Valdai Club

Tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis. Indeed, times they are a-changing, and we change with them. We can only hope that its for the better. However, the first days of the third decade of the 21st century lead one to doubt that the world, at least, has not rushed into the abyss.

We are faced with the threat of a kind of “war of all against all”, a global, world civil war, a multidimensional matrix of conflicts of different origins. Moreover, there is a suspicion that the ability of the world’s elites to settle, and resolve even the most acute conflicts will not be enough to achieve a positive result, writes Valdai Club Chairman Andrey Bystritskiy.

Today, those who must deliver accurate and unbiased information often claim to be masters of minds. As a result, modern man is practically deprived of the opportunity to consume more or less reliable information. He is an object of manipulation in the interests of one or another political or social force, writes Valdai Club Chairman Andrey Bystritskiy.

The successes of Asian countries in the fight against the pandemic have given a lot of enthusiasm to both governments and citizens. And this inspiration, a sense of self-confidence, will definitely bear fruit, principally in the form of growing independence, writes Valdai Club Chairman Andrey Bystritskiy ahead of the Club’s 11th Asian Conference.

It is believed that human beings first appeared when they learned to speak. Much of what is happening now indicates that the skill of articulated speech is being lost. Will this lead to the degradation of people and the disappearance of what we call humanity? The current situation has compromised global communication, threatening us with innumerable troubles.

The coronavirus has accelerated a lot of processes, but above all it has brought about the collapse of the familiar world. It seems that soon there will be a choice between the bad and the very bad. Every time we seem to have reached the bottom, something gives way and we continue to plummet. Amid our fall, we’ve forgotten something – humanity’s potential for ideological conflict, writes Valdai Club Chairman Andrey Bystritskiy.

Democratic slogans swaying on the surface of mass protests can often lead to outright fascism and totalitarianism. So it happened in the first half of the last century in Italy, and in Germany, and in Spain, and in Russia. So it can happen in the USA today, and not only there, writes Valdai Club chairman Andrey Bystritskiy.

Perhaps the strongest impression of the coronavirus pandemic is that there is nowhere to hide from it. If the coronavirus is war, then there is no place to retreat in this war.

On the one hand, this is the pointless question; of course WW2 is over. The last shots of the war rang out 75 years ago. On the other hand, however, many of us treat it as if it had ended only yesterday. Or as if it never ended at all. In any event, the Second World War is not a resolved matter in the context of history.

There is no doubt now that a global pandemic has erupted. There is also no doubt that sooner or later, it will end. But the main question is, what kind of humanity will survive on the ruins of the coronavirus and what it ruined?