{"id":242978,"date":"2023-08-28T12:00:42","date_gmt":"2023-08-28T11:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=242978"},"modified":"2024-06-12T07:43:28","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T06:43:28","slug":"unipolar-hegemony-is-a-freakish-historical-aberration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/08\/unipolar-hegemony-is-a-freakish-historical-aberration\/","title":{"rendered":"Unipolar Hegemony Is a Freakish Historical Aberration"},"content":{"rendered":"

There has never once been a unipolar planetary hegemon at any time in human history until three decades ago. People look at this freakish historical aberration and talk about it as though it\u2019s some immutable quality inscribed in adamantine upon human DNA strands. <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Caitlin Johnstone<\/p><\/div>\n

25 Aug 2023 – <\/em>The US is indisputably the most tyrannical regime on earth. Only the US is instigating wars around the world, circling the planet with hundreds of foreign military bases, starving populations with massive unilateral sanctions and blockades, and working to destroy any nation which disobeys it. No other government has spent the 21st century killing people by the millions in wars of aggression; only the US has. Continually trying to destroy anyone in the world who doesn\u2019t obey your dictates is as tyrannical as it gets.<\/p>\n

If you point this out you\u2019ll get people telling you that if it wasn\u2019t the US doing those things it would be someone else, but that\u2019s ridiculous. There has never once been a unipolar planetary hegemon at any time in human history until three decades ago. People look at this freakish historical aberration and talk about it as though it\u2019s some immutable quality inscribed in adamantine upon human DNA strands.<\/p>\n

A single power structure dominating the planet is very much the exception, not the rule. A multipolar world is the norm in the same way a cancer-free body is the norm; you\u2019d only assume cancer is the norm if you\u2019d only ever seen one human body and it was a cancer patient. That doesn\u2019t mean a future multipolar world order would be perfect or free from problems, it just means the expectation that the US unipolar hegemon would be replaced by another one is based on absolutely nothing and is refuted by all historical precedent. And as an added bonus we\u2019d no longer be trapped in this horrifying situation where a planetary empire is continually trying to shore up disobedient nations like Russia and China while brandishing armageddon weapons with increasing aggression.<\/p>\n

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People tell me, \u201cIf you lived in Russia or China you\u2019d be thrown in prison for talking the way you do.\u201d<\/p>\n

If I lived in Russia or China I\u2019d still be focusing all my energy on criticizing the US empire, because it would be the world\u2019s most powerful and destructive regime no matter where I lived.<\/p>\n

\u2756<\/p>\n

The correct debate to be having is not whether Putin was right or wrong to invade Ukraine in response to western provocations on its border, the correct debate is whether Putin did anything the US wouldn\u2019t have done in response to the same kind of provocations on its own borders.<\/p>\n

Arguing about whether Russia\u2019s invasion was \u201cbad\u201d is an infantile conversation for mental midgets. Mature adults are interested in talking about the real world as it actually exists and how governments behave in it, not how they\u2019d behave in some imaginary hypothetical fantasy land where the US isn\u2019t constantly making all those moral positions meaningless with its own actions and aggressions.<\/p>\n

\u2756<\/p>\n

Australians are not allowed to know<\/a> if there are US nukes in our country and our government is forbidden to have information<\/a> about US nuclear-capable subs on our shores, because this is a totally normal alliance with totally mutual respect between two totally equal nations.<\/p>\n

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Sovereignty threatened with first US nuclear-powered sub visit since AUKUS announcement:<\/p>\n

\u2018The public is not allowed to know how long the North Carolina will be docked – that information is classified even from Australia's defence minister\u2019: @9NewsPerth<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/YGkkhDrPpy<\/a><\/p>\n

— Labor Against War (@LabAgainstWar) August 23, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n