The World Order Reset

https://theupheaval.substack.com/p/the-world-order-reset

by Melchizedek • 4 years ago

52 32 4 years ago

theupheaval.substack.com

uejfiweun• 4 years ago

This was a great and enjoyable read. I think whoever runs this substack ought to consider renaming, as the name "The Upheaval" kind of conjures the image of some far out conspiracy website, like "A Storm Is Coming" or the like. When in reality, it's some really solid geopolitical and historical analysis.

thematrixturtle2• 4 years ago

The site's logo is the Chinese/Japanese character 乱, usually glossed "disorder" or "chaos" but often larger in scale than the English words imply: many events we'd call civil wars are 乱 in Japanese and Chinese.

Which seems appropriate: the blog post here is forecasting some serious geopolitical turbulence that's about to hit economic turbulence, with unpredictable but highly likely unpleasant consequences. And it doesn't even mention a potential civil war (乱?) in the US, which is starting to move from unthinkable to merely unlikely.

andrenth• 4 years ago

Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31204738

comex2• 4 years ago

It started with some interesting analysis of the war in Ukraine. By the time it started trying to parse out the hidden meaning behind Biden's reference to a "new world order", I was getting a little suspicious. Then it started complaining about censorship, making an argument I'm sympathetic to but which seemed largely irrelevant. (Meanwhile it picked Hillary Clinton of all people to quote.) And then it pivoted all the way to full-scale complaining about wokeness.

Edit: In particular, the article quotes Biden claiming that "democratic progress is under assault" in "so many places, including [..] the United States." Biden is presumably trying to make a point about domestic issues ranging from the January 6th riot and Trump's attempt to contest the election results to Republican voter suppression laws – all issues on which there can be debate, but which are clearly related to democracy or the lack thereof, and not directly related to 'wokeness'-type social issues. But the article uses the quote to support the proposition that: "it has to be Woke. Otherwise it is not a real Democracy, but something else."

Sigh. That's Substack for you.

johnny223• 4 years ago

it made sense to me. If they make human rights as the main talking point to push this realignment, it'll certainly involve rights for marginalized folks.

If their definition of democracy requires rights for all, then you can't be a democracy and not be "woke".

I certainly agree with that. Of course by that definition i am of course "woke" myself.

JakeAl• 4 years ago

Wokeness explicitly applies and relies an ideology of Marx's Conflict Theory, a paradigm that divides the world into oppressors and the oppressed and focuses on framing individuals as members of a group to label them as such.

The woke are incapable of making important distinctions and treating people as individuals outside of such groups. Distinction is the basis of rationality. Equality requires that, and demands that individuals supercede groups in the application of law and opportunity.

That's why wokeness does not focus on individual equality, but group equity, putting the collective ahead of the individual and exiling individuals when they stand for themselves and not a given group. Democracy as Aristotle explained, is the majority ruling over the minority. In other words, mob rule. Democracy is only good when it is not ruling and making decisions that serve everyone, and not just the majority, equally. This he called a polity.

"The right kind of democracy, if you will, is a polity: An ideal democracy that governs for the interests of all, not just the leadership." https://fs.blog/aristotles-politics/

fundad5• 4 years ago

Exactly, I think being woke means people who don’t agree with you used cuter euphemisms than in my day. It used to be 2 words.

thematrixturtle2• 4 years ago

I don't think it's so much complaining about wokeness itself as noting the US's unfortunate habit to attempting to force this down the throats of other countries, which seems likely to go down as well as, well, every other time the US has tried to force an abstract ideology down another country's throat (eg. democracy in Iraq or Afghanistan).

ncmncm• 4 years ago

US trying to get behind the International Criminal Court prosecuting Russian war criminals, while insisting that similar actions against well-demonstrated US war criminals would merit military action against it, is particularly rich.

I am still waiting to see capital charges filed under US law against instigators and eager participants in the torture regime. Just turning the perps over to the ICC, upon conviction in the US, would satisfy me, such that returning them to the US after prosecution there would be followed by their immediate execution. Keelhauling would be too good for them.

systemvoltage3• 4 years ago

The US is exporting this culture at an ever increasing pace: https://www.economist.com/international/2021/06/12/social-me...

This comes as no surprise since tech is mostly lopsided politically.

labster3• 4 years ago

The first half was interesting, and I think the conclusions hold in broad strokes. But the second half was so speculative and occasionally bonkers that it made me question the first half.

A progressive elite controls policy in Washington? We can’t even get a vote on a national health plan or immigration reform or loan forgiveness. I’ve left the Democratic Party in California because the old guard just bulldozes through everything. I was finally forced out to avoid a baseless defamation lawsuit. And I’m moderate: they treat the woke crowd worse. By moderate, I mean I would vote for moderate parties if I lived in western Europe, but the only choices in the US are center-right and right-populist.

Back to the article, I don’t think this bipolar cabal to remake the world order exists, and I won’t change my opinion until data can flow to the US under a GDPR-equivalent. German military spending can also be seen as a way for Europe to not be reliant on US military guarantees, and a future where Europe can choose between the China and the US on its own power.

mechanical_bear2• 4 years ago

Stop trying to forcibly move the Overton window. Repeating a lie enough doesn’t make it true.

flower-giraffe• 4 years ago

And then it pivoted all the way to full-scale complaining about wokeness.

I thought the article seemed very credible, and I also picked up on the author’s possible anti work sentiment.

I don’t think the analysis is any less credible and it is certainly worth the hour it takes to read.

johnny223• 4 years ago

I don’t think the analysis is any less credible and it is certainly worth the hour it takes to read.

I think that changes how one would interpret the later section rather than earlier ones.

fundad5• 4 years ago

Wanna bet? I’m glad people called it out.

jacknews2• 4 years ago

Russia still offers China one very valuable capability, it's nuclear arsenal. China can 'help' to wield that threat without risking sanctions by actually making nuclear threats itself.

IIAOPSW• 4 years ago

China has its own nuclear arsenal with about 400 active warheads (compared to about 1500 for the US and just over 2000 for Russia). China could easily make more if they wanted to, but for now the official Chinese doctrine is deterrent only / no first use.

Furthermore the haphazard use of the nuclear threat has never actually been a cause for sanctions, nor for that matter has it been a threat that yields concessions. China doesn't need Russia to threaten to melt the world over some Pacific Islands or for calling Taiwan a country or whatever. The threats not credible.

jacknews2• 4 years ago

I'm well aware China have their own nukes, and their policy around them.

Would they invade Taiwan, and use a nuclear threat to cover it? Almost certainly not. Yet.

But Russia would, and have, in the case of Ukraine, and it has worked, in terms of preventing direct military intervention, whether it's 'credible' or not.

The World Order Reset

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