Josef ZISSELS: Western World is on Conservative Apogee of World Historical Pendulum

Currently, the Western countries are on the conservative apogee of the world historical pendulum moving between conservatism and liberalism.

Josef Zissels, the Executive Vice President of the Congress of Ethnic Communities of Ukraine, stated this during the 11^th Kyiv Security Forum in Kyiv.

“The humanity simultaneously possesses two opposite tendencies – liberal and conservative, which cooperate with each other, interact, and it is similar to oscillations of a pendulum. In my opinion, we are now on the part of the trajectory of this world pendulum, which moves to its conservative apogee. And then, perhaps, there will be a return path to the liberal apogee,” he said.

According to J.Zissels, as we look at the events and processes taking place in the world, “we see only what annoys us, without paying attention to the main basic processes and problems that are solved by these processes, and we do not see where these negative aspects of the conservative tendency process come from”. “This conservative tendency is the mainstream, which, as it seems to me, is the main thing in all these relations and exacerbations,” he said.

The Executive Vice President of the Congress of Ethnic Communities of Ukraine cited the following image on this subject: “Underwater in the ocean there is a powerful submarine. Some waves coming from it create white bristles and foam. And we notice this – the third derivative of a certain process, which we do not see and do not realize”.

According to him, these conservative tendencies are observed in many countries of Europe, as well as in the United States, but in each individual country “this conservative tendency has its peculiarities specific to this country and due to the identity of the people of this country, national and religious characteristics, its history and geopolitical peculiarities”.

At the same time, the general factor that affects all is that there are too many changes in a very short time: “It frightens people, causes anxiety and they become more conservative”.

“The main reason for this conservative tendency is a certain crisis of liberalism, with the negative aspects of the liberal path of Europe and of those countries that share the values of liberalism having accumulated in recent decades,” J.Zissels noted.

He believes that in the western part of Europe there are steady political processes and parties. But in the new countries of Eastern Europe, it takes place slightly different, “where democracy has won not so long ago and freed them from colonial dependence, from either the Russian Empire or the Soviet Union”. Therefore, experiencing challenges from the East, particularly, the challenges of communism, the countries of Eastern Europe immediately began with a conservative momentum that can move into radical phases”, J.Zissels added.

He expressed fear that if this process was determined by history, by such fluctuations of the historical pendulum, Ukraine would also crawl into this process, which could have many negative aspects.

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The annual international event Kyiv Security Forum was launched by the Arseniy Yatsenyuk Foundation Open Ukraine in 2007 as a platform for high-level discussions on the current issues in Europe and the Black Sea region. The Forum aims at increasing security cooperation between the EU and the Black Sea region, raising awareness about regional developments among key regional players, promoting the role of independent and non-governmental actors in setting the security agenda in Europe.

The event is being held with the support of NATO Information and Documentation Center in Ukraine, the German Marshall Fund, The Victor Pinchuk Foundation, The Royal Institute of International Relations, Chatham House (UK), and The Regional Representative Office of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Ukraine.