I think we're already there. Multipolarity doesn't necessarily mean total cutoff from all dependencies (after all, the US is dependent on China in a lot more ways than vice versa), or that the US empire is completely defeated yet. It just means that they are no longer the only game in town, it means that countries have alternatives and the West is no longer able to completely dominate the rest and tell them what to do. It means that the West have lost their monopoly on technological advancement, on financial systems, on use of military force, their undisputed control over the global narrative, etc. In short, they are no longer global hegemons now that alternative centers of power have emerged.
What i am not yet sure about is when exactly this transition occured. One could argue it started as far back as 2008 with the global crisis of capitalism which China had to bail the West out of...or was it perhaps in 2013 when China launched its Belt and Road Initiative megaproject for economic integration outside of Western dominated institutions?
Was it maybe in 2014/2015 when Russia dared to defy the US by foiling their plans for Crimea and Syria, or in 2016 when it became suddenly clear that much of America and parts of Europe were no longer buying the liberal establishment's bullshit...or was it in 2020 with Covid which exposed western governments as morally bankrupt and woefully incompetent compared to China's?
Personally i don't know that i could pinpoint exactly when the transition started but i do know that Russia's intervention in Ukraine in 2022 was a watershed moment, and their subsequent weathering of the storm of the entire collective West's economic and diplomatic onslaught showed that we were now clearly living in a new world. One in which it is now possible to stand up to the collective West's bullying, to defy their tyrannical "rules based order" and not only survive but win and thrive. And the global south noticed this, hence all of the other sudden big events we have seen take place around the world since then:
France getting kicked out of West Africa, the Palestinian resistance entering into a qualitatively new phase of struggle, rapid expansion of BRICS, reconciliation between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the Yemeni blockade of the Red Sea, Iran striking a direct blow to the Zionist entity, Russia breaking the western sanctions regime on the DPRK, China becoming bolder in defending its own interests and no longer mincing words when it comes to the US's belligerent actions directed at them, the list goes on. None of this could have happened under US unipolarity.
The process of multipolarity starts at the peak of american hegemony, it starts at the dismantlement of the Soviet union, which was the quantitative leap to american hegemony, its only downhill from there. Its like Hegel said, life itself bears the germ of death. American hegemony itself bears the germ of multipolarity.
The small quantitative gains since then have lead to the qualitative changes we are all witnessing now, the question is which will be the big qualitative leap that marks the end of american hegemony and the start of multipolarity, and even more interesting, what comes after multipolarity?
The larger point is true, the world is basically becoming multipolar. But you still live in a different world from reality:
or in 2016 when it became suddenly clear that much of America and parts of Europe were no longer buying the liberal establishment's bullshit
they only cared about non-whites/immigration, idk why you bring this up
or was it in 2020 with Covid which exposed western governments as morally bankrupt and woefully incompetent compared to China's?
exact opposite, the cattle perceive this as western governments being morally bankrupt by BECOMING LIKE (their idea of) China. The fact that there was a mandate to wear a paper-thin mask is CCP oppression to them. They also think that 20 gorrillion Chinese people died and that it's a Chinese bioweapon (in reality it's the opposite)
Everything you say is correct. I'm just looking at this from a more global perspective.
I don't think it's all that relevant how the people in the imperial core viewed those events, but all across the global south 2016 and 2020 were undoubtedly perceived as major indicators of the decline/dysfunction of western "liberal democracies".
I do think much of their illusion, or their myth or whatever you want to call it, was shattered then. They were mask-off moments. But as i said, i don't necessarily view those as true inflection points, rather just as further data points indicating a world in transition.
I think we're already there. Multipolarity doesn't necessarily mean total cutoff from all dependencies (after all, the US is dependent on China in a lot more ways than vice versa), or that the US empire is completely defeated yet. It just means that they are no longer the only game in town, it means that countries have alternatives and the West is no longer able to completely dominate the rest and tell them what to do. It means that the West have lost their monopoly on technological advancement, on financial systems, on use of military force, their undisputed control over the global narrative, etc. In short, they are no longer global hegemons now that alternative centers of power have emerged.
What i am not yet sure about is when exactly this transition occured. One could argue it started as far back as 2008 with the global crisis of capitalism which China had to bail the West out of...or was it perhaps in 2013 when China launched its Belt and Road Initiative megaproject for economic integration outside of Western dominated institutions?
Was it maybe in 2014/2015 when Russia dared to defy the US by foiling their plans for Crimea and Syria, or in 2016 when it became suddenly clear that much of America and parts of Europe were no longer buying the liberal establishment's bullshit...or was it in 2020 with Covid which exposed western governments as morally bankrupt and woefully incompetent compared to China's?
Personally i don't know that i could pinpoint exactly when the transition started but i do know that Russia's intervention in Ukraine in 2022 was a watershed moment, and their subsequent weathering of the storm of the entire collective West's economic and diplomatic onslaught showed that we were now clearly living in a new world. One in which it is now possible to stand up to the collective West's bullying, to defy their tyrannical "rules based order" and not only survive but win and thrive. And the global south noticed this, hence all of the other sudden big events we have seen take place around the world since then:
France getting kicked out of West Africa, the Palestinian resistance entering into a qualitatively new phase of struggle, rapid expansion of BRICS, reconciliation between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the Yemeni blockade of the Red Sea, Iran striking a direct blow to the Zionist entity, Russia breaking the western sanctions regime on the DPRK, China becoming bolder in defending its own interests and no longer mincing words when it comes to the US's belligerent actions directed at them, the list goes on. None of this could have happened under US unipolarity.
The process of multipolarity starts at the peak of american hegemony, it starts at the dismantlement of the Soviet union, which was the quantitative leap to american hegemony, its only downhill from there. Its like Hegel said, life itself bears the germ of death. American hegemony itself bears the germ of multipolarity.
The small quantitative gains since then have lead to the qualitative changes we are all witnessing now, the question is which will be the big qualitative leap that marks the end of american hegemony and the start of multipolarity, and even more interesting, what comes after multipolarity?
I think you're exactly right, this is the proper dialectical way of viewing things, as a process.
I would argue that February 2022 was that qualitative leap. But maybe i'm too optimistic, idk.
"The owl of Minerva begins to flight only at night", we will only know for sure when looking in retrospective lol
The larger point is true, the world is basically becoming multipolar. But you still live in a different world from reality:
they only cared about non-whites/immigration, idk why you bring this up
exact opposite, the cattle perceive this as western governments being morally bankrupt by BECOMING LIKE (their idea of) China. The fact that there was a mandate to wear a paper-thin mask is CCP oppression to them. They also think that 20 gorrillion Chinese people died and that it's a Chinese bioweapon (in reality it's the opposite)
Everything you say is correct. I'm just looking at this from a more global perspective.
I don't think it's all that relevant how the people in the imperial core viewed those events, but all across the global south 2016 and 2020 were undoubtedly perceived as major indicators of the decline/dysfunction of western "liberal democracies".
I do think much of their illusion, or their myth or whatever you want to call it, was shattered then. They were mask-off moments. But as i said, i don't necessarily view those as true inflection points, rather just as further data points indicating a world in transition.