Eastern Mystique

Although the geopolitical strategy of corruption and dark money on the part of the United States – and one should consider whether this strategy is deliberate or not – is a big and overbearing one, countermeasures on the part of Eastern powers from a geopolitical standpoint can be tactical rather than overarching and strategic in the sense that geopolitics and “containment” come down to a few small chokepoints or pivot points. Two of the main chokepoints and pivot points I mentioned yesterday were the Bosporus Strait and the “Petro-Yuan.” Countering a big and overbearing geopolitical strategy of corruption and dark money with the objective of undermining your way of life – and with geopolitics equating to civilizational competition – might come down to just a couple of ploys or tactical moves.

            For anyone who has learnt or has observed Muay Thai, one of the first things that are taught by a Muay Thai instructor is how to get out of a chokehold. When you are in a chokehold, you have no choice but to get out of the chokehold. Thus, the strategy of corruption and dark money is essentially a chokehold, and Eastern powers have to find ways to get out of that chokehold in order to preserve order and stability and thus their way of life. Insurgencies in Afghanistan and Iraq demonstrated that reactions to a strategy of corruption and dark money are virtually automatic and visceral.

            What is essentially at stake in the geopolitics of the 21^st century between the United States and Eastern powers is a way of life. Corruption and dark money undermine the order and stability of a nation and society, and in turn the breakdown of order and stability undermines that nation and society’s way of life. It essentially comes down to determining which way of life is better, and in the 21^st century, the United States demonstrated that it was even willing to employ military force, dark money, and propaganda to impose its “way of life” on other societies, as evinced by Afghanistan and Iraq.

But the United States is a government and a society that is only 245 years old. There are civilizations and nations in the Eastern world that span millennia. When Joe Biden brags about his country’s “way of life,” it means he has none. As the Spanish Proverb states: “Tell me what you brag about, and I will tell you what you lack.” Eastern civilization and the Eastern way of life are too resilient and strong to be overwhelmed and undermined by a strategy of corruption and dark money on the part of the United States. Thus, as long as the strategy of corruption and dark money on the part of the United States does not change vis-à-vis Eastern nations, the blowback will be evident over time. If the strategy of corruption and dark money did not work vis-à-vis the Taliban, how is it going to work against experienced and seasoned civilizations and nations such as Russia, Iran, and China?

            A strategy of corruption and dark money is part of a policy of strangulation in order to force Eastern civilization to submit to the will of a corrupt dark money cabal. And if one does not submit, then force is used. But as we saw with the Taliban, that strategy of corruption and dark money and that policy of “submission or use force” has its limits. In sum, the Biden strategy of employing corruption and dark money for a policy of undermining order and stability in Eastern societies so that their way of life disappears has to end, before the populists end it.