By Maung Zarni* TRANSCEND Media Service –

Their discernible inability or lack of will to really promote the collective well-being of us humans and protect our own habitat (the eco-system – not that self-destructive and life-negating Capitalist economic system with no happy ending in sight) can be explained psychologically – in addition to through other lenses. They are all suffering from imperial syndrome of various versions.

1) Loss of Empire (not so great Britain) – The Sun has long set in the genocidal, racist British – actually only English – Raj, and British officials suffer from the delusions that Britain still matters in post-WWII.

2) Fear of loss of really existing Empire (USA) – Despite being the Possessor of the largest military machine ever known in human history which has fought the never-ending wars since the Declaration of Independence in 1776 – what grips the American ruling class which sees itself as ‘indispensable’.  Tell the delusional Washington to ask the Romans, the Spaniards, the Dutch, the Turks, or the English to see if there is such a thing as ‘historical indispensability’.

3) Fear of not having a proper Hans Empire (China) – In the increasingly crude and crass imperial rivalries in the age of WMD is at the heart of Beijing-men who wish to revive the old system of vassals. One of the old Civilizations that has produced nothing inspirational and inspiring than take-away shops around the world and cheap consumer goods is in the final instance is a really sad ideological case with no ideals, no humanism, no compassion, no philosophy – other than the idea that the-Communist-Party-knows-best.

4) The Tsarist Russian bear is a wounded creature – Still licking the wounds bitterly from having been crushed at the game of Empire building by the rivals. The great peasant nation that produced towering intellectuals and artists such as Tolstoy, Lenin, and a zillion others has nothing to offer the world except Mi-G-29s and surface to air missiles. Russia is best suited to only sell arms – not ideas or leadership.

5) Napoleonic France knows that the days of being a real player are long gone – French is not even the language of (European) civilizations any longer. So, it only focuses on going into dodgy brothels of resources around the world which other western imperial powers (USA and UK) pretend to treat them as out of moral bounds.

And you expect sane and humane policies and behaviors from these permanent members.

I prefer stray dogs guarding our world – they could only bite countable number of the innocent on our streets.

*Dr. Maung Zarni, Associate Fellow, the University of Malaya, is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment,founder and director of the Free Burma Coalition (1995-2004), and a visiting fellow (2011-13) at the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit, Department of International Development, London School of Economics. His forthcoming book on Burma will be published by Yale University Press. He was educated in the US where he lived and worked for 17 years. Visit his website www.maungzarni.com. Zarmi’s article was published by TRANSCEND Media Service. Go to Original.