Most people who get into power in the western world start with great intentions, but slowly they all become entrapped and hung by their own petard.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Western powers remain imprisoned by the idea that the world is a dangerous place, that it needs to be managed, and that they are called upon to do the managing.
All dictators, the rich and famous, to the lowest security guard who holds a gun, easily forget that power is transitory.
The domination of western values, beliefs and way of life has angered many from the east and in developing countries.
The present aristocracy of western culture, at the moment when it most clearly dominates the world, is being imitated rapidly and successfully in every eastern country.
Sometimes good countries are so traumatized by events that they lose their bearings and embrace bad leaders.
It strikes me there's a bunch of people in power who have really strong intentions of running the world and adjusting the world to exactly how they see it.
While the West has enjoyed overwhelming global power, its moral preachings have been legitimised, and in effect enforced, by that power. But as that power begins to ebb, then the morality of its actions will be the subject of growing scrutiny and challenge.
Every major power always seeks to justify its action on moral grounds. Such behaviour is almost as old as the hills. The west has been a particularly vigorous exponent of this credo; and there is no reason to believe that China, for example, will be any different. But behind the moral rhetoric invariably lies interest and ideology.
No doubt Western civilization has in the past been full of wars and revolutions, and the national elements in our culture, even when they were ignored, always provided an unconscious driving force of passion and aggressive self-assertion.
People - running from unhappiness, hiding in power - are locked within their reputations, ambitions, beliefs.
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