The Acceleration of History

At the outset, let me declare that I wouldn't qualify myself as overly nostalgic. My perception of life is that it is simply too short to spend fixated on what happened in years hence; one's past should be a springboard to richer futures. This of course doesn't mean that memories shouldn't be cherished, that special places and times no longer have resonance, that the boundless emotions in the tears and smiles of childhood shall never be revisited. It is merely to not attach undue weight to the past that it takes away from the drive to trail blaze one's own path.

Ideally, the opposite should apply on a societal level. Rather than wholly foregoing all of their traditions in the face of encroaching modernity, society should embrace their past and discover what defines them as a people. Too often in our pursuit of progress, we march forward to invisible goalposts and leave behind our essence. It's as if time has become our enemy, and we think we can outrace it.

The cumulative effect of this onward march is what many historians and sociologists call the 'acceleration of history'. I find it a fascinating phenomenon. Technological innovation, among many other factors, has resulted in massive rise in the pace of change for human societies. The change isn't subtle, the change is usually paradigmatic. Fashions and tastes no longer evolve, they now come with shell-lives. Social and political institutions often are slow to react and find it rather difficult to manage the consequences of these changes.

Our terminology reflects this new reality. We often refer to decades such as the 80s and 90s as 'eras', each with their own self-contained histories and narratives. Yet the changes compacted in those ten years would in the past have taken much longer to come to pass. How can ten years be considered an 'era'? Most of us are familiar with the law of exponential growth as reflected in the inclined curve. This has manifested itself in human behavior with a dizzying effect, as if we are all on steroids.

Our perception of time itself has been drastically altered. Elders tell often of how in their childhood, they could go with their friends in the afternoon, play and chat at length for seemingly hours and hours, and come home with still plenty of time left before sunset. That same sensation of prolonged time seems absent nowadays. The increasing rapidity and intensity of experience is also felt on a purely personal level. It calls to mind the hadith of the blessed Prophet (pbuh): "The hour shall not come until time will be considered short, and a year will appear like a month, a month like a week, a week like a day, a day like an hour and an hour like a flash of fire." (Tirmidhi)

It takes some effort to realise that what is happening is not normal or natural. Does the acceleration continue forever? The French intellectual Rene Guenon pointed out that acceleration, far from being uplifting, is usually associated with downward motion. With intuition, we can guess that at some point the motion will stop. What happens then is anyone's guess.

The Emerging New (Old) World Order

Not good times for Russia. All indications are that the Russian economy is in a tailspin; the value of the Ruble is plummeting, and Western economic sanctions levied after the Crimea takeover last year are taking a serious toll. In the midst of such gloom, Vladimir Putin comes out with a year end three-hour long marathon press conference that has left many analysts baffled. Evoking the proud image of the 'Russian bear', he gave reassurances that the country will return to its former glory, while resisting efforts from Western imperialists to de-fang the country of its teeth and claws (nuclear weapons) and ravage its natural resources.

The image of the bear is clearly intended to stroke nationalistic sentiments, which have seen a resurgence during Putin's decade-plus stay in power. Fierce, strong and independent, the Russian bear is not a hollow symbol for millions of citizens but is representative of a form of collective power through the ages. In the modern world, where borders seemed to have become meaningless in the face of international capital and globalised media and fashion, political nationalism is often presented as a receding force. But evidently, the idea of the 'nation' has staying power beyond demagogic appeals. Depending on the country and region, nationalism has surreptitiously crept into the group psyche of entire populations. It seems helpful to explore a bit into this phenomenon and whether we are potentially headed into a post-nationalist world.

Nationalism: A bit of a Primer

Most of us have no inkling of any sort of political order outside our current arena of nation-states, almost having accepted that some rudimentary form of this contemporary setup has existed throughout human existence. It hasn't, and the change brought about by the birth of nationalism is one of the most profound in recorded history.

According to the eminent historian, Liah Greenfeld, the first modern concept of a 'nation' emerged in England in the 15th century, initiated by the Tudors. The central thrust behind nationalism is that political sovereignty, the legitimacy behind the right to govern and the ownership of a territory, resides in the 'nation', the collective population, not a Divine Source. A nation, unlike other terms used to describe a people, such as ethnicity or race, is inherently a political term. What defines what exactly constitutes a nation is something that has been debated for ages, and is usually classified along linguistic, cultural and historical lines.

In 1648, the Treaty of Westphalia in Europe established definite political dominions recognizing sovereignty within the separate states under ostensibly secular monarchs, not in any religious authority. This was a revolution that dissolved the previous domain of Christendom, when the Church wielded effective control, recognizing only Divine Sovereignty with monarchs acting as mere vassals. As the centuries passed, monarchs and parliaments in the West and appeared not as viceroys for the Lord but representative of the collective will of the 'nation'. This loss of political authority by the religious establishment marked the true origin of secularism and the Modern West. With the passage of time, nationalistic symbols and anthems assumed the aura of religious fervor, only the devotees worshiped now at the altar of a secular geographic god.

A World in Flux

Following independence from colonial rule, the quest for statehood has seen the development of nearly 200 countries across the globe, with more perhaps on the horizon. Nationalism experienced a major boom for much of the 20th century and remained almost to an uncontested degree the definite political order of the human race. Contrary to analysts now who like to view events across entire continents as monolithic happenings, various trends are simultaneously taking place that pose interesting questions for whether this is likely to continue across the 21st century.

The first trend is scaling up. The idea is that the nation-state model is becoming obsolete, and politics should be handled on a larger geographic scale. The European Union has provided the blueprint for such larger regional frameworks. Smaller national affairs have become less meaningful with the temptation of a common economic market, porous borders and shared governance over an entire region. Regionalism is a push to de-emphasize the traditional nation-state model for a larger international groupings. ASEAN, which will form its Common Market this year, and the new Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) appear to be attempts to follow the EU's footsteps.

Another trends is breakdown. Nation-states, particularly post-colonial ones that were fashioned in haste and contrivance, suddenly lose their viability with sufficient internal and external pressure. A 'loss of faith' occurs. In many cases, civil war leads to the state breaking away along to original tribal, religious and ethnic lines, something demonstrated with the sad situation in Syria and Iraq and the rise of ISIS. But Western nations are not exempt. Viewed through a different lens, the recent referendum in Scotland and the possible one in Catalonia can be seen as efforts for a local territory to divest itself a larger federation, in those cases the United Kingdom and Spain. Localism takes precedence over the claims of statehood, even if they extend a few centuries.

Lastly, what we see in Russia is a template being carried in several Asian and Eurasian democracies at the moment: what US political pundit Pat Buchanan calls 'Putinism'. In a departure from traditional liberal democracy, Putinism leans towards autocratic leaders, managed media and a blend of religion and social conservatism all packaged neatly together by economic development. It is something being witnessed in India with Narendra Modi and Turkey with Tayyip Erdogan. Secular modes of nationalism are transformed into a more ethnic, religious variety.

Unlike the claims of those who believe that we are at the precipice of a One-World Government, shifts in the geopolitical tectonic plates suggest that if that is indeed the future, it certainly won't be a straight line. What is clear is that the chest-beating confidence that the West had in the success of its liberal democratic structure is no longer there, and the rest of the World is no longer waiting for cues.