East-West Issues



The 21st Century: American Dreams? European Imagination? Asian Contempt?

Posted by on Jul 21, 2012 in east west issues, threefold Society | 0 comments

The 21st Century: American Dreams? European Imagination? Asian Contempt?

                                                                © Terry Boardman  September 1997     The recent death of Diana, Princess of Wales has led many in the media to claim that ‘a quiet revolution’ has been taking place in Britain, and that Diana was a symbol of this. We now have a chance to consider Britain’s identity, they say, where we want to go as a people in the 21st century, and they reflect on how we are becoming more...

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Desert Islands – The Three Historical Temptations of England and Japan

Posted by on Jul 10, 2012 in east west issues | 0 comments

Desert Islands – The Three Historical Temptations of England and Japan

by Terry Boardman This essay first appeared in New View magazine Summer 2011 In my life, music has been the art that has touched me the most, and music has about it much of the element of dream in that – especially if one is not a trained musician who thinks about music in terms of scores, crotchets, quavers, minims and the aspects of musical technique etc. – one experiences music as it enters one’s feeling life. This is above all the case in one’s teens and twenties. I grew up with Anglo-American pop, rock and jazz music, much...

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Into the Bleak Midwinter? The Indian Ocean and Korea

Posted by on Jul 2, 2012 in east west issues | 0 comments

Into the Bleak Midwinter?  The Indian Ocean and Korea

© Terry Boardman     This article first appeared in New View magazine Issue 58 Winter 2010/2011 Here in the Northern hemisphere as we approach the darkest time of year I can only say that the omens for peace in 2011 do not look good and that is without even thinking about America, Israel and Iran. First, it is well to be aware of some East Asian anniversaries. There will be many in that region who will be very conscious of the 60 year cycle completed in 2008 when North Korea celebrated its 60th anniversary and also the 60 year cycle...

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War in Eurasia 2011 ? Adbusters and The Economist

Posted by on Jul 2, 2012 in east west issues | 0 comments

War in Eurasia 2011 ?  Adbusters and The Economist

This essay is  about a couple of articles that appeared recently (May) in Adbusters magazine, and their relation to something that appeared in The Economist in Dec. 1992 “Adbusters Media Foundation is a not-for-profit, anti-consumerist organization founded in 1989 by Kalle Lasn and Bill Schmalz  in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The foundation describes itself as “a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the...

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1908 and 2008: Earth Monkey, Earth Rat

Posted by on Jul 2, 2012 in east west issues | 0 comments

1908 and 2008: Earth Monkey, Earth Rat

  © Terry Boardman     This article first appeared in New View magazine 1st Quarter Winter 2008/09     There are particularly momentous years in the biographies of individuals and in the histories of nations. For example, 2008 has clearly turned out to be one such year in the modern history of China . Against a background of increasing concern in the western media about the consequences of China’s growth, its use of natural resources to support its massive economic appetite, its successful economic diplomacy...

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Tibet and Its Guardians – between China and the West (2)

Posted by on Jul 2, 2012 in east west issues | 0 comments

Tibet and Its Guardians – between China and the West (2)

This article was first published in New View magazine Issue 49 -  4th Quarter Autumn 2008 Following on from part 1 (New View 3rd Quarter Summer 2008) this article will consider the question: “Why are China and the West so concerned to be the guardians  of  Tibet and its people?” from three aspects: economic, political and spiritual. Tibet on the Economic Chessboard In April 1904 the British geographer, Halford J. Mackinder, wrote a hugely influential essay in The Geographical Journal (Vol. 23, No. 4) titled “The Geographical...

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Tibet and its Guardians – between China and the West (1)

Posted by on Jul 2, 2012 in east west issues | 0 comments

Tibet and its Guardians – between China and the West (1)

This article was first published in New View magazine Issue 48 3rd Quarter July – Sept 2008   It’s a paradox. The more we human beings are willing to hear one another’s differences, the more hope there is that we can cooperate toward truly human ends. The more we accept our divergences, the greater the hope for convergence. For we cannot arrive at the truth of love without working through our various versions of the love of truth. This was the project which the American monk Thomas Merton was about when he died, in 1968, while on a...

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The US-China Relationship in the 21st Century and the Spectres of 1776 (2)

Posted by on Jul 2, 2012 in east west issues | 0 comments

The US-China Relationship in the 21st Century and the Spectres of 1776 (2)

  © Terry Boardman This article first appeared  in New View magazine 2nd Quarter Spring 2007     The year 1776 saw four developments of crucial importance which are all in a sense related: the American Declaration of Independence from Britain, the publications of Adam Smith’s book The Wealth of Nations and the first part of Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and the foundation of by Adam Weishaupt (1748-1830) of his  conspiratorial group, the Order of the Illuminati, dedicated to the...

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The US-China Relationship in the 21st Century and the Spectres of 1776 (1)

Posted by on Jul 2, 2012 in east west issues | 0 comments

The US-China Relationship in the 21st Century and the Spectres of 1776  (1)

  © Terry Boardman This essay  – the first of a pair on the subject – was first published in New View magazine Winter (1st Quarter -  2006/2007)   The world’s future in the first half of the 21st century will be profoundly affected by the relationship of the Atlantean giants, China [1] and America.                           We can all surely recognise that human beings do not always act in their own best interests; they do not always act rationally. An international bestseller in 1909...

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The Balance of Spiritual Combat – China’s Cultural Challenge to the West in the 21st Century

Posted by on Jul 1, 2012 in east west issues, most recent | 0 comments

The Balance of Spiritual Combat – China’s Cultural Challenge to the West in the 21st Century

© Terry Boardman   This essay appeared as an article in “New View” magazine Winter 2005/6     The Crucible of the 13th Century Many have recognised the great debt owed by western natural science to the spiritual stream of what has been called Islam, but which in fact is far broader than that of just the 7th century Arab conquerors of the Middle East, since it includes the fruits of the much more sophisticated and long-developed cultures of the region – Syria, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia. To a very large degree,...

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