Can Asians think?

Kishore Mahbubani ,a Singaporean analyst wrote a book on Can Asians think? That is a sweeping statement because of course Asians can think but not in the paradigm of Western thinking as our cultural context is different.Reading between the lines,our approach is inferential,not blunt and direct.As Andrew Sheng in his column Think Asian poses a very provocative question " Can the great powers avoid war?".it seems to be like a canary in the coal mine giving a warning that when a hegemonic power faces internal instability,it may try the weapon of mass distraction by starting a war in a foreign nation.Samuel Huntington asks " Can the West renew itself or will sustained internal rot simply accelerate its end and subordination to other economically and demographically more dynamic civilizations?"Arnold Toynbee saw that collapses are not necessarily due to barbarian invasions but whether the ruling elite can overcome their own greed or interests to address the new challenges.After the Jan 6,2020 insurrection in Washington DC,many are inclined to believe that fratricidal tribalism is happening now inside America.Andrew Sheng opines that there can never be one Grand Narrative by the elites until there are enough dialogues between the many. When the meek are weak,they suffer because they must.But when the strong are insecure,that is when war begins. Jacques B Gelinas in his book Juggernaut Politics (Understanding Predatory Globalization).On the one hand,he maintained "nothing is more difficult for the human mind than to change a paradigm-that is to change mainstream common sense and the worldview provided by those in power.Today's neoliberal religion requires that economic activity,society and life itself be ordered and revolve around the global market.In later chapters,he argues that change is possible when a crtical mass is formed through solidarity and single mindedness.Throughout the history of civilizations,all those who struggle to broaden the scope of liberty and justice were,in their time,called idealists by the powers that be.And yet,thoroughly convinced that they could not live in a world where those values were not possible,these stubborn idealists succeeded in havingb their impossible dreams prevail.This was the case of abolitionists who fought for decades to end slaveryThe same can be said of the anti colonialsts.From Bolivar to Ho Chi Minh,they were all idealists who in struggling against the current radically changed global geopolitics,given that at the start of the 20th century ,barely 10% of the world's population live in an independent nation. Another,still unfinished struggle is that of the feminist movement launched by women driven by an ideal of justice that clashed head on with a male chauvinism that has prevailed for thousands of years and that all secular and religious powers have defended tooth and nail.In Canada,machismo was so deeply rooted in political culture that women had to appeal to the supreme Court of the British Empire to be recognized in 1929 as human beings in the constitutional law of their own country.The forerunners of the ecology movement were also accused of unmitigated idealism since they were challenging powerful interests.Today Rachel Carson The Silent Spring is hailed as an avant garde,intelligent, and courageous environmentalist. All these pioneers bring us back to fundamental values,such as solidarity,sharing and co-operation which has been lost to an amazing degree in our civilization of self interest and greed. A sociologist ,Edgar Morin writes in Introduction a une politique de l"homme on preparing our societies entry into the 21st century "the new concept of revolution needs to be tied to that of conservation,which also needs to be purified and developed.We must preserve nature,preserve cultures that want to live and preserve ourv past human heritage because it holds the seeds of our future.We need to rethink and refine the idea of revolution,which has become reactionary,and most of the time is a disguise for domination and oppression.We must revolutionise this world in order to preserve it." A cause forvthe 21st century " It is now our time to accept responsibility for our freedom or perish as a species that failed to find its place of service in the web of life." David C Korten