The World has been split along some interesting lines in its long and messy history. More recent examples include the Communist World vs the Free World in the Cold War period, which was succeeded by the G7 vs BRICS thing. This has now been replaced by the latest division, which we saw on display during Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's visit to China.
During that visit the New York Times asked Carney if China was now a more predictable partner to Canada than the US, to which he replied:
"Yes, in terms of the way that our relationship has progressed in recent months with China, it is more predictable, and you see results coming from that."
Yes, the division is no longer ideological, it is actuarial, with the world divided into nations that believe in chaos and those that crave the measurement and management of risk and uncertainty.
On one side you have America and Russia, whilst on the other you have the EU, the UK, China, and, yes, Canada, which has been completely alienated from its former close relationship with the United States by Trump's increasingly unhinged behaviour.
On one side you have America and Russia, whilst on the other you have the EU, the UK, China, and, yes, Canada, which has been completely alienated from its former close relationship with the United States by Trump's increasingly unhinged behaviour.
But let's be careful not to just blame just Trump. To those of us who have been paying attention, it is clear that the forces of chaos have been building up in America for some time, with some of the more prominent factors being an oligarchic billionaire class made up of AI-obsessed autistic types, dysfunctional demographics, and a misshapen democratic structure that serves both to eradicate trust in the political system and polarise the population.
With Russia, it's a much simpler story of a mafia state believing its own very potent propaganda and falling into a hole it dug itself.
With Russia, it's a much simpler story of a mafia state believing its own very potent propaganda and falling into a hole it dug itself.
But no matter how you get there, once you enter "Camp Chaos," you are essentially on the same side, especially if you are separated from your fellow inmates by the padded walls of intervening countries.
Likewise, with the Predictables. Once you notice that there are countries, formally allied to you that are now doolally, there is a common instinct to back away from them and, instead, forge links with countries whose only similarity to your own is that they like to behave in ways that are at least foreseeable.
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Colin Liddell is the Chief Editor of Neokrat and the author of Interviews & Obituaries, a collection of encounters with the dead and the famous. Support his work by buying his book here (USA), here (UK), and here (Australia), or by taking out a paid subscription on his Substack.
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