Sergei Karagonov: “The West is waging a desperate struggle to maintain its hegemony, which has allowed it to pump the world’s product to its advantage. In ideological terms, this is presented as a struggle between liberal democracies and authoritarianism (before communism). But if Russia and China were democracies and Western countries were monarchies, then the struggle would be against “godless liberalism”. It is a struggle of a group of countries for a privileged position.”
This is the “narrative” exactly opposite to the one that is considered official and that is promoted by the Czech government (and other Western governments) with threats of all sorts of punishments, including imprisonment.
What should unite us is rationality, i.e. the ability to formulate theories and compare them.
But among educated people, it should not end up being two narratives opposed to each other. What should unite us is rationality, i.e. the ability to formulate theories and compare them. Asking under what circumstances any of them might be considered confirmed or, conversely, disproved.
If one begins to protect one’s narrative with power, one returns to a pre-rational level of thinking. A savage armed with modern technology. Upper Volta with computer eavesdropping.
Perhaps this would be understandable if there was a “one correct narrative” for the masses and if members of the elites had open rational discussion amongst themselves. But I fear that the higher one is, the more strictly the one correct narrative is followed. Then it is impossible to make rational decisions, and it is very difficult for them to achieve even their own goals. It’s like wanting to blindfold everyone while blindfolding your own.
