The Art of Civilizations

The realization of what the BRICS is in the current world situation, the role it plays and the role it is called upon to play, can come about through a rethinking of the situation humanity finds itself in. Since the 1990s, or perhaps even before, the globalization process has been a unipolar model. That is, the globalist and liberal West has said: our civilization carries unique cultural values. If you want to develop, you must become like us in technology, politics, economics, culture, diplomacy, education. Be like us, and we will have one humanity, one world. One world, one world, is the global West, which extends its postmodernist ideological criteria to the whole of humanity. "Well, let us unite on this basis," we are told, and we continue to insist.

Gradually, we see other sovereign actors popping up besides the global West. The American political scientist Samuel Huntington predicted this, that there would be a clash of civilizations. We make a big mistake when we read Huntington and pay attention to the first word clash. We should instead pay attention to the second word: civilization.

Why does Huntington, being a realist in international relations, emphasize the clash, talk about its probability? Because realism in international relations is based on absolute sovereignty, which allows for the possibility of war, since there is no sovereign authority. For any realist in international relations to think in terms of confrontation or the possibility of military conflict is something natural. But Samuel Huntington's novelty does not lie in this, because he states that civilizations, i.e. cultures, are becoming the new subjects of the world order.

This multipolar world, composed of different subjects, different civilizations and cultures, is being created before our eyes. It is no longer a matter of theory, but of practice, and BRICS is a fundamental movement towards institutionalizing this multipolar world. In fact, BRICS is already a multipolar world in its institutional incarnation, but the participants in BRICS are not so much states as great civilizations comprising a variety of countries. For instance, Akhand Bharat, the name of India, the authentic Indian word for Greater India, is not just India as a nation-state. Akhand Bharat is a huge culture influenced by many countries and many peoples.

Tianxia is the idea of Chinese civilization. Chinese culture is even more than China, it is the Celestial Empire. It is China and the vast territory under its influence, and it is culture and the cultural code is more important than the state. Russia is more than Russia. The Russian world is not the Russian Federation, just as Akhand Bharat is not just India, Tianxia is not just the People's Republic of China, but it is broader - civilization. China, India, Russia are civilization-states.

The Islamic world represents many states. There are Shias and Sunnis, there are secular regimes, like Erdogan's, and there are rigidly religious regimes, but it is one civilization, one pole.

Africa is the continent of the future that is returning to its destiny. Africa is starting a spiral of deep decolonization, seeking its cultural roots, not following the West, but going its own way. Africa is discovering its identity and this is its culture. Africa is present in the BRICS with its two powerful centers, South Africa and Ethiopia. Ethiopia is the only African country that has never been conquered or colonized, it is the symbol of free Africa. South Africa is the symbol of the struggle against colonization, a fierce and victorious struggle against racism and colonialism and, of course, there are the West African countries, where there is a blossoming of African culture, African identity, African tradition, which has its roots in Egypt, in even earlier times.

Latin America is represented in the BRICS by Brazil. Argentina was a member, it is time for Mexico and other Latin American countries to join.

In other words, the BRICS is composed of cultures, the BRICS is a dialogue of cultures, it is a completely new multipolar model, where there is no West. Of course, if the West comes to its senses and returns to its cultural roots, it can become a participant in this dialogue of cultures. But for now it is out of the game, because it insists that there are no cultures and civilizations, but only one - the West - and that it is the only one.

The BRICS countries oppose this hegemony, this racist colonial approach. The important thing is that the BRICS is a unity of different, not the replacement of one hegemon by another.

Of course, there are contradictions, for example between the Islamic world and India, between the Chinese model and the Islamic model, between India and China... Russia as an orthodox Eurasian civilization is another value system, but despite all the contradictions, we are united by the fact that we all build our civilizations on the basis of traditional values. But the West imposes non-traditional, anti-traditional values on us and not only imposes them, but believes they must be the only ones.

The representatives of the West believe that only where there is something like the globalist West, there is progress and civilization. Everything else is outside of it. The most important message of the BRICS, the cultural basis of the BRICS, is dialogue, the ability to understand the other. This is the philosophy of our cultural dialogue.

How does the West understand the 'other'? The West says: the other is me, be like us. Whatever the colour of your skin, whatever your country of origin, if you are for the abolition of the sexes, if you adhere to our liberal-individualist value system of market economy and parliamentary democracy, then we will recognize you. But you will be committed to catching up, even if you never catch up. However, we will help you catch up: we will provide you with volunteers from our countries for your unconventional parades and everything else. In other words, we will bring you closer to us and thus eliminate the problem of the 'other' and if the 'other' does not want to become like us, then we declare war on it. We declare war on Gaza, we declare war on Russia in Ukraine, we declare war on China with its desire to join Taiwan. We declare war on those who do not agree with us. This is the problem of the 'other'.

The BRICS should offer a completely different system of interaction: The 'other' is not someone like me. We Russians have a great experience of empire, we are a strong state, but in the framework of a multipolar world we do not say: become like us, adopt the Orthodox faith, be Eurasian, read our books. No, if you want to, read our books, accept our faith, if you don't want to, don't read them, don't accept them. We respect the cultural identity of all our partners! Including the West! And if the West has its own way, we will say: OK, if you like it that way, that's your choice, we don't touch you, but don't come to us with this, leave humanity alone. Our proposal to the West is to leave humanity alone!

But the West cannot do this because it does not know what the 'other' is. Its understanding of the 'other' is reduced to a hegemonic paradigm that is totally racist and despite the best minds in the West: Franz Boas's American anthropology proposed accepting the 'other' as others. European culture knows what the other is. But today's liberal globalist elite is abandoning this profound humanist heritage, Western by the way. By betraying its roots, it has become a culture of annihilation, they have begun to destroy cultural specificities, the roots of their own civilization.

The alternative West, on the other hand, can participate in our cultural base. Yes, we are still far from being included in the BRICS, but in principle the BRICS is exactly the beginning of the structure of that sincere, democratic and honest dialogue in which representatives of all societies, countries and states within the BRICS projects could participate. But not by losing their identity, but by preserving their cultural characteristics, and if we talk about a common cultural project, be it films or other projects involving representatives of different civilizations, it is important that they are marked by their civilizations, that they arrive at a common film project, for example, with the traditions of Russian cinema, Indian Bollywood, African Nollywood. We must bring strictly marked and diverse identities into our dialogue, without mixing, but constantly ready for interchange. This is the approach of the BRICS cultural platform that seems most fruitful. It is not a unity against, it is not a unity around one universal cultural model. It is an equal and balanced, truly democratic, truly human dialogue of civilizations and cultures.

If it is characteristic of American political thought to think of everything through the category of confrontation, it is characteristic of the Russian political and cultural tradition to think of everything through the category of peace. We are a very peaceful people who nevertheless know how to react. But peace must be understood with the preservation of cultural diversity in mind. The history of Russia is very indicative in this regard. How many peoples have survived on our territory! Caucasian, Pan-Asian, Islamic peoples! All have their own language, their own cultural system. This ability to preserve diversity is our art and, likewise, the same ability in Islamic, Chinese, Indian civilizations. The ability to include the different, the different, not to erase, not to destroy: this is the art of civilization. The BRICS cultural project should move in this direction. If we follow this philosophy, which is the main platform of our association, we will achieve extraordinary results.

Many BRICS projects are unfortunately stalled. For example, the common currency, the BRICS Bank, but this happens precisely because the channels of cultural understanding have not been opened and the dialogue between our civilizations, not just between countries, has not yet acquired a deep cultural dimension.

It is no coincidence that the St Petersburg Economic Forum is dedicated to multipolarity. Our task, after listening to everyone, is to discover, justify, develop, outline a continent of cultural cooperation. I would not call it a market, I would say it is a gift, a gift economy, like Marcel Mauss. We Russians do not like exchange. We like to give, to give someone away. Our attitude towards a guest, towards a friend, is a sincere gift, and this cultural basis of the gift economy within great humanity will show an example of a truly human, truly cordial attitude towards the other, not through enmity, but through love.

There is a long way to go to defend these principles. Ultimately, the task, the mission of the BRICS is cultural liberation. We cannot see our brothers suffering under the yoke of globalist elites. We are by no means the enemy of Western culture. The enemy of Western culture is the one who leads the West today, because he is the one who erases culture.

The BRICS has a huge task of deep decolonization of consciousness. Only on this free and sovereign recognition of our sovereign values can we build our future.

Translation by Lorenzo Maria Pacini