As mentioned before, an economic, political, and social revival after the exhaustion of a whole-of-government policy and strategy based on empire and global hegemony with the aim of annihilating and purging culture, philosophy, and religion around the world hinges on a cultural, philosophical, and religious revival on both a domestic level and a global level. Absent of a cultural, philosophical, and religious revival is economic and social malaise, along with political dysfunction, as we saw with the alcohol and drug abuse, mental health epidemics, inflation and shortages, and political dysfunction in both the former Soviet Union and the United States over the course of the last few decades.
In turn, a cultural, philosophical, and religious revival depends on the free flow of knowledge and information. Whether policies such as Perestroika and Glasnost precipitated the free flow of knowledge and information or vice versa in the case of the former Soviet Union, and whether such policies will be adopted by the federal government in Washington given the influx of knowledge and information that is now coming into the United States from around the world is subject to discussion and debate. But the likelier explanation is that knowledge, information, and truth have a nifty way of getting around cancelation and censorship, and thus the uncontainable flow of knowledge, information, and truth at the societal level precipitates the adoption of policies such as Perestroika and Glasnost at the state level. Also, there is a domestic society to account for as well as an international society to account for in an age of globalization.
Even India has recently refused to cave into Washington’s policy and strategy of military hegemony and sanctions by defying Washington’s threat of sanctions resulting from India’s decision to go through with a weapons contract involving Russia. As mentioned before, Washington’s policy and strategy of military hegemony – combined with cruel and inhumane economic sanctions and the cancelation and censorship of information that contains cultural, philosophical, and religious substance – has reached a dead end, as evinced by a number of events and occurrences around the world. All one needs to do is watch Al-Jazeera to understand that the limits of such a policy and strategy have been reached.
So, what should Washington do now that the limits of such a policy and strategy have been reached? Some fear that the adoption of an American version of Perestroika and Glasnost would translate into the collapse of the state in Washington. Some thinkers may attribute the collapse of the former Soviet Union to the adoption of Perestroika and Glasnost. But in reality, the collapse of the Soviet state was the result of Afghanistan. Thus, if the state in Washington collapses, it would not collapse as a result of an American version of Perestroika or Glasnost. Rather, the collapse of Washington will be the result of a decades-long policy and strategy consisting of military hegemony, cruel and inhumane economic sanctions, and the cancelation and censorship of information and viewpoints which possess cultural, philosophical, and religious substance. As Mark Twain said, even if history does not repeat itself, it certainly rhymes.
Adam A. Azim 