One bloc represents
the old troika of liberalization, globalization, and financialization.
It may still be in power, but its stock is falling fast, as David
Cameron, Europe’s social democrats, Hillary Clinton, the European
Commission, and even Greece’s post-capitulation Syriza government can
attest. Trump,
Le Pen, Britain’s right-wing Brexiteers, Poland’s and Hungary’s
illiberal governments, and Russian President Vladimir Putin are forming
the second bloc. Theirs is a nationalist international – a classic
creature of a deflationary period – united by contempt for liberal
democracy and the ability to mobilize those who would crush it. The
clash between these two blocs is both real and misleading. Clinton vs.
Trump constitutes a genuine battle, for example, as does the European
Union vs. the Brexiteers; but the two combatants are accomplices, not
foes, in perpetuating an endless loop of mutual reinforcement, with each
side defined by – and mobilizing its supporters on the basis of – what
it opposes. The
only way out of this political trap is progressive internationalism,
based on solidarity among large majorities around the world who are
prepared to rekindle democratic politics on a planetary scale. If this
sounds Utopian, it is worth emphasizing that the raw materials are
already available.
One can agree that neither bloc leads forward, but neither does the Neo Progressives. Individual equality, rights, responsibility are more critical than societal agglomeration under the control and direction of those who believe they have found the way and all we must do is follow them, However comparing people to the Nazis is always a dangerous path, for on the one hand it simplifies the evils of that regime and on the other hand dilutes true evil by making claims against anyone that the claimant dislikes.
Progressive internationalism is an abandonment of any and all individual rights and the submission of the individual to some elite set of often self chosen managers. Cultures are different and what may work in the US may not work in Greece. How Americans react to change is not the way Germans do. Utopian realizations of group think never work.