{"id":228,"date":"2014-10-03T23:00:12","date_gmt":"2014-10-03T23:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/?p=228"},"modified":"2014-10-03T18:43:50","modified_gmt":"2014-10-03T18:43:50","slug":"destroying-the-west-in-under-a-minute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2014\/10\/destroying-the-west-in-under-a-minute.html","title":{"rendered":"Destroying the West in under a minute"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quamvis enim melius sit benefacere quam nosse.<\/em><\/p>\n

It is better to do good, than to know.<\/p>\n

Charlemagne<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

While I have recently had my analysis of\u00a0Obama’s\u00a0Iraq and Syria wars published at\u00a0Press TV<\/a>, the main material that has been on my mind recently has been Google’s book, The New Digital Age<\/em> (2013).<\/p>\n

I have thoroughly reviewed Google’s well-known book\u00a0as a follow-up to my review of Julian Assange’s latest book,\u00a0When Google Met WikiLeaks<\/em><\/a> – which itself responded to Google’s book. This\u00a0review was authored\u00a0for\u00a0h+ Magazine<\/em>\u00a0and, if everything goes according to plan, I hope you will have a chance to read it there soon.<\/p>\n

I have considered myself part of the anti-imperialist blogosphere for a long time. In particular, I am very attentive\u00a0to global anti-imperialist discourse\u00a0from an outside perspective, such as a Lebanese or Iranian perspective, as reflected in Press TV’s excellent broadcasting. In many ways, this external criticism of imperialism is paralleled\u00a0in the internal criticisms that we are used to hearing from the global\u00a0Left. For these critics, “the West” is often openly stated as the target of criticism, but I am getting a little tired of this all too lazy term and the way it is hurled around carelessly in everyday reporting.<\/p>\n

It’s time we stop using this silly, dated term ‘the #West<\/a>‘ for the secluded #warmongers<\/a> of the #US<\/a> #regime<\/a> and their spies. #NoToNato<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Harry J. Bentham (@hjbentham) August 31, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Increasingly, I have become critical of this term, which is thrown lazily around by people who claim to love the West and people who claim to hate it alike, without ever really looking into whether the West is even a\u00a0valid or useful concept at all.<\/p>\n

We seem to use this term as a blanket label for everything and everyone more or less allied to the United States in\u00a0world affairs. The problem with it is that it is an illusion, and it is a self-sustaining one for all who apply it: the self-declared enemies and allies of the West both\u00a0maintain the illusion\u00a0by taking stances on it, rather than stopping to wonder\u00a0whether it exists at all.<\/p>\n

The truth is that there is no cultural, linguistic or political uniformity between the allies of\u00a0the United States (except perhaps between the US and UK, and even that is getting more and more culturally strained as\u00a0the two countries continue their\u00a0journey apart.) The cultural rift between the US and EU\u00a0is as significant, if not more significant, than the rift between the EU and Russia.<\/p>\n

As an antistatist (more accurately an anti nation-statist, since I am prepared to\u00a0accept\u00a0the necessity of\u00a0limited, consensual forms of authority, social responsibility and law enforcement in any society<\/em>) I don’t see any real underlying validity to the idea of being part of a nation-state. Saying one is British or American makes about as much sense to me as saying one is associated\u00a0with an animal or vegetable of choice. I have already written extensively on\u00a0how the nation-state has become an unsustainable and paradoxical model for representing people’s political interests accurately, and how this leads to the vast majority of conflicts in the world today.<\/p>\n

Given my rejection of the “nation”, I find the concept of the “the West” to be even more spurious and worth challenging. Indeed, I see even less validity in the idea that I belong to a monolithic cultural and political bloc of countries described as the “West”, so I reject the claim that this bloc really\u00a0exists in any form. At least, “the West”\u00a0certainly doesn’t exist in any form that is consequential\u00a0to anyone outside the halls of oligarchy, exclusion, wealth and power.<\/p>\n

Like many things, including nationality and race, “the West” is just another arbitrary distinction among human beings. It\u00a0exists solely as a construct in many people’s minds, and survives for as many minutes\u00a0as people would like to take it seriously. When you tune in to the news, you will hear the usual ignorant\u00a0drivel about how the “West” is threatened by this group or that, or some country or another, but the truth is that these threats are of no consequence to you personally. The people who do identify with the West are not of the people<\/em>. The West is not itself a demos<\/em> or people. We certainly don’t need to worry about the West\u00a0being destroyed – much less that\u00a0any act of destruction aimed at the West might\u00a0have any truly harmful effect on our lives.<\/p>\n

Speaking of destruction, I am giving away my apocalyptic\u00a0End of Places<\/em><\/a> stories for free this weekend. If you support my work, please take a moment to download the collection now, and as always remember to rate any titles you have downloaded at Amazon. Your downloads and ratings are what keep my work afloat.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Also visit my full bibliography\u00a0here on\u00a0Beliefnet<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

My critique of “the West” is likely to crystallize in some more disciplined\u00a0form other than blabbering and complaining in future, and I am considering writing an essay to a higher academic standard on this subject in future – possibly for the World Left’s favorite, Monthly Review<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

For now, my complaining is not wasted. I will continue to direct readers not into blind rage against the system, but\u00a0to some of the most humane\u00a0alternatives to nation-states and other arbitrary and cruel geopolitical constructs\u00a0that have been presented. So many of these alternatives, including VDP States and the Venus Project<\/a>, have been posited as more modern alternatives to our outdated national model of politics that there is no reason to regard nation-states and geopolitical alliances as our only choice<\/em>. Our choices are infinite.<\/p>\n

\n

By\u00a0Harry J. Bentham<\/a><\/p>\n

\"HJB<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Quamvis enim melius sit benefacere quam nosse. It is better to do good, than to know. Charlemagne While I have recently had my analysis of\u00a0Obama’s\u00a0Iraq and Syria wars published at\u00a0Press TV, the main material that has been on my mind recently has been Google’s book, The New Digital Age (2013). I have thoroughly reviewed Google’s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":577,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,63,37,72,66,16,40,45,44,15,69],"tags":[143,145,142,2,141,1482,129,144],"class_list":["post-228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conflict-resolution","category-futurism-2","category-history","category-international-relations","category-politics-2","category-press-tv","category-publishing","category-techno-progressivism","category-transhumanism","category-us","category-violence","tag-deconstruction","tag-geopolitics","tag-linguistics","tag-lordre","tag-media","tag-press-tv","tag-publishing-2","tag-the-west"],"yoast_head":"\nDestroying the West in under a minute - L'Ordre<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2014\/10\/destroying-the-west-in-under-a-minute.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Destroying the West in under a minute - L'Ordre\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Quamvis enim melius sit benefacere quam nosse. It is better to do good, than to know. Charlemagne While I have recently had my analysis of\u00a0Obama’s\u00a0Iraq and Syria wars published at\u00a0Press TV, the main material that has been on my mind recently has been Google’s book, The New Digital Age (2013). I have thoroughly reviewed Google’s…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2014\/10\/destroying-the-west-in-under-a-minute.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"L'Ordre\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-10-03T23:00:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-10-03T18:43:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/ecx.images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/814tkOlVEAL._SL1353_.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Harry J. Bentham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Destroying the West in under a minute - L'Ordre","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2014\/10\/destroying-the-west-in-under-a-minute.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Destroying the West in under a minute - L'Ordre","og_description":"Quamvis enim melius sit benefacere quam nosse. It is better to do good, than to know. Charlemagne While I have recently had my analysis of\u00a0Obama’s\u00a0Iraq and Syria wars published at\u00a0Press TV, the main material that has been on my mind recently has been Google’s book, The New Digital Age (2013). I have thoroughly reviewed Google’s…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2014\/10\/destroying-the-west-in-under-a-minute.html","og_site_name":"L'Ordre","article_published_time":"2014-10-03T23:00:12+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-10-03T18:43:50+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/ecx.images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/814tkOlVEAL._SL1353_.jpg"}],"author":"Harry J. Bentham","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2014\/10\/destroying-the-west-in-under-a-minute.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2014\/10\/destroying-the-west-in-under-a-minute.html","name":"Destroying the West in under a minute - L'Ordre","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2014\/10\/destroying-the-west-in-under-a-minute.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2014\/10\/destroying-the-west-in-under-a-minute.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/ecx.images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/814tkOlVEAL._SL1353_.jpg","datePublished":"2014-10-03T23:00:12+00:00","dateModified":"2014-10-03T18:43:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/#\/schema\/person\/576f5919c442d93e18909ed47628846e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2014\/10\/destroying-the-west-in-under-a-minute.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2014\/10\/destroying-the-west-in-under-a-minute.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2014\/10\/destroying-the-west-in-under-a-minute.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/ecx.images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/814tkOlVEAL._SL1353_.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/ecx.images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/814tkOlVEAL._SL1353_.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2014\/10\/destroying-the-west-in-under-a-minute.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Destroying the West in under a minute"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/","name":"L'Ordre","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Harry Bentham","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/#\/schema\/person\/576f5919c442d93e18909ed47628846e","name":"Harry J. Bentham","description":"Harry J. Bentham is a British futurist blogger who has been a contributor at a number of think tanks including the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies since 2013. His work at Press TV and the L'Ordre blog featured at the multi-faith Beliefnet website has gained increasing attention and praise, including in the international media. Commentaries on political and ethical controversies by Bentham have been published at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, H+ Magazine, Dissident Voice and numerous other publications. He edits The clubof.info Blog (http:\/\/www.clubof.info\/search\/label\/Harry_J_Bentham).","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Harry-J.-Bentham\/e\/B00D4MSEY0\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/author\/hbentham"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/577"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":238,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228\/revisions\/238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}