The World Order Changes - The Dying Embers of the West

So a period that began with the reconquest of Spain and the loss of Constantinopole will end with the rise of the dragon. We never thanked the Arabs for introducing us to Greek masterpieces and Middle Eastern and Indian mathematics, so the Chinese will not thank us.

India will never be the power it aspires to as ethnic and cultural diversity maybe admirable and deliver the world's most decent, warm and understanding people but it also curbs the power of a nation and of its people to act in a unified fashion. America solves this problem through indoctrination. The European nations too will find themselves less able to act forcefully on the world stage and many would say this is but a good thing. We will become much more Indian in our diversity and we should all visit that great country to learn.

China though has no such restraints and its dictatorship maybe abhorrent but it provides a power to act and enforce its will that few other countries have. This power to act is now being combined with great economic power that few dare to anticipate. Why do they want Volvo do you hear anyone asking? They are the world's greatest ever mercantilist nation where will this take them? Influence is a combination of economic power and the ability to act and Chine will have both.

We are loathe to discuss the limitations of democracy, however, China is making them ever more evident. The rule of the mob having to appease the mob, delivering a joke leader to a major European nation. Do we have the courage to ask if democracy has failed in Italy? The people have some freedom they are not persecuted but when a leader such as Berlosconi can rule can we really claim democracy is the best system? No we ignore it.

We promise the people ever more where will they turn once the paradigm of ever greater wealth is undermined by natural forces at play on our planet. Capitilism will be finally slayed by the harsh realities of Earth. Resources are finite and there is a limit to the number of people that can live here, at the ever higher standards of living that fundamentally drive capitilism and fund the mass bribery that is democracy. I will make you richer good Sir and secondary that I will delivery justice, equality and fairness - vote for me. Humans maybe a highly creative creature but there are some problems which cannot be solved. We cannot eat air or live in Space with no protective clothing. An extreme example but demonstrates there are limits to our power and innovation and we will reach them on Earth.

Our rapid advancement makes us feel unique beyond the grip of nature but we are not.

So where will we be in 50 years, will China implode revealing greater tensions than are apparent, will she inherit an earth which is collapsing. Our civilisation is incredibly fragile. We understand so little and are dependent on so many experts, so many chains and processes deliverying, light, electricity, water and heat to our homes, that when the collapse begins it will be rapid. If we were to lose one generation of experts, one generation of education and experience for our children throughout the world our civilisation would collapse.

Ask yourself how does your television, your computer work. Can you build one? What can you make that surrounds you as you drive, walk, amuze and work? Very, very, very little. So our civilisation is more fragile than it ever has been, we are arguably reaching the limits of economic expansion and the one system, democracy, which is likely to breed wisdom is slowly imploding. What hope for us, what hope....

Well in all honesty, the world has always changed, I am a child of democracy tainted by an unrealistic positive view of the future, free from the doom of the middle ages when plague, war and serfdom abused the working man. So now as I face an uncertain future, as the clouds begin to gather and we struggle to count them or understand them and as the Chinese, the poor Chinese inherit an Earth ready to collapse we should not forget. The Earth will survive and so will we, just not existing as you would expect.

The Democracies don't see it how can they, they are short term, they are thinking about how to get richer, people are reading and writing about how to get richer..... reading....