Where the west will rest in new economic order

Good stuff David and roughly agreed too. I think we are only at the start of a surge in nationalism for the simple reason that nation states are far better than corporations at generation mass loyalty and trust. When populations feel sufficiently threatened they will turn to that and the elites can squirm and redirect that energy, but it will transform them nevertheless.

It’s interesting how both Left and Right were seduced by Globalization. Opposition to Globalization brought together former bitter enemies such as Bob Santamaria and the ALP left-wing firebrand Clyde Cameron. Cameron ended up writing for Santamaria. Both Santamaria and Cameron were products of the Great Depression and had an overriding concern for the welfare of the ordinary working person. That was also true of a person like George Orwell. The historian Paul Johnson wrote how Orwell always put experience before theory, and how “human beings mattered more than abstract ideas; it was something he had always felt in his bones.” That was why Orwell got most things right. That archetypical conservative, Edmund Burke, often emphasized the stability of the property-owning middle class and their custodianship of custom and tradition. Alex de Tocqueville saw how the small American property owners were suspicious of both hereditary aristocracy and monarchy, and yet were economically autonomous enough to resist calls for radical government intervention. Contemporary USA Republicans downplayed the effects of globalization and de-industrialization on traditional small communities of property-owning citizens. Ignoring the cultural effects of globalization was most un-Burkean, and led to the political revolt of 2016.

In Australia those who make big donations to political parties have undue influence and effectively undermine our fragile democracy. Climate change is by far the biggest challenge of our time, but look at the way the fossil fuel industry exerts pressure on both the Coalition and Labor. Opening up the massive coal deposits of the Galilee Basin makes no economic or environmental sense but the major parties haven't ruled this out! If you care for the future of Planet Earth and the future of your children and grandchildren, VOTE GREEN!

Dear David, You always seem to have such a pessimistic and suspicious view of the world when you write for ES. There is always give something to think deeply about, but usually I think you overdo the negative. As you say globalisation of trade has brought huge benefits to many hundreds of millions of people in the poorest parts of the world; it was the colonisation of weak nations by strong ones that it replaced that was truely rapacious and exploitative. Globalisation of trade ensures that the economic advantages of each people can be used for mutual advantage; that is tough for those who were previously protected from competition such as heavily unionised Western unskilled workers , but the answer there is better education and up-skilling. Trade linkages in a multi-polar world also make for a safer world as war then becomes mutually destructive; compare that with the 20th century competing economic blocks that lead to catastrophic wars as extensions of that competitions. Finally, governments are really now getting to grips with the down-side of large multinational corporations in terms of tax avoidance and trade distortions; note for example the multi-billion fine recently imposed by the EU on Google. I see mainly positives!

The West is aging. The new economic order belongs to regions where population is young -Asia and Africa. All countries with European ancestry are aging at different rates. Average age of EU is mid 40s. America will be impacted first as most common age of white Americans is 58 and they have excluded nonwhites from system by mostly undereducating them. now whole country and its allies will pay hefty price. This undereducation is rooted in racist past and failure to undo its negative consequences including redlining of neighborhoods and failure to provide equitable education funding.

The US has been led by the elite from the beginning. Nothing new that elite still leads it. Same goes for Australia. Why? The British connection. In Canada, Australia, and South Africa the corporates captured the state. There extractive enterprises served British needs. But since British settled there their institutions were of better quality than the authoritarian ones established in nonsettler colonies. See for South Africa: https://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/general-news/2017/2017-05/this-centurys-most-important-south-african-book.html This century’s most important South African book https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2016-03-24-state-capture-its-criminal-and-it-is-nothing-new/#.WatGdNEpCUl State Capture: It's criminal, and it is nothing new https://www.slideshare.net/socialmediacjpme/001-south-africa-mining-industry-and-apartheid-v1 Roots of Apartheid: South Africa’s Mining Industry

Globalization has been a scapegoat. Real roots of rightwing population are in US case : malinvestment in defense -see Seymour Melman), financialization, and southernization. In Western European countries it is because of expansion of EU; and in Eastern European countries it is because of loss of workers to richer countries and failure to sign improve economy at home. See article about why there is rise of rightwing in Eastern Germany: https://www.socialeurope.eu/what-does-chemnitz-tell-us-about-the-growth-of-right-wing-radicalism-in-germany What Does Chemnitz Tell Us About The Growth Of Right-Wing Radicalism In Germany?