Widdowson über den 11. September

Geschrieben von Andreas am 05. Oktober 2003 15:38:23:

soeben entdeckt

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/star/2001/1101/vo2-1.html


Sep 11 and Western decline

By Marc Widdowson, Shanghai Star. 2001-11-01

IT is interesting how people talk of "September 11." It shows how extraordinary that day really was. We lack the proper words to describe what took place.

Henry Kissinger and others have compared the day's events with the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbour. I compare them with a more ancient raid - Alaric's sack of Rome in AD 410. This German warlord swooped on the city to lead his men in an orgy of looting and arson that lasted three days.

Although Rome recovered, and survived for another 66 years, the sense of shock and violation was immense. Roman civilization was no longer untouchable. The barbarians had shown that they could carry their threat right to its heart. Eventually, they came back, to destroy Rome and all its ways.

Today's neo-barbarians have delivered just such a shock to Western civilization. As with Rome, it is not the end. But it may turn out to be the psychological turning point. It was the day the West became mortal.

When Alaric appeared on the horizon, Rome had actually been declining for centuries. So it was not the barbarian who did for this civilization in the end. That was only a symptom. Rome's own weaknesses, the selfishness and corruption of its citizens, were what caused it to fall.

Contrary to appearances, Western civilization has similarly been declining for at least a hundred years. To future historians, the signs will be unmistakable. The West once ruled large parts of the earth. Now it can only bully them from afar. Western inventors once gave the world amazing new products like radio and the aeroplane. Now such breakthroughs are few and far between. The West once believed in spreading its culture around the world. Now even its own people are abandoning their traditions and beliefs.

The West's response to the terrorist attacks only confirms its helplessness. It looks purposeful, but the "war on terrorism" is doomed to failure. There have been other "wars" on abstract concepts - on world poverty, on the international drugs trade. In every case, the underlying problem has not been defeated. It has got worse. Western countries cannot secure peace and social justice within their own borders. They have no hope of delivering them to the world.

Let us not mock. If the West's behaviour is futile, it is because the tide of history is against it. Looking back over the last 5,000 years, we can see that many civilizations have come and gone. Each one found some formula that put it out ahead. But the world moved on. Its advantages were dissipated. Other regions seized the initiative.

Nowhere knows this better than China. Its culture and society are the most senior on earth. Of all modern civilizations, it can trace its roots the furthest. Yet over the centuries, China's fortunes have risen and fallen many times. Today, it is on its way up again.

The West may be powerful and prosperous, but its era of global dominance is ending. Meanwhile, China is getting wealthier and stronger every year. One is going down as the other comes up. Soon enough their paths will cross.

The world did not really change on September 11, but people's eyes were opened to the change that was already going on. Our planet is headed for some troubled times. Of course, peace will one day be restored. Civilization will be reaffirmed. Only when that happens, it could be a Chinese peace, and perhaps Chinese civilization that leads the world.

www.darkage.fsnet.co.uk

Marc Widdowson is a London-based defence analyst. During the 1990s, he helped plan Inmarsat's operations at its satellite ground station outside Beijing.




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