Setting aside the long run, even at the present moment, those whom one could consider as anachronistic and reactionary forces no longer have the upper hand in places like Washington, London, Brussels, as well as other Western capitals. They are essentially a shell of what they were in the past. And if they did have the upper hand in these places, all of us would be witnessing a far different game and situation playing out at the moment.
Moreover, everything comes down to method. And as we mentioned before, anachronistic and reactionary forces are short on method. Even if these forces may have had power, they lacked method, and when one lacks method, one loses power over the course of time. All of theory and practice amounts to method and science, but instead of thinking methodically and scientifically, many people are inclined towards thinking in terms of “black magic” and superstition as well as other outdated ways of thinking.
In short, if there is just one thing that one should distill from everything else thus far, it would all come down to just one word, namely, method. Even if one were to lose focus of everything else and forget everything else, if one were to simply remember method, nothing else matters. Everything else can be recovered, as long as one remembers method. Also, the West focuses on doctrine, but not method. Doctrine is essentially the way of doing things, whereas method is the way itself. Arguably, the way and thus the method is more important than doctrine and its nuances. But the logic of Western capitals is reversed, in the sense that method is secondary to doctrine, when in reality, doctrine should be secondary to method.
Such a reversal, arguably, coincided with a major alteration of collective consciousness around the world, to the extent where technology itself along with the state of globalization, lifestyle, the nature of social life, attitudes, and opinions all went through a rapid change and transformation over the course of the last couple of decades. Yet, Washington is still largely “divorced” from the realities on the ground in many places, and this can have consequences and in turn carry major implications both politically and socially. As Mao once said:
“I have said that all the reputedly powerful reactionaries are merely paper tigers. The reason is that they are divorced from the people. Look! Was not Hitler a paper tiger? Was Hitler not overthrown? I also said that the tsar of Russia, the emperor of China and Japanese imperialism were all paper tigers. As we know, they were all overthrown. U.S. imperialism has not yet been overthrown and it has the atom bomb. I believe it also will be overthrown. It, too, is a paper tiger.”
Hence, when we take issues such as doctrine, method, and the nature of social reality into account and how all of these things have been impacted by an alteration of collective consciousness on such a large scale and scope, the result is that the world is at a “turning point” of sorts. To conclude with what Mao said:
“It is my opinion that the international situation has now reached a new turning point. There are two winds in the world today, the East Wind and the West Wind. There is a Chinese saying, ‘Either the East Wind prevails over the West Wind or the West Wind prevails over the East Wind.’ I believe it is characteristic of the situation today that the East Wind is prevailing over the West Wind. That is to say, the forces of socialism have become overwhelmingly superior to the forces of imperialism.”
Adam A. Azim 