From Newsgroup: soc.culture.bulgaria

The Sounds of Shattering Illusions
Richard David Hames
Aug 08, 2025

https://richarddavidhames.substack.com/p/the-sounds-of-shattering-illusions

Another world is not only possible; she is on her way. Maybe many of us
won't be here to greet her, but on a quiet day, if I listen very
carefully, I can hear her breathing. Arundhati Roy

The West stumbles blindly now, leaderless, bloodied and disoriented, into
the sunset of its authority. Gaza was just the spark, but then the fire
had been smouldering for years rCo in the rubble of Baghdad, the ruins of Kabul, and the mass graves of Libya rCo before exploding defiantly in the streets of Dakar, across the humming docks of Jakarta, and within the high-stakes trading floors of Shanghai. The Global South no longer begs
for scraps at the master's table.

What you hear is the death rattle of empire. For decades, the West ruled through a brutal, though simple, formula: bomb, bribe, and bullshit.
Invade a country, install a puppet, then lecture the world about human
rights while Western banks strip the carcass. But the script has frayed
and now seems beyond repair. The bombs no longer shock the way they once
did. The bribes bounce against closed doors. And the bullshit? The Global South stopped swallowing.

rCa

This is no longer about sympathy. It's about strategy. The West assumed
the Global South would remain on its knees, forever begging for IMF loans
and secondhand fighter jets. Instead, the South has begun its
counterattack. BRICS circle the dollar like vultures, trading oil in
yuan, gold-backed currencies, and deals struck in rupees rCo every
transaction outside SWIFT another nail in America's financial hegemony.
China and Russia now conduct $200 billion in annual trade, bypassing the dollar entirely. India purchases Russian oil in rupees while Saudi Arabia considers yuan payments for Chinese crude. Iran and Russia have created
their own banking systems, processing billions in transactions that
Washington cannot monitor or control. Each alternative payment mechanism represents not just lost revenue but the erosion of the weapon that has enforced Western dominance since Bretton Woods: the ability to print
money backed by global coercion.

The International Court of Justice, once a stage for Western theatrics,
has turned against its creators; South Africa did not ask permission to
charge Israel with genocide; it dragged the West's proxy to court and
forced the world to watch. Resistance spreads like wildfire now, untamed
and unpredictable. Houthi rebels choke Red Sea trade with drones that
cost less than a used car; $20,000 Iranian drones force billion-dollar warships to retreat; and shipping insurance rates spike 300%, while
global supply chains reroute around Africa at costs that bleed Western economies daily.

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