The Coming Age of New Unfreedom in Post-Communist States

In this coming “post-post-Cold War era,” many of the smaller post-communist states are sandwiched among major powers with imperial ambitions, and there are already five major patterns which can be detected and are worth mentioning here.

Of course, these five patterns (as summarized below) are solely illustrative, and I refer the reader to my 2007 book (and other related books of mine as shown in the bibliography at the end of this essay) for elaboration.

Firstly, many of these smaller post-communist states will continue to be a battleground among different major powers for exploitation and domination. Besides Russia, the U.S., and the E.U. -- future players will also include China and India (or what I called “the hyper-empires” in the future).

Secondly, new empires with this magnitude of cross-continental reach (encompassing numerous members) are seldom benign in history, as they all dominate and oppress (or exploit) the smaller ones in their own unique ways, which differ from region to region, from era to era, and the like.

For instance, Western multinational firms already start spreading their dominant presence in many of the post-communist states (replacing many local businesses), causing some nascent resentment among the locals. And NATO already decided to put some missiles on the territories of some post-communist states (like Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria), causing some emergent concerns among the locals, because of the risk of being targeted by Russian counterparts as a retaliation.

To make things more complicated, domination and its consequential oppression (or exploitation) can also take different forms, be they along the lines of ethnicity, race, region, language, political power, economic exploitation, ideology, religion, social norms, mass culture, and the like.

In addition, as if to make things even more complicated, the opening up to the Western model has also brought its unspoken ills on many fronts. In many of the post-communist states, old hostilities among different ethnic and racial groups now reappear, sometimes in broad daylight. Hate crimes are back. Brain drains worsen, when local economies are uncompetitive. Some cities and towns can be left half-empty and half-abandoned, and many communities depend on foreign remittances. Old folks living on pensions, the homeless, those with the wrong and/or insufficient skills, and others like them are some of the new losers in the new era. Those who are disillusioned turn to the addictive relief of alcoholism.

Many girls go into prostitution (and pornography), especially targeting foreign customers with thick wallets, or, alternatively, fleeing abroad in major Western cities, thanks to the growing business of human trafficking (for sex slaves). Western mass culture industry steadily reshapes local entertainment (according to its own hegemonic image), as a form of soft power domination. Money laundering, drug trafficking, and criminal gangs proliferate, as they provide life support and exciting activities for many idle locals, especially among young and middle-aged men.

Even law enforcement officers are themselves vulnerable to different forms of corruption. Local politicians are subject to bribery and pressure by major Western powers -- and at times spend more time fighting with each other than doing much for their own peoples. Multinational firms move in and start exercising their dominant presence (and replacing local businesses), often with complicity of the local politicians (who can personally benefit from it). Secret prisons (by the U.S.) for torturing already appear in some post-communist states. Installations of missiles by the U.S. already appear in some post-communist states, putting the local population at great risk of being targeted in return by Russian counterparts. Nationals from major powers in alliance with many of these post-communist states (especially in political, military, and diplomatic circles) enjoy some extrajudicial treatment -- more than what local people want to know.

And these examples are only illustrative, as there are many more, as already extensively analyzed in my other books titled THE FUTURE OF HUMAN CIVILIZATION (2000), THE FUTURE OF CAPITALISM AND DEMOCRACY (2002), BEYOND DEMOCRACY TO POST-DEMOCRACY (2004), and other books of mine.

Thirdly, domination and its consequential effect of oppression (or exploitation) in society and culture do not occur overnight, as it will take many decades for its development to be complete -- just as a lung cancer in a human body does not occur overnight, as it will take many years for it to grow into a deadly mature form.

For this reason, there is a pervasive sense of innocence, or a widespread sentiment of complacency, in many of the post-communist states, because they have not yet encountered the new unfreedom in its complete form, while having been so distracted by their attempt (at the moment) to get rid of their old master and welcoming the new era (without the thorough understanding of the dangerous consequences to their new found freedom in their hurried marriage of convenience with the West).