Historically, when one combines the shredding and trashing of international rules and norms with a shift in the overall global balance of power, the result is a disaster on a very large scale along with a breakdown of global order. Everything collapses into an anarchic state and into what one would call a Hobbesian “State of Nature.” What is then required is a coming together of sorts between the world’s major powers and their leaders in order to renew a “social contract” of sorts which would then bring international society out of its anarchic state and out of its Hobbesian “state of nature.” But given the wide cultural gap and the lack of mutual understanding between today’s major powers as a result of cultural and religious differences in addition to the poor quality of today’s leaders, renewing a social contract by coming together and by fostering a common understanding between the leaders of these major powers will be more difficult than it was in the past when the major powers were for the most part Eurocentric.
What fosters such a crisis and situation to a large extent is the pursuit of brute and crude interests at the expense of the basic rules and principles behind global order. When power and interests are not balanced by the basic rules and principles of the game, the result is a kind of situation we find ourselves in today in international society. Even the unwritten rules and the code of conduct behind espionage which were once mutually understood and honored are no longer being honored by the world’s major powers.
And in crises or situations like the one we find ourselves in today, the basic impulse is to blame Jews or other minorities for the crisis. It has happened in the past, and it is happening now to a certain extent. The general pandering to Jewish money because of appetites and lusts and the instrumentalization of Jews for hegemonic designs does not conceal the disdain and suspicion which the powers that be hold towards Jews and other minorities. There is no respect for Jewish life or for the lives of other minorities in situations like these despite the contributions which Jews and other minorities make to Western society. Not to mention the complete neglect shown towards the rich history of Jewish intellectualism as well as the rich history of intellectualism which belongs to other minorities.
Many minorities, including myself, have had a very civilized relationship with Jewish people growing up and in our adult lives. A number of us have had Jewish friends, mentors, and teachers in the past, and we have fond memories which we cherish as a result of them. Moreover, some of us have had the same lived experience as Jews as well as the same eidetic experience and memory as Jews in the sense that we have all escaped persecution and war one way or another. Our culture and our mentality are virtually the same, and now, Jews and other minorities face the same situation in what is essentially an anarchic state and a Hobbesian “state of nature” as a result of a general breakdown in global order because of the drivers and factors which we have mentioned above. And in situations like these, our similarities are more important than the differences, and those similarities should in turn act as a bridge and a glue which would then open a path towards finding a way out of the current crisis. A crisis, one must note, which many of us are all too familiar with and can intuitively understand as a result of history as well as the eidetic experience and memory we share as minorities whose ancestors and forefathers had to escape persecution and war.
Adam A. Azim 