A Chinese empire?
As a youngster in the Big Apple during the Great Depression, I recall men with billboard signs with “The world is coming to an end — REPENT”. The people they passed on the streets shrugged them off. l didn’t fully understand what it meant, but I knew that threats aren’t to be taken lightly.
Was the Sun about to be extinguished? Then I heard people predicting if the planets lined up in a certain way it would cause Earth to fall out of orbit and fly off into space. Somehow, the prospect didn’t bother me too much. Then came World War II and its Armageddon consequences if we lost.
The Cold War brought on the fear of Doomsday. The ticking clock was at five minutes to midnight. Meteors were slamming into Uranus. Was our planet next? The ozone layer is breaking up. The sea is rising. Escalating temperatures will fry us all.
What will happen when the petrol dries up? When there isn’t enough food and water for the multiplying population? Incurable viruses. Invasions of hostile aliens from another galaxy. Wars between the Haves and the Havenots. Another Great Depression, greater than the first.
Novelists, academics and pundits have a basket full of such warnings to worry us about, others as well. The Naked Diplomat by Tom Fletcher, a British diplomat, is a case in point. He believes negotiation is preferable to war. But it requires experienced diplomats, with limitless patience.
The peace process in Northern Ireland took years, mutual suspicions were overcome. So did peace in Lebanon, where he was UK ambassador from 2011 to 2015. Give peace a chance. He gives us a short history of diplomacy. He thinks President Trump isn’t up to it.
Taking the long view empires come and go, Europe, not least Britain and Russia, had its day. The US is losing its ascendancy as China breathes down its neck. India and Brazil aren’t far behind. Islam has no economy to speak of. Trade is the key to the future, not terrorism.
Apparently, repenting isn’t the solution to dangers across the globe. This reviewer wonders if the author isn’t underestimating the American unexpectedly occupying the Oval Office.
Time will tell.