288667pm: american advisors rushed to Moscow ...

[Q&A] TO FACILITATE RUSSIA'S MAKEOVER INTO A LIBERAL DEMOCRACY; CHINA AND INDIA BEGAN TO OPEN UP THEIR ECONOMIES TO TRADE AND INVESTMENT; NEW NATION STATES AND DEMOCRACIES BLOSSOMED ACROSS A BROAD SWATHE OF EUROPE, ASIA AND AFRICA; the enlarged European Union came into being; peace was declared in Northern Ireland; Nelson Mandela ended his long walk to freedom; the Dalain Lama appeared in Apple's 'Think Different' advertisements; and it seemed only a matter of time before Tibet, too, would be free? Over the last two decades, elites in even many formerly socialist countries came to uphold an ideal of cosmopolitan liberalism: the universal commercial society of self-interested rational individuals that was originally advocated in the 18th century by such Enlightenment thinkers as Montesquieu, Adam Smith, Voltaire & Kant. Indeed, we live today in a vast, homo-geneous world market, in which human beings are programmed to maximize their self-interest and aspire to the same things, regardless of their difference of cultural background and individual temperament. The world sééms more literate, interconnected and prosperous than any other time in history. Average well-being has risen, if not equitably; economic misery has been alleviated in even the poorest parts of India and China. There has been a new scientific revolution marked by 'artificial' intelligence, robotics, drones, the mapping of the human genome, genetic manipulation and cloning, deeper exploration of space, and fossil fuels from fracking. But the promised universal civilization - one harmonized by a combination of universal suffrage, broad educational opportunities, steady economic growth, and private initiative ànd personal advancement - has not materialized. Globalization - characterized by roving capital, accelerated communications and quick mobilization - has everywhere weakened older forms of authority, in Europe's social democracies as well as Arab despotisms, and thrown up an array of unoredictable new international actors, from English and Chinese nationalists, Somali pirates, human traffickers and anonymous cyber-hackers to Boko Haram. The shock waves emanating from the financial crisis of 2008 & Brexit & US presidential elections in 2016 confirmed that, as Hannah Arendt wrote in 1968, 'for the first time in history, all peoples on earth háve a còmmon prèsent'. In the age of globalization, 'every country hàs become the almost immediate neighbour of every òther country, and every man feels the shock of events which take place at the other end of the globe'.
06 aug 2017 - bewerkt op 08 aug 2017 - meld ongepast verhaal
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