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 financial 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 frequency get most 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 emissary president Mat Sabu discovered has been forgotten, if not vilified outright.However, interpretations of story change from decade to decade. Indeed, there is no a single "history".
Instead, there have been many as well as generally, it's a powerful which get to establish whose chronicle of events should dominate.What happens yet when a once almighty republic begins to falter? How does it write or rewrite a history?
Such a change can be seen in a brand new explosion of essay on a supposed 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 able to surpass others (such as a Chinese as well as Ottoman Empires) due to six "killer applications": competition, science, skill rights, medicine, a! consume r society as well as work ethic.
Ferguson argues which a West perfected all six simultaneously, whereas "the Rest" developed usually a handful or else let their analogous advantages in these fields stagnate.
His categorical thrust, however, is which a West's current debility stems from a loss of faith in a own civilisational values. In short, a West has failed to renew 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 accessible set of economic, social as well as domestic institutions".
One might of course remonstrate with Ferguson's topic though his arguments have been compelling. His row which a Islamic universe declined since it closed a minds as well as borders is positively persuasive, if unoriginal.
At a same time, Ferguson's book is a clear sign which there's a growing trend amongst writers discussing (if not agonising) over a West's "decline".These worries have been serve fuelled by a ongoing tellurian financial predicament as well as domestic stoppage that's solemnly undermining both a European Union as well as a United States.
Indeed, a ultimate issue of a well read biography New Yorker includes a superb essay by Adam Gopnick (left), which claims which "declinism" has right away morphed in to a veritable well read genre a pet topic for academics as well as pundits alike.
But is this really something new? "Cassandras" (named after a Trojan princess who foresaw her own city's drop during a hands of a Greeks) a harbingers of severe threat as well as decrease have prolonged been with us, even in times of good prosperity.
Indeed, according to Gopnick, a word "decline of a West" was used as early as 1918 by a German h! istorian Oswald Spengler.Nor were such fears of decay to one side Western: writers as well as historians such as Ibn Khaldun, Tun Sri Lanang as well as Sima Qian have dwelt on identical themes as they charted a climb as well as fall of civilisations.
Moreover, a mere actuality which these books have been accessible opposite a globe suggests a abyss as well as breadth of such concerns. At a same time they additionally exhibit a ardent joining to a thought of renewal as well as reform. Ferguson is clearly a believer in a West's capacity to re-invent as well as re-energise itself.
For us in Malaysia, these books as well as there have been large others in airfield bookshops reinforce a sense of a universe changeable on a axis, of a energy fixing which prioritises China as well as India over Europe as well as a United States.
We have been faced with a plea of adapting to these newly (re-)emerging powers while not forgetting a strengths (or "killer apps") which made a Western nations good such as a emancipation of women, democracy as well as religious tolerance.
And it is in this realm 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 in reserve from mere politics.
The brand new geo-political landscape will demand prodigious powers of thoroughness as well as leadership. Mere tongue will be useless. Malay ultras and/or an mania with bangsawan governing body won't help us in coping with possibly China and/or India.
History requires candour as well as honesty. It additionally demands a degree of openness.We need to be willing to accept a thought which there have been many versions of a truth.Our narrow-minded views on story bushel us as you draft a way forward.You need to know yourself in sequence to plan for a future. Self-knowledge is critical.
I would argue which it's usually when you as Malaysians can start to r! ivet abo ut a collective story with a same vigour as well as probity as a counterparts in a West afterwards we'll be ready to understanding with a hurdles summarized by these writers.
History a many histories, Malay, Chinese, Indian, Dayak as well as so onward requires objectivity as well as honesty. If you can't understanding with a past, how can you face a future?
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