A PESSIMISTIC VIEW OF THE WORLD

This is a review of WASTE LAND: A WORLD IN PERMANENT CRISIS by Robert D. Kaplan. I am a fan of his books as I have read many over the years. But this one paints a depressing view of the world and our future. He is Jewish but lacks a religious perspective. His view of the world is certainly realistic and in a sense biblical in its perspective of the coming tribulation and the falleness of humanity. But perhaps it is a wake-up call to the challenges we face in geopolitics.

Waste Land is Robert Kaplan’s evocation of T.S. Eliot’s famous poem that highlights the superficiality and decadence of the world as he saw it in the 1920’s. He quotes Roger Scruton, “hope detached from faith and untampered by the evidence of history, is a dangerous asset, and one that threatens not only those who embrace it, but all those within the range of their illusions.” Therefore, this book is a pessimistic view of the world in the 21^st century.

He begins with a description of Weimar Republic as a “candy-coated horror tale: a cradle of modernity that gave birth to fascism and totalitarianism.”  He applies the lessons of that time to the global world today. He urges us to make constructive use of our fears about Weimar, so as to be wary about the future without giving in to fate.

Kaplan is nostalgic for the empires of the 19^th century that gave order to the disparate ethnic groups. Order must come before freedom because without order there is no freedom for anyone. Hobbes, Leviathan, is quoted often. He wants a secure, stable, and orderly political system where the rules are adhered to. But there is no rule-based order in the world today. The United Nations is a joke and merely a platform for virtue signaling. He cites Solzhenitsyn who in his books demonstrates the need for order above all else. History is not governed by reason. Kaplan describes the downfall of Russia in the first World War and throughout the 20^th century. It is still in transition with Putin as the new Tsar. The Ukraine war reveals Russia’s impotence. Africa reveals the coming anarchy in the world fueled by massive population growth compared to Europe.

The second part of the book deals with the decline of the great powers in Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine and China. The latter is in trouble with Xi Jinping’s leadership. Its population and workforce has shrunk with reduced economic growth the consequence. Its threat to Taiwan, Japan and South Korea has grown. Tensions with the USA will increase. The bipolar struggle is between the powers of Russia, China, North Korea and Iran and the maritime powers of the USA, Europe, Ukraine, Israel and the conservative Sunni Arab powers from the Gulf to the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.

The third section deals with urbanization, the rule of the mob, Oswald Spengler and his thesis of civilizational decline. The power of the crowd emerges from the need of the lonely individual to conform with others. The bitter individual self-righteously feels he has power in his struggle to overcome the victims by accusing them of betrayal. Social media amplifies the tyranny of the herd. Kaplan’s pessimistic argument ends with the admission that the direction of history is unknowable. There is no such thing as automatic linear progress. Thus, we have no choice but to fight on.