The ebook "The Great Turning” is online.

 

I just uploaded the ebook “The Great Turning”. It is a compilation, and edited version, of my series of 10 articles under the same title. “The Great Turning” examines the contemporary through the lens of my recently published book “Modernity”.

The Great Turning (08)

7. Western resistance to the shift of the center of gravity of the economy-world to East-Asia

Over the last decade the center of gravity of the economy-world has been shifting extremely rapidly to east-Asia. But, as the graph hereunder illustrates (1), that shift is in reality no more than a return to the historical normality of these last 2,000 years.

Is the Western paper-tiger on the verge of immolating itself ?

Never have I witnessed such a Western propagandist rage than around the question of Russia's military operation in Ukraine. It's nothing short of sickening and it begs the question "How on earth can otherwise reasonable people act and talk so far out of their normal selves ?". And where do they find the guts to shout in the face of the world that they are "the world community". Zhao Lizhang, the spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, did not miss sticking the map of their "world community" under their noses:

China will be instrumental in solving Europe's security and some more.

The USA was powerless to prevent Russia from acting in Ukraine to guarantee its security. And its adventurism, in the face of its loss of hegemony, excludes the possibility that the USA could ever be part of a solution to Europe's security problem. To have any security at all Europe will, one day, be forced to recognize the fact that the grand-mother of all civilizations is the sole impartial mediator that has the necessary wisdom to possibly avoid a Europe-wide conflict by guiding the parties directly concerned to a solution that is acceptable to all.

The ebook "First societal blow in Late-Modernity" is online

 

I formatted the series of articles titled "First devastating societal blow in Late-Modernity" in e-book form and made it available from my website.

This series has become a long text. The 2nd edition of the book totals 599 pages.

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 7.4.6. giving meaning to one’s life

Last article in this series. 8,052 words.
 

I want now to address, the perception of our present human condition, from a holistic angle. This placing into perspective, of the structural factors that shape the human condition in Late-Modernity, forms the conclusion of this long series of articles.

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Content

7.4.6.1. the whole is the ultimate purveyor of the universal potential
7.4.6.2. polarities are powering changes and transformations that open the doors to the universal potential
7.4.6.3. living species are the embodiment of life
7.4.6.4. Non-submission to the foundations of life results in the species’ extinction
7.4.6.5. the settlement of disputes, between their polarities, leads species toward more complexity
7.4.6.6. the loop from the whole to the local and back to the whole
7.4.6.7.  the true meaning of life
7.4.6.8. a new credo in After-Modernity

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First devastating societal blow in Late-Modernity (19)

7.4.3.2.  the transition from Late-Modernity to After-Modernity

This article is 7,500 words long and covers the following :

        7.4.3.2. the transition
        7.4.3.3. a creative life style
7.4.4. cheering life through pragmatism
         7.4.4.1. pragmatism in knowledge
         7.4.4.2. pragmatism in living
         7.4.4.3. pragmatism in societal organization

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Content of Part 7.4.

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Part 6.   The paradox of humanity’s predicament

6.1. Modernity, is the greatest achievement of humanity but it fosters life extinction

6.2. the shift in the governance-world leads to uncertainties

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

5.3. Covid-19 is a first fatal blow to Late-Modernity

Covid-19 did not collapse national economic systems as is portrayed in Western mainstream media. It was merely the catalyst that activated the clean-up of the many severe imbalances that had been accumulating since the nineteen-eighties which then exploded after the  great recession of 2007-2008 :

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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 ?

First devastating societal blow in Late-Modernity (3)

Part 1.  Western propaganda distorts reality 

Late-Modernity, humanity’s present historical era, is being swept by two waves of worldwide changes that impact one another and announce a new historical era in the forming:

• the Late-Modern governance-world is undergoing a shift of its center of gravity from the West to the East (1)

• the side-effects of Modernity are increasingly becoming a threat to life on earth

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? (14)

7.5. finding meaning in life

Everyone can find meaning in life by concentrating on perfection in the execution of one’s activities or in sharing the love of a family or of a community of friends. But does this appease our existential questions ? Does it help us find solace in our societal arrangement ? Or more generally is this satisfying all the demands of the mind ?

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What’s going on here ? (13)

7.4. knowledge formation and societal evolution

Two ideas, stand out in “7.2. About the mind and thinking“, that have fundamental implications for the societal process of knowledge formation :

1. “ the total power of the ‘body’s processing machine’¹ is bound to remain hidden forever from our thinking mind “
   
   
2. “ the difficulty to master the process of conscious reconciliation of the subconscious experience is an intrinsic limitation to the formation of knowledge “

This post addresses the following:

7.4.1. The role of the mind

7.4.2. Limitations to the societal formation of knowledge  

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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 ? (8)

3.8. emergence of A new world order 

The day, when international transactions will be paid for with a new world currency, will be recognized in history as the day a new multilateral world order will have succeeded to bury the short uni-polar reign of the American empire. This new multilateral world order will have East-Asia as its core and Beijing will act as its center of gravity.

The present  post addresses the following:

4.1. community versus empire

4.2. Western prospects
4.3. Western Modernity is out, what comes next ?

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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...