First devastating societal blow in Late-Modernity (10)

5.  A gradual shift from a Western to an Eastern model of society

5.2.  Toward a world confederation of regional blocs (REBS)

The Western centric world institutions, created after the 2nd World War, did not adapt to a changing Geo-political reality. Western countries have been resisting the institutional reset that naturally should have followed the shifting of the center of gravity of the economy-world towards East-Asia. Under necessity the world is now starting to turn toward an alternative institutional setting to accomplish what the international institutions no longer can.  Along the last decades we observed the the first timid steps of the re-organization of the world, into Regional Economic Blocs (REBs) and the twenties, of this 21th century, will see an acceleration of that process.

First devastating societal blow in Late-Modernity (9)

5. The shift from a Western to an Eastern model of society

5.1. after covid-19 reality = affirmation of regional blocs

The economic reset, that is taking place in this first part of the 21th century, is a historical event fraught with danger. The West is losing its hegemony over an evolving Late-Modernity. The center of gravity of the economy-world is moving to a nation outside the Western civilizational realm.  But the West, or would it be better to say the USA, is not taking this reset agreeably and is multiplying the provocations against China.

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Part 5:  The shift from a Western to an Eastern model of society

Economic reality finances the social and cultural endeavors of a society and so the comparative influence of societies in the international sphere is given primarily by their economic power. The following table traces the evolution of economic power between the West and East-Asia over the last 20 years.

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4.2. the last stand of ‘big capital holders’

Western big capital holders’ have always been well aware of the financial mess the US and Europe have gradually created for themselves. The core of their strategy now is to suck all they can out of their countries of origin and the easiest conduit to realize just that is through the national banks’ money creation capabilities.  The recently approved Cares’ act in the US gives them the legal cover they need to ensure a non-stop supply of free dollars from the Fed all the while imposing ‘the reason that is at work within capital’ to society at large.

The Cares’ act is the first step of a hastily conceived financial strategy to try to push through a radical worldwide reset of the governance-world. The plan is to finance a campaign to maximize the control of big capital holders over the whole earth by affecting the following 3 determinant factors of the governance-world :

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Part 4.  The virus is the pin that deflated the bubble of everything

“  In less than three decades, a mere blink of the eye in historical terms, the United States has gone from the world’s sole superpower to a massive foundering wreck that is helpless before the coronavirus and intent on blaming the rest of the world for its own shortcomings.  … But how and why did this pitiable condition come about? Is it all Donald Trump’s fault as so many now assume? Or did the process begin earlier?

The answer for any serious student of imperial politics is the latter. ... two things are clear. One is that the process did not start under Trump, while the other is that it will undoubtedly continue regardless of who wins in November. Once collapse sets in, it’s impossible to stop.”  (1)

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Part 3. an unquestionable qualitative difference

By way of introduction let me first observe that, for the first time since the emergence of High-Modernity, Western governments have answered a pandemic by privileging peoples’ lives over the profits of capital. What is it that motivated such a political turning point ?

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Part 2.  Timeline of the Chinese answers to the outbreak of ‘Covid-19’

The fact that the COVID-19 epidemic broke out in Wuhan does not imply that the virus originated in Wuhan. In matter of fact the origin of COVID-19 is still unknown. Calling it “China virus” or “Wuhan virus” is thus dishonest to say the least. It reflects a will, by those who use such terms, to manipulate peoples’ minds and glue in the collective unconscious a narrative that satisfies their ideological interests.

The spectacle of a Western break-down

I had written a comment as a response on an article titled "It’s Time for Conscious Uncoupling With China" that was written by Dan Harris and published on "The China law blog" this April 11, 2020.

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I now share this response on my blog because "The China Law Blog" censured it while in no way does it peddle fake-news, nor does it attack individuals, nor does it use foul language. It conveys an analytical sketch of the present moment in history. In other words refusing to publish it was a blatant act of censuring free speech. A screenshot of freedom made in the USA...

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First devastating societal blow in Late-Modernity (1)

I have been busy these last 4 months making one thousand and twelve digital transformations of painting 2-02 of my 'grand project' series. 

The CoronaVirus outbreak that occurred in China in the beginning of January soon locked me down in Beijing and this eliminated the brouhaha of society that helped me to focus on the technicalities of digital imaging. 

But the extraordinary nature of the epidemic, and the even more extraordinary nature of the language that was accompanying it, kept me coming back to the web. What impressed me most is that while the epidemic transformed in a pandemic the language in use in the West morphed into virulent propaganda; a sign that the pandemic is somehow radically altering the geo-political balance of power. 

My intellectual curiosity was aroused and to get a better grip on the reality I decided that after finishing this series of digital transformations I would restart to write about the societal and geo-political transformations that are taking place under our very eyes. 

What follows is a new series of posts that will form, the first draft material of, a 3rd book about our contemporary circumstances.

Book 1 :  "A growing disconnect between East and West".  Published in October 2018

Book 2 :  "What is going on ? ".  Published on the 06th of December 2019.

Book 3 :  "A first devastating blow in Late-Modernity".

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The seven trends that will define China in the 2020s

This is a summary and a commentary on a very interesting article by Andrew Leung titled "The seven trends that will define China in the 2020s " that was published today 2020-01-04 in the South China Morning Post.

What’s going on here ? (10)

5. art in the societal maelstrom

 
“ The situation we are in –in terms of what receives attention and prominence– is post-art. At this time, and in social space, art is basically an adjunct of the entertainment business. … The issue is how to snap art out of its death trance –living its own death, so to speak– and make it once again a living and lived experience.” ¹.

“How to snap art out of its death trance and make it once again a living and lived experience” ?    Hum… assumptions will not revive the function of art Mr. Kuspit !

The reality is that, over 99.9% of the historical span of societal evolution, art was first and foremost a societal matter while the individual genius was at best an accessory. In that sense snapping art out of its death trance, if it ever happens, will be a societal feat and not the heroic act of individual geniuses. And the probability, that such a societal feat will be instigated by human will, does not register high on the scale of realism.

But how did art enter its death trance in the first place ?

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What’s going on here ? (9)

4. determinant side-effects of Modernity

From a very long haul perspective the present re-balancing of world affairs appears as the rebuilding of the governance-world in the wake of a category 5 economic hurricane that swept the whole world of its postmodern pipe-dream fantasies. In contrast in the aftermath of the great convergence of all the side-effects of Modernity there is a very high probability that nothing will be left to rebuild. In the most innocuous of all possible scenarios only a small number of humans will survive who eventually will be forced to start a new cycle of “societal evolution” in order to survive.

Organic art = the patterns of life (4)

3.  In the 20th century the 3rd world was forced to adopt Modernity in order to survive

For the last 40 years I had the great chance of being a close witness of the Chinese story and I observed that to ensure the survival of their nation the Chinese, in a first move, largely copied Western Modernity.

With the benefit of hindsight it becomes evident that a second move down the road will enable them to walk their own national way into the future. There is no better guide than the artworld to understand how the country is generating its own way by forcing the integration of Modernity inside Chinese Traditional Culture.

And so under the sheer weight of population numbers China is quietly shedding Modernity’s old Western skin...

Organic art = the patterns of life (3)

2.   how did Modernity emerge in Europe

Why is understanding the emergence of Modernity so important ? Well, in order to survive in the 20th century, all countries on earth were forced to convert to the quasi-worldview of Modernity and to the reason that is at work within capital. What ensued was a radical departure from the past that thoroughly impacted the ways of thinking and the behaviors of the individuals in all third-world nations. And this resulted in a blow-back of monumental proportion on their worldviews, culture, art, and societal governance.

I observed first hand how – the art world in Beijing during the eighties was mesmerized to ape Western productions, rock and punk music, the modernist avant-garde painting, – and how this resulted in three decades of sheer insanity. Things have certainly evolved since then but the blow-back resulting from aping the first world has still not been completely digested...

Having said that the fact of the matter is that the blow-back on the 3rd world is nothing compared to the chaos that was unleashed on the first world.

Today we come to suspect that Modernity and capitalism have cursed humanity. And nothing could liberate us more thoroughly from this curse than by gaining a clear comprehension of why and how Modernity emerged in Western Europe in the first place and how things then evolved toward Late-Modernity.

What’s going on here ? (6)

3. determinant factors driving the ‘governance-world’

Present post:

- Societal atomization
- Creeping totalitarianism
- Western illusions
- The West has no clue about China's strategy
- The West is setting itself up for a rude awakening
- The empire loses its clients

My next post

... I'm taking 2 months off ...
The next post in this series will appear on  Friday 2019-09-06:
4. the grand convergence of all the side-effects of Modernity
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What’s going on here ? (5)

2. the cultural context forces human thinking and actions

The present post covers:

-  chapter 2.3.   Culture
-  chapter 2.4.  Collision of our cultural context with societal collapse

Next week’s post will cover:

-  chapter 3. determinant factors driving the ‘governance-world’

What’s going on here ? (3)

2. the cultural context forces human thinking and actions

The present post covers:

-  the introduction of this part 2

-  and its first chapter 2.1. Axioms of civilizations.

Next week’s post will cover:

-  chapter 2.2. Societal worldviews 
-  chapter 2.3. Culture 
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What’s going on here ? (1)

The disorder in the world of human affairs has been rapidly accelerating since the publishing of my book “A growing disconnect between East & West”.

At the time I concluded with the following observations:

E-book

An e-book of all posts in the series “A growing disconnect between China and the West”.

After editing the posts the e-book totals 150 pages.

Click on its cover page hereunder for download.

Art. From tribal to power societies.

In the present stage of our understanding tribal art roughly emerged around 40,000  years ago while Chinese Xieyi painting, Chinese Buddhism and Christianity only started around 500 AD.

Calligraphy originates sometimes before 200 BC. It was revered as a fine art in line with poetry and music while painting was merely viewed as a craft applied in the field of decoration, remembrance of ancestors, or illustration of daily life. Xieyi appeared later as an extension of calligraphy and this is when painting finally acceded to the status of a fine art in China.

What is striking, in the juxtaposition of images here under, is how visually similar Chinese Xieyi painting is to tribal art. Chinese Buddhism still has some common traits with tribal art but with Christianity we enter into a whole new world.

Why is Xieyi so similar to tribal art?
Why is Christian art depicting such a totally different world than tribal and Xieyi art?