France is yet another Western country which faces a condition and a situation whereby its leaders and politicians have lost credibility and legitimacy over the course of the last few years and can no longer justify being in power. Emmanuel Macron’s tampering with pensions and with the retirement age, for instance, is basically a situation whereby a Western leader who is avoiding doing the deep and essential structural work of addressing the core problem behind economic and social malaise is doing mere cosmetic work that will only make the malaise worse. Macron is ignoring the fact that cutting pensions at a time when inflation and shortages are plaguing Europe only makes the economic and social malaise worse. But given that he is avoiding doing the heavy lifting and the hard work of addressing the deep and essential structural problem which in turn would make a real difference, he is resorting to distractions and smoke and mirrors and thus allowing the problems to fester. Some analysts and experts actually thought that France would be able to stave off inflation and shortages along with economic and social malaise in general through its Third World connections and especially those with African nations. But it appears as though African nations are more inclined towards doing away with Macron and France in general.
And as mentioned before, addressing the core and deep structural problem in Western societies is basically a matter of reviving and expanding a core organizing principle and relating it to the core organizing principles of other regions of the world so that internal operability of the core organizing principle coincides with harmony and order between and within other regions of the world. When we say freedom is the core organizing principle of the West, it follows that freedom must be expanded in the West, not restricted. This means the expansion of all kinds of freedoms, whether they are economic, political, or social in nature. Once freedoms are expanded, the revival of the core organizing principle of freedom in the West then has to be interrelated to the core organizing principles of regions such as the Middle East and Asia so that there is basic cohesion and harmony between and within these various regions. This basic cohesion and harmony between the various regions will then impact and shape the conditions within the various regions in the international system.
The fact that culture and religion as well as collectivism and socialism are the core organizing principles of the Middle East and Asia does not mean that these core organizing principles cannot be interrelated with the core organizing principle of freedom in the West and in the way of establishing a world order that would allow for cohesion and stability between and within these various regions of the world. Shaping one region of the world into the image of another cannot happen through military intervention and force, as we have experienced over the course of the last few decades. The best way forward is to allow the core organizing principles to be intact rather than changing them through methods such as military intervention, interference, and force. For the West, this means absorbing these other regions, not attacking them.
In short, there is nothing fundamentally defective or wrong with the core organizing principle of the West. The problem is that the core organizing principle has not been preserved and expanded by Western nations internally and in turn the core organizing principle of freedom has not been peacefully related towards other regions of the world through the cultivation of world order, mainly because of a combination of religious extremism and war profiteering which will no longer work. In short, these last three decades amounted to a crusade which has failed.
Thus, in order for both the internal operability of the core organizing principle of freedom to be preserved and expanded and in turn peacefully related to other regions of the world, the basic strategic goal for the West has to be the absorption of other regions as opposed to attacking them. Attacking is the same as when Barack Obama and Tony Blinken stood by side while the latter was gleefully smiling as the conditions for the rise of ISIS took root in Libya. Both the internal operability of freedom through its preservation and expansion and the absorption of other regions and their core organizing principles as a result of the internal operability of freedom and its preservation and expansion will most likely allow for both peace and the pleasures that come with peace on a global scale and scope.
Adam A. Azim 