Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2003 00:40:20 +0100
From: Jan Straathof <janstr-AT-chan.nl>
Subject: Re: soliloquy


Anthony,

Thanks for your post, your scholastic eloquence always amaze and
overwhelm me, and i appreciate it very much, so please don't conceive
my response in any light of personal attack or resentment.

In fact there's only one issue of which i want your opinion of.

With Heidegger i believe we live in "Die Zeit des Weltbildes", and
that our late modern world-picture is revealing as world-system.

The bi-polar world-system (US/EU + USSR/China) ended with the fall
of the Berlin Wall. At that time these were the only two power blocks
that had possession of nuclear weaponry (i.e. techne/energeia). After the
fall the world-system has entered a period of uncertainty, and the main
question is: 'Will the future bring us an uni-polar world-system, or a
multi-polar world-system' ?

For the beginning of the 21stC i'm in the camp of the advocates of a
multi-polar world-system, for instance a three-block system containing
roughly: The Americas  + Deep Europa + Asian Tigers. But, of course,
there are many other constellations imaginable and desirable.

Yet, inevitably, congruent with any multi-polar world-system is the
situation of a multiple-equilibrium of nuclear powers. I think, thus,
that i (personally as a dutch, westener.... ) must get used to the idea
that more countries/regions/blocks than the two traditional blocks
will come in possession of nuclear weaponry. And for the time being,
let's hope that the ancient doctrine of mutual/plural deterrence will
work.

yours,
Jan




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