A global shift is underway. And it contains waves of change that are practical, moral and psychological. The most obvious transformation (but far from the only one) is the reorganisation of the capitalist state.
Such claims can appear fantastical. But starting with nations, national politics is 'on the move' - most obviously since the 2008 crash. The major national changes started from the 1980s (the collapse of the USSR, the emergence of state capitalism in China, the creation of the western European block etc) but are now explicitly rapid, especially in what used to be the dominant West. What is the machine of national changes, particularly in the West? It is the consequence of the failure of capitalism. A big idea to swallow? Perhaps. But if we start with Lenin it might help our digestion!
The 'talmudic' research of Lenin's writings has led mainly to a mess down the ages. However, one of his most poorly translated comments has resulted in a muddle that does merit some study. Lenin is often quoted that imperialism is the last or the final stage of capitalism. Not so. Lenin wrote that imperialism was the highest stage of capitalism. That's it. No more quotes. But we can see a point of significance. Lenin in the early 20th century, and the rest of us in 2021, are not experiencing the end of capitalism as such. No. However, Lenin does suggest that capitalism's capacity to continue on an imperialist basis in a global scale will generally become unsuccessful for the capitalist system. Lenin saw the end of WW1 and the post war collapse of European society. He did not see WW2 or the 'recovery' of capitalist development as a result of second world war and then the final surge of imperialism, led by the most mighty US, which drastically failed (compared with the tremendous 'success' of the far less dominant UK in previous centuries.)
The relative decline of imperialism is now obvious and largely unchangeable across the globe. And, as Lenin suggested, this fact creates a new, deep and dangerous, unstable, character to the capitalist system.
To turn to the implications of another historical shift, which his now emerging in the new context, Yuval Noah Harari's famous book 'Sapiens, a brief history of human kind' demonstrated the superiority of Empires when dealing with social progress. The book reminds us that the 'nation-state' is not at all any sort of natural development. Nations arose for a purpose. A nation can more easily organise economic competition, define several different ownerships, establish vast impersonal labour and draw up a nationally defined influence. The apparent meaning of a nation to its people is given as the pinnacle of its sovereignty. But the real foundations of a nation is its socio/economic requirements of capitalism.
Imperialism, as led by the West, called their nations empires in the 19th and early 20th century but were never more than nations that controlled other, often genuine, pre-capitalist empires, through slavery, then hard labour and the theft of resources throughout. Imperialist nations did not create empires despite their nomenclature and ideological fantasy. What that did in the newly modern world was that they bloated and internationalised capitalism to the benefit of specific, capitalist, nations.
This is where Lenin's insight comes once more to life. The highest stage of capitalism means that nothing 'higher' or more successful, or an unforeseen capitalism that will lift; lift what? Will lift further development. And this is the crux of post pandemic, western, modern capitalism. Today's capitalism is starting to reverse. Its domination of nations that ruled global imperialism is waning and, in desperation, the main, western and south east asian capitalist nations are insisting more and more that they need to become real empires - in the absence of the declining traditional imperialism.
In today's Europe, we have an utter confusion. There is now a real, European empire being created, particularly in relation to finance, while a great popular heat is rising to get back to traditional nations. And a significant minority layer is trying to create new mini-states in respect of real control of democracy. There is a typical maelstrom in the UK reflecting this cauldron. But we are only just beginning. What is certainly on its way is a major reconstruction of nations and their functions, whether that means getting rid of the UK's poisonous monarchy and their Lordships - along with its smell of the history of Britain's empire - or other particular civil battles. While specific markets (eg in China and India) are catching up their local social advances, this is ultimately the result of an international capitalism which is no-longer able to push forward any genuinely new development across our world.
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