The thesis of entering the past arena of the yellow race has been fertilizing the imagination of scientists and literates for over a 100 years to mention the celebrated phrase “Chinese hold fast!?” from “Wessel” by Stanisław Wyspiański, whose premiere took place in 1901.
But is it true? It is usually connected to another, at the dusk of Western civilization, which he popularized Oswald Spengler in the 1922 "Twilight of the West", although another authors referred to it, for example in Poland Florian Prominent, author of the book "The Fall of Western Civilization" from 1921 or Marian Zdechowski, the author of the notion that pessimism is simply a creative force to which I will inactive appeal. It's actually hard to disagree with Spengler's, too. The modern West is already in the end phase (similar to the Roman Empire), a phase of civilization that occurs after the phase of culture. Cultures are characterized by religiousness, vitality and bond with parent earth, while civilizations of artificiality, are expressed by the advantage of large cities and their cosmopolitan inhabitants – nomads and parasites over the village and naturality.
To a certain extent, akin views were represented by the Russian singers of Eurasianism, who believed that Moscow would be 3rd Rome and fresh Jerusalem against the background of the decadent West, as well as Asian intellectuals—from Okakury Tenshina and Rabindranatha Tagoreand ending with the modern Paragu Khannie, Hindu author of the book Future belongs to Asia.’ There is no spiritual rhetoric in these second authors another than in Russian, and alternatively there is simply a cultural and economical perspective. Although it always dominates the subject that, while the West is simply a decadent attitude and mostly a small belief in the success of our own mission, in the east we see an increase in political vigor and confidence. According to Khan, the capitalist economy and material prosperity in countries specified as China, Japan or the ASEAN (South-East Asian Association) do not have the tendency to make it more difficult, as we see in the West. Just others dominate values here, a different culture, more conservative and paternal than individualistic and consumer.
In addition, the Far East countries cooperate on a partnership and bottom-up basis, the Asian bloc is multipolar and is not implemented under the leadership of any of the powers, unlike Western countries, which, despite the spread of democratic rhetoric, enjoy building systems, even in the kind of orders, of the alleged Washington Consensus. Asian countries are linked on a chain of economical relations in which individual links adhere to each another on a complementary basis alternatively than similarity.
This shows the logic of the fresh Silk Road. Even China's dominance has a more soft, informal character, without forcefully imposing any external will. And this is despite threatening Western public opinion with the dominance of the Chinese strategy in the planet economy, which quietly builds its influence and corrupts. This is due to inactive present memories of the colonial period, which origin Asian countries to be oversensitive about their independence. In addition, the Asians distance themselves from universalism by saying that 2 different places in the planet cannot apply the same prescription.
Thesis about the increasing function of Eurasia at the expense of the West equally a 100 years ago was promoted by Polish intellectual, celebrated and Russian expert Marian Zdzechowski. The author extensively analyses Spengler's cannon and another historical pessimists associated with existential philosophy. With respect to Eurasia he opposes – as I did in the paragraphs above – Asia Russia. Just as we are saying present that if past passes on to individual in the coming years, it will not be Russia, it will be China, Japan or India.
The essays written equally a 100 years ago by Zdzechowski surprise to this degree with amazing news. According to Zdzechowski, Russia, and especially its poets and thinkers, had and inactive have the intention to give the Eurasia task a spiritual profile, consistent with Slav Orthodoxy. In this way, Jesus ’ teaching could be caught on a rushing Asian train. However, Russia has never been able to do anything that this task would be able to believe, hence it has never gone beyond speculations of various "jurod" – holy madmen, mystics and messianists, drunk by the magic of spiritual impulses, but incapable of applicable thinking. In addition, Russia's inability to have a peaceful relation with its neighbours, which, as we speak, is simply a pillar of Asian thinking.
Above all, however, there is simply a amazing similarity to the present – if in Zdzechowski's time the Bolshevik revolution stood in the way of the task to give Eurasia a Christian profile, now – a tragedy of the senseless fratricidal war with Ukraine, after which, I suspect, the thought of the Russian miru and another concepts of Asia's integration with Europe led by Russia was yet discredited. He saw this relation as a prophecy Vladimir Solovyov, in the poem Panmongolism written already in 1894:
"Forget Rosjo's erstwhile fame,
The two-headed eagle of the Tsars fell,
And yellow children to play with
Fragments of your banners were cast”
It appears, therefore, that many truths are in the claim that the future belongs to the yellow race, and that this appears to be evidenced by economical indicators regarding the share of GDP and planet trade, as well as large investment projects by the mediate State as the fresh Silk Road integrating the full of Eurasia into 1 coherent whole. This is besides evidenced by the popularity of fresh Asian cultural patterns. The fashion for Asia in Europe has a long tradition to name philosophers specified as Leibniz, Voltaire or Schopenhauer. According to this logic, European culture in this fresh order will, of course, survive, but it will have the position of only 1 of the links, the Asian multipolar world. Its universalistic blade has already been dulled.
It is hard to compose an article on issues as cross-cutting as those that I am discussing, without mention to the explanation of the sense of the event of February 24, 2022. This impact is perceived negatively from the point of view of China's participation in the global economy (which is referred to as decoupling), the declines in the indexes of Chinese companies on stock exchanges are noted, which is simply a consequence not only of war but besides of prolonged anti-circumvention blockades. However, another smaller economies of Southeast Asian countries can benefit. As regards the volumes of the fresh Silk Road, the impact of the war will not be as crucial as expected at the beginning.
However, it seems that in another broader, even civilization, war can play a negative function in the cultural task of Eurasia. As I showed in the article, following mainly on P. Khanna – the strength of this task is the strategy of interdependencies forming a chain of cultural and economical links, independent Asian economies. This chain deals with economies representing unequal levels of development, with countries with different cultures, religions and political systems – from dictatorships to democracies. Despite all these differences, leading sometimes to inflammatory conflicts, all of this is 1 coherent whole, diversified by its differences.
February 24 is simply a breach in this concept. There was a bomb that broke the supply chains, and let us not forget that Russia is simply a immense marketplace and a immense economical system. I fear the domino effect, which may lead to the suppression of Eurasia's dominance and its plan of the fresh Silk Road. Europe will effort to rebuild its position, distance itself from the East and reconstruct its erstwhile ties with the US. The planet of Western values is evidently in crisis, as I showed in the article. However, the Eurasia task besides caught a breath. Hence, the question asked in the title of the article, "Is the West truly dusking?", remains open to me.
Michael Graban
photo public domain
Think Poland, No. 1-2 (1-9.01.2023)
