Identity Politics and Culture Wars: A New Determinism? Статья Министра иностранных дел Беларуси Владимира Макея в журнале Russia in Global Affairs (23.09.2014)
25.09.2014 г.All periods in history have been typically marked by some kind of determinism. Even in early human societies geography largely determined the path of development. Indeed, as U.S evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond has convincingly demonstrated, geographic factors such as two rivers and an east-west expanse contributed to the early cultural and political unification of China, whereas Western Europe, with a similar area but a rugged terrain and no unifying rivers, was a place conducive to intense competition.
However, while geographic determinism accounted for how societies developed in the distant past, other factors influenced humanity’s subsequent evolution. For example, religion was a key dividing issue for much of the 16th and 17th centuries. The emergence of Protestantism in northern Europe in the early 16th century sparked religious wars on the continent that ostensibly ended only with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.
Similarly, the class struggle was arguably the key fault line for most of the 19th century, a fight that was at the core of the Industrial Revolution and relentlessly pitted industrial workers against the bourgeoisie throughout much of Europe. The 20th century was marked overwhelmingly by ideological determinism, since the latter stood at the root of the geopolitical rivalry between two superpowers and their respective blocs.
What is the defining fault line in the world today?
See more at http://eng.globalaffairs.ru/number/Identity-Politics-and-Culture-Wars-A-New-Determinism-16995
