October 5, 2011
www.thestar.com.my
The Decline of a West
by Karim Raslan (10-03-11)
These worries have been serve fuelled by a ongoing tellurian monetary predicament as well as domestic stoppage that's solemnly undermining both a European Union as well as a United States.
HISTORY is written by a victors. Losers rarely get much coverage let alone a mention.In Malaysia, unlike in Indonesia, a forces of domestic conservatism in conclusion won energy from a former colonial masters.
As such, a "left" as PAS deputy president Mat Sabu detected has been forgotten, if not vilified outright.However, interpretations of story shift from decade to decade. Indeed, there is no one "history".
Instead, there have been most as well as generally, it's a powerful which get to determine whose version of events should dominate.What happens yet when a once all-powerful nation begins to falter? How does it write or rewrite a history?
Such a shift can be seen in a new explosion of writing upon a ostensible decrease of Western particularly American power.
Historian Niall Ferguson (right) has charted a routine in Civilisation: The West as well as a Rest.
Ferguson argues which a "West" (particularly Britain as well as America) was means to surpass others (such as a Chinese as well as Ottoman Empires) due to 6 "killer applications": competition, science, property rights, medicine, a ! consumer multitude as well as work ethic.
Ferguson argues which a West perfected all 6 simultaneously, whereas "the Rest" developed usually a handful or else let their comparative advantages in these fields stagnate.
His categorical thrust, however, is which a West's stream debility stems from a loss of conviction in a own civilisational values. In short, a West has unsuccessful to replenish a joining to a "killer apps".The West, therefore, ought to "recognise a superiority" of a own civilised universe since it offers societies "the best available set of economic, amicable as well as domestic institutions".
One may of march remonstrate with Ferguson's subject but his arguments have been compelling. His row which a Islamic universe declined since it sealed a minds as well as borders is certainly persuasive, if unoriginal.
At a same time, Ferguson's book is a transparent pointer which there's a growing trend amongst writers deliberating (if not agonising) over a West's "decline".These worries have been serve fuelled by a ongoing tellurian monetary predicament as well as domestic stoppage that's solemnly undermining both a European Union as well as a United States.
Indeed, a latest emanate of a literary biography New Yorker includes a glorious letter by Adam Gopnick (left), which claims which "declinism" has now morphed in to a undoubted literary genre a house pet subject for academics as well as pundits alike.
But is this unequivocally something new? "Cassandras" (named after a Trojan princess who foresaw her own city's destruction at a hands of a Greeks) a harbingers of doom as well as decrease have prolonged been with us, even in times of great prosperity.
Indeed, according to Gopnick, a phrase "decline of a West" was used as ! early as 1918 by a German historian Oswald Spengler.Nor were such fears of spoil to one side Western: writers as well as historians such as Ibn Khaldun, Tun Sri Lanang as well as Sima Qian have dwelt upon similar themes as they charted a rise as well as tumble of civilisations.
Moreover, a small actuality which these books have been available opposite a creation suggests a depth as well as breadth of such concerns. At a same time they additionally exhibit a passionate joining to a thought of renewal as well as reform. Ferguson is clearly a follower in a West's genius to re-invent as well as re-energise itself.
For us in Malaysia, these books as well as there have been countless others in airfield bookshops reinforce a sense of a universe changeable upon a axis, of a energy alignment which prioritises China as well as India over Europe as well as a United States.
We have been faced with a challenge of adapting to these newly (re-)emerging powers whilst not forgetting a strengths (or "killer apps") which done a Western nations great such as a emancipation of women, democracy as well as religious tolerance.
And it is in this area which you need writers as well as historians such as Ferguson as well as Gopnik total who'll both commend as well as reject with next to weight, stepping aside from small politics.
The new geo-political landscape will direct supernatural powers of thoroughness as well as leadership. Mere rhetoric will be useless. Malay ultras and/or an obsession with bangsawan governing body won't assistance us in coping with possibly China and/or India.
History requires fairness as well as honesty. It additionally demands a grade of openness.We need to be willing to accept a thought which there have been most versions of a truth.Our narrow-minded views upon story bushel us as you draft a approach forward.You need to know yourself in order to plan for a future. Self-knowledge is critical.
I would disagr! ee which it's usually when you as Malaysians can start to engage about a common story with a same vigour as well as probity as a counterparts in a West afterwards we'll be ready to understanding with a challenges outlined by these writers.
History a most histories, Malay, Chinese, Indian, Dayak as well as so forth requires objectivity as well as honesty. If you can't understanding with a past, how can you face a future?
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