MINSK, 11 January (BelTA) – The developments taking place in the United States of America have demonstrated the weakness and elusiveness of Western democracy, Nikolai Shchekin, Candidate of Philosophy, Head of the Sociology of Public Administration Department at the Sociology Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, told BelTA.
According to him, since 1997, after the signing of the Kyoto Protocol, the United States, like the entire West, gradually began to move towards a deep social crisis, an imbalance in the role of the state and global corporate interests. “During the past year, the whole world has seen mayhem, pogroms in cities, robberies and murders in America. Two trends have emerged both in the United States and throughout the West. On the one hand, an outburst of people's despair and betrayal by the political elite of their people. On the other hand, the so-called apostles of democracy, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, Twitch, Reddit, have become the mouthpiece of extremism and turned into a mechanism for unleashing a digital civil war. There was usurpation of power in line with the American model with the further destruction of social values and a real blocking of freedom of choice and religion. It is unclear whether the nuclear weapons of the superpower are now safe, the matter that puts the entire world in jeopardy,” the expert noted.
“Lawlessness, ‘American-style democracy' swept over not just the United States as a country, but first of all, penetrated the minds of people. The fears that America is degrading confirmed. However, it should be noted that European countries are moving in exactly the same direction. The political impotence of the ruling elites, their corruption, the permissiveness of the special services, the merging of public and private corporate interests led to the moral bankruptcy of the West and the beginning of its degradation. Moreover, transnational corporations enforce their own rules of the game, in which the individual, their rights, and even more so freedoms and democratic principles are destroyed through digital technologies. Incompetency, the lack of discipline in the police and special services of the West lead to sad consequences - terror and erosion of statehood foundations. Banning Donald Trump from various social networks is a direct way to creating a digital concentration camp. What we are seeing in the United States has shown the weakness and elusiveness of Western democracy. The situation around the election demonstrates that the global financial elites are ready to destroy any state in pursuit of their interests. The United States is a pioneer of online repression not only in America but around the world,” the expert said.
Nikolai Shchekin is sure that the same fate was prepared for Belarus. “Only the political will of Aleksandr Lukashenko and his loyalty to the country made it possible to avoid the American (alternative) scenario and to defend the country's sovereignty and independence, stopping an open cyber-threat. It is already obvious that all the assumptions and hypotheses that on 9 August 2020 and in the post-election period Belarus was used as a testing ground for the implementation of the digital coup d'etat turned out to be true. Therefore, I think that in the near future, having made the right conclusions from global processes and amidst increased pressure on Belarus, efforts should be taken to visualize cyber-threats and develop measures to counter pressure, primarily in the field of information technology. All need to unite to maintain stability, peace and justice,” Nikolai Shchekin concluded.
