome of this contemporary stage of this antagonism that will determine the future of humanity.
According to Karl Marx, society is divided into classes. This class division of society is determined by which class owns the means of production such as lands or factories. He calls this division of society based on ownership of factors of production “infrastructure”. However, this division of society is also visible on the cultural landscape. Culture here means all social ways of behaving or thinking that are particular to a group of people or society. Karl Marx calls it the “superstructure” of society which he sees as an ideological or cultural division of society. The society’s “superstructure” is determined by its “infrastructure”. Therefore, the cultural division of society reflects the economic and social division. The struggle between social classes, which can be distinguishable on the basis of the society’s “infrastructure” and “superstructure”, is the engine of history. “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” – Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto
Modern society doesn’t seem to be an exception. There is an ongoing struggle between, on the one hand, globalism or the unipolar world driven largely by neoliberalism and on the other hand, the multipolar world having as its ideological base traditional nationalism rooted in history. This struggle between the North which controls most of the resources of this world and the South which, demographically is the majority, but is weak economically can historically be analysed as the contemporary stage of the class struggle as theorised by Karl Marx for whom this confrontation between classes is the engine of history. Consequently, the facts prove Francis Fukuyama wrong. He saw in the disappearance of the Soviet Union in 1990 the end of history and the beginning of an American century destined to continue indefinitely. However, history continues its course and it is the outcome of this ongoing struggle that will determine the future of humanity in this twenty-first century.
The reason why that Western powers have been waging wars after wars against the rest of humanity since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990 is the same reason why they have been imposing on other countries the so-called neoliberal values that include homosexuality, abortion, and many similar unnatural human behaviours which are part of their culture.
It might not be easy to grasp the goals of these wars which have both military and non-military objectives. The narrative of the mainstream media is disorienting. Nevertheless, it isn’t a secret that the United States of America and its allies would like to maintain their centuries long domination of the rest of humanity.
Firstly, they therefore must wage wars to secure exclusive control of earth resources and opportunities as well as to make it impossible for any potential rival powers similar to the Soviet Union to rise again.
“Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival, either on the territory of the former Soviet Union or elsewhere, that poses a threat on the order of that posed formerly by the Soviet Union. This is a dominant consideration underlying the new regional defence strategy and requires that we endeavour to prevent any hostile power from dominating a region whose resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient to generate global power.” – Paul Wolfowitz, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense under President George W. Bush in Defense Planning Guidance for the 1994–1999 fiscal years (dated February 18, 1992).
“But in the meantime, it is imperative that no Eurasian challenger emerges, capable of dominating Eurasia and thus also of challenging America.” – Zbigniew Brzeziński, The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives
In fact, the Western world, since the industrial revolution, has been dominating the rest of humanity through slavery, colonialism, and imperialism.
However, military struggle itself isn’t sufficient because all wars are first of all psychological ones. They need next to make it sure that nobody questions the ethical ground of all these military undertakings against smaller and weaker countries. The rest of the world must be able to accept these actions as legitimate. Globalism or the unipolar world order is the continuation of this long subjugation of the rest of humanity by using ideology to justify and to legitimate its perpetuation.
For this, the mainstream media are in charge of spreading the neoliberal ideology which portrays itself as a new form of universal progressive thinking and seeks to create a world without nations. All nations must become one nation under liberalism. Some of the features of this ideology go like this : the collapse of communism is the victory of liberalism whose leaders are naturally the Western countries in large and the United States of America in particular. The United States of America is therefore an exceptional or indispensable power which is good for humanity and must use its victory to prevent history from unfolding like it has always done.
In a Manichean vision of the world, humanity is divided into civilised people and uncivilised ones. The civilised ones promote abortion, homosexuality, childlessness by choice, prostitution, to say the least, as human rights and a lifestyle. On the contrary, for these civilised people, polygamy is illegal as well as diabolic while unfaithfulness in marriage is not a sin. Those who disagree with this deviation from the nature of humanity and would like to stick to traditional values that preserve the family and protect the woman, are considered uncivilised. These uncivilised ones must be sanctioned or even fought to death.
It is this ideology that serves as a base for aggression and inhumanity towards the rest of humanity. It is also an ideology which intends on disguising the real root cause of all these wars.
There are two worlds apart which are separated by the level of wealth and power. They are the global South and the global North.
“The poorest 50% of the population own just 2% of total net wealth, an average of PPP $4,100 per adult in 2021. The middle 40% of people own 22% of total net wealth, an average of PPP $57,300 per adult in 2021. The richest 10% of people own 76% of total net wealth, an average of PPP $771,300 per adult in 2021.” – Development Initiatives
“In economic terms, as of the early 21st century, the North—with one quarter of the world population—controls four-fifths of the income earned anywhere in the world. 90% of the manufacturing industries are owned by and located in the North. Inversely, the South—with three quarters of the world population—has access to one-fifth of the world income.” Scholarly Community Encyclopedy – North–South Divide in the World
“The richest 1 percent grabbed nearly two-thirds of all new wealth worth $42 trillion created since 2020, almost twice as much money as the bottom 99 percent of the world’s population, reveals a new Oxfam report today. During the past decade, the richest 1 percent had captured around half of all new wealth.” – OXFAM international
“While the bottom 90 percent of Americans and the top 0.1 percent control about 22 percent of the country’s wealth each, the top 0.01 percent of Americans now control 11.2 percent of total wealth. That share of the wealth held by the country’s richest 0.01 percent – a group of roughly 16,000 families with an average net worth of $371 million – is the largest share they’ve had since 1916, the highest on record, according to the study.” – The Christian Science Monitor
The wealth gap between the global South and the Global North as well as between communities within the global North’s countries originated largely from this history of the Western domination and exploitation of the rest of humanity. The struggle of the global North and of its elite to preserve their advantageous position they enjoy is behind the wars in the world and is also the manifestation of the class struggle in the twenty-first century.
Lastly, liberalism shows the consciousness of the global North which seeks to preserve its interests by spreading homosexuality, abortion, and anti-family measures which significantly will prevent the global South from shifting the balance of power in its favour as China has been thanks to its huge population.
“It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness.” – Karl Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy
The liberal ideology, by pretending to promote universal values, in reality, tries to impose western values which are designed to allow the stronger to continue getting stronger and the weaker to continue getting weaker. The fate of Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and Libya which were destroyed for the sake of spreading liberalism is telling.
The global South must therefore choose its own path which should be one of traditional nationalism because there was no, there is no nor there will be such a thing as universal civilisation. Each country and nation must find its own way to its development in its own civilization.