Total domination by the “golden billion”
Excerpts from a speech of Vladimir Putin at the Conference “Strong Ideas for a New Time”1
(18 August 2022) (Edit.) On July 20, Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a short speech to the Plenary session of the conference “Strong Ideas for a New Time”, which received wide attention in Russia. In it, he characterized Western society from the Russian perspective. This description is also shared by large parts of the world. However, it hardly finds its way into the debates in our western media. We reproduce here a key section of the speech.
“[…] This mechanism is fully consonant with the tasks of our internal development and the time when truly revolutionary transformations are gaining momentum and getting stronger. These enormous changes are irreversible, of course. National and global processes are underway to develop the fundamentals and principles of a harmonious, fairer and more community-focused and safe world order as an alternative to the existing world order, or the unipolar world order in which we lived, and which, because of its nature, is definitely becoming a brake on the development of our civilisation.
The model of total domination by the so-called golden billion2 is unfair. Why should this “golden billion”, which is only part of the global population, dominate everyone else and enforce its rules of conduct that are based on the illusion of exceptionalism?3 It divides the world into first and second-class people and is therefore essentially racist and neo-colonial. The underlying globalist and pseudo-liberal ideology is becoming increasingly more like totalitarianism and is restraining creative endeavour and free historical creation.
One gets the impression that the West is simply unable to offer the world a model for the future of its own. Indeed, it was no accident that the “golden billion” attained its gold and achieved quite a lot, but it got there not because it implemented certain concepts. It mainly got to where it is by robbing other peoples in Asia and Africa. That is how it was. India was robbed for an extensive period of time. This is why the elite of the “golden billion” are terrified of other global development centres potentially coming up with their own development alternatives.
No matter how much the West and the supranational elite strive to preserve the existing order, a new era and a new stage in world history are coming. Only genuinely sovereign states are in a position to ensure a high growth dynamic and become a role model for others in terms of standards of living and quality of life, the protection of traditional values and high humanistic ideals, and development models where an individual is not a means, but the ultimate goal.
Sovereignty is about freedom of national development, and thus, the development of every individual. It is about the technological, cultural, intellectual and educational solvency of a state – that is what it is. No doubt, responsible, active and nationally minded and nationally oriented civil society is the most important component of sovereignty.
I am convinced that in order to be strong, independent and competitive, we need to improve the mechanisms for people to participate in the country’s life and to make them more open and fairer. That includes mechanisms for direct democracy and people’s involvement in addressing the critical problems facing society and the public. […]”
1 Speech at the “Strong Ideas for a New Time” Forum. Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks via video link at the forum organised by the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI) and Roscongress Foundation. The purpose of the forum is to form a community of initiative people and consolidate 100 strong ideas that will help restart the economy and social spheres and develop a technological development strategy for the country.
2 This refers to the population of the “Western world”, which claims most of the world’s resources, even though the world’s population exceeds eight billion people.
3 American Exceptionalism is the idea that the United State is inherently different from other nations. Proponents of it argue that the values, political system, and historical development of the U.S. are unique in human history, often with the implication that it is both destined and entitled to play a distinct and positive role on the world stage. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_exceptionalism)