A Community with a Shared Future for Mankind

One Destiny for Mankind

—in a Single Goal

Nikolay N. Goryachev

Research Fellow, Institute of History, Archaeology, and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, Far Eastern Branch of the RAS, Russia

Stepping on the surface of the moon, Neil Armstrong said the historic phrase: “That’s one small step for a man, but for a giant leap for mankind.” These words are an excellent epigraph to this article because I suppose that humanity also needs a huge leap now.

The best minds of mankind invariably wondered what the fate of the world would be, and in what direction mankind would develop in order to achieve a better future from all possible options. Vernadsky, Gumilev, Huntington, Toynbee, and, finally, Fukuyama, who proclaimed “the end of history”—all of them, to one degree or another, tried to understand the laws of development of both humanity and society, and their parts at one time or another. Every civilization developed as a unique phenomenon. But at the same time at different stages of their development, all these civilizations were inevitably in contact with other ones. For weaker civilizations, that process ended either in assimilation or in death. In the course of the geographical expansion of the Great Geographical Discoveries, more powerful civilizations sought to ­possess new resources, in the course of which other nations were conquered or subjugated by other means. Civilizations nevertheless also enriched each other through contacts. Absorbing new information, they successfully developed in the future, trying to successfully apply their knowledge, to be connected with their heritage. By the end of the 19th century and in the present time, the dialogue of civilizations has largely shifted to the cultural sphere. This happened because the migration processes led to a mixture of cultures, and to the formation of diasporas of other civilizations in many states. The dialogue of cultures produced unique phenomena.

For example, the emergence of a large number of Chinese migrants in Peru led to the emergence of a new culinary tradition. The increase in the share of Chinese workers in Peru led to the rapid formation of a new food-crop for the country in the grocery market - rice. Approximately 45 tons of rice per day was needed to feed the Chinese workers. They were the descendants of migrants who initiated the mixing of Chinese and Peruvian culinary traditions in their first generation. Only a few of these Chinese workers who had fulfilled their contract came back since the journey was difficult and expensive. The mixing of cultures took place through the influence of Chinese workers who were employed as cooks in the kitchens of private owners, as well as gardeners, in some cases as a babysitter for local children. So employees cooked food for themselves, at the same time trying to preserve continuity in the culinary traditions of their ancestors, which aroused the employers’ curiosity. The second way of interaction of culinary traditions was the establishing of small restaurants that were opened by the Chinese migrants and were initially focused on their compatriots but then became popular among the Peruvians. Mixed marriages of Chinese migrants and local Peruvians became the third way of cross-cultural interaction, especially since the time when at the end of the 19th century the migration flow to Peru from the outside had decreased.

That brought to life a cultural phenomenon, commonly known at large as “el chifa.” This name comes from the Cantonese verb “chi fan” – to eat. At first glance, chifas are ordinary Chinese restaurants that spread in the whole world, but they have unique local features. The food and meal combinations they offer often vary. For example, rice is usually cooked and served with corn tortillas and in combination with cornflour, while meat dishes are made from guinea pigs’ and other Peruvian-style meat. And tea is usually served with sugar and lemon or lime juice. Such restaurants generally do not offer food delivery services, considering it a breaking of tradition. Moreover, the number of these restaurants is still growing rapidly, and in the large cities of Peru there is always more than one such restaurant within walking distance in any area. Chifas are not bounded by limits of Chinatowns, and the rank of restaurants varies widely. The level of development and adaptation to the local conditions of Chinese cuisine in Peru can be considered the most significant in all the countries of Latin America. Can’t this be called an excellent example of the interaction of two civilizations? Certainly yes. Two civilizations, successfully interacting with each other, have enriched each others’ cultures. In many ways, the first reason for that was curiosity — the feature by which mankind has made many discoveries.

However, disagreements in political disputes and the attempt of some nations to put themselves above others plunged mankind into the abyss of two terrible wars. The political structure of the world has undergone fundamental changes. During the battle against Nazism, even ideological opponents had united. And after the Second World War, it seemed that the global evil of Nazism had been defeated, and now mankind can progress in harmony and prosperity. However, the world faced no lesser threat than the world war – that is, the rivalry of two ideologies. People in the colonies fought for independence, seeking it through sacrifices and suffering. Until 1992, the world was in a state of continuous competition in economics, politics, and culture. Not all the countries participated in it. But the constant struggle of the two systems for power accelerated technological breakthroughs that benefit people. But the same struggle had caused many conflicts that had claimed human lives in many parts of the world.

The end of the Cold War was marked by the proclamation of the victory of one side, and the world was not bipolar no more, subject to the dominance of the West. There was an increase in the globalization process, and as a result, new international organizations appeared. They were designed to regulate and manage cooperation between countries, streamlining and facilitation. But despite that, they could not always ensure the functioning of this cooperation. The rules of international organizations (for example, the WTO) were often interpreted under external pressure from the third party. Globalization itself sometimes acted not for the benefit of all the parties involved in it but served the interests of the most powerful. It did not guarantee equal opportunities to all states on the planet.

But the world is constantly changing. The international situation has gradually deteriorated over the course of the past decade and is continuing to deteriorate. World economic growth has slowed, political controversy intensified. On the one hand, the reason is the desire of one state to decide how humanity should live: what is useful and what is harmful. On the other hand, a new global evil appeared - terrorism and its derivatives. Terrorism is a threat to all people on Earth. Humanity is facing many other dangers: climate change, depletion of natural resources, uncontrolled migration of refugees and other, less global threats. But to overcome these threats successfully is possible only while acting together.

However, all of us are still under the influence of the mentality of the Cold War, and this interferes with effective interaction. The world is gaining more and more features of multipolarity, the availability of information about events in the world has reached unprecedented heights - thanks to the Internet. Now we can do at the household level that a few generations ago was something fantastic. This simplifies the globalization of the economy and society. However, some countries are beginning to return to protectionism. On the one hand, there is nothing wrong with protecting your own country’s manufacturer. It is the duty of any leader of the country to take care of his people. But on the other hand, when it is done by unreasonable prohibitions, setting impracticable and unfavorable requirements for business partners, trade wars are the path leading to the abyss. We know many positive examples when states that are incomparable by the scale of economies successfully cooperate, working out agreements among themselves through an equal dialogue. First of all, it is important to respect the interests of each other. It is obvious that in modern conditions, it is necessary to modernize the platforms of international cooperation and create new ones in order to make the dialogue between countries and peoples more effective.

President Xi, speaking from the UN in Geneva, said that mankind is in an era of major development as well as profound transformation and change. The trend toward multi-polarity and economic globalization is surging. IT applications in social development and cultural diversity are making continued progress. A new round of scientific and industrial revolution is in the making. Interconnection and interdependence between countries are crucial for human survival. The forces for peace far outweigh factors causing war, and the trend of our times toward peace, development, cooperation and win-win outcomes has gained stronger momentum. We should pursue green, low-carbon, circular and sustainable ways of life and production, advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in a balanced manner and explore a model of sound development that ensures growth, better lives, and a good environment. He also said that Earth is still the only home to mankind, so to care for and cherish it is the only option for mankind. President Xi emphasized, and it is absolutely true that we should build a world based on dialogue and consultation, common security and mutually beneficial cooperation. And we can already see how a constructive dialogue and the desire to support it can serve the purpose of the peaceful development of mankind. A perfect example is a situation around North Korea. They are abandoning the positions of power threats allowed to establish a dialogue and to start developing a solution to the problem of security in the region in a civilized way. And the main thing is that the leadership of North Korea is committed to this dialogue, looking for ways to integrate the country into the world economic and public space. Only such a future—the future of mutual dialogue—will allow us to preserve and increase the existing humanity.

China has already fulfilled the basic living needs of its 1.3 billion-plus people and lifted over 700 million people out of poverty, which is a significant contribution to the global cause of human rights. The Belt and Road Initiative aims to achieve win-win and shared development. Over 100 countries and international organizations have supported the initiative, and a large number of early harvest projects have been launched. China supports the successful operation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and other new multilateral financial institutions in order to provide more public goods to the international community. The Belt and Road Initiative, implemented and proposed by China, has every chance to become the foundation for uniting the vast majority of the world’s population. It should be stated that this is currently the only truly global project that is realizing not only its founder but also other participants. But for many experts, the goals of the project, and its essence remain not fully understood, which gives rise to prejudices and delusions in society. And in this regard, there is another factor that needs to be mentioned—“soft power.” The concept of “soft power” and its definition appeared relatively recently. According to this concept, the country receives its soft power mainly from three resources: its culture, its political values, and its foreign policy. It is important to mention that very often “soft power” is being interpreted by Russian experts in geopolitics and there are attempts to use it in a wrong way, when soft power is being taken for a manipulative mean of implementing interested party’s own plans, by that forcing others to accept not only cultural but also political and foreign political values of initiator of soft power policy. It is especially dangerous when the alien culture is presented as something definitely better than the native one. However, as it is, spreading knowledge about the culture of one civilization to another through “soft power” is extremely beneficial. It is through culture that the process of dialogue can be largely adjusted. Because it is easier to understand each other’s cultural differences, it is easier to find common ground. It will be possible to reduce the influence of public distrust and fear to people of another culture. China has grown from a poor and weak country to the world’s second-largest economy not by committing military expansion or colonial plunder, but through the hard work of its people and our efforts to uphold peace. China will never waver in its pursuit of peaceful development. No matter how strong its economy grows, China will never seek hegemony, expansion or sphere of influence. And if China offers other countries cooperation and assistance in the framework of joint development—why should we fear? Given the path which China has taken to become such a powerful power, it is likely that the whole humanity should take a few lessons. And to get to know them very core how China has managed to do that, we should turn to the origins of culture of China, get to know the moral and social basis and, perhaps, learn something new for ourselves.

Thus, it is necessary to find such an implementation of the future that will strive for equality of civilizations, cultures, and states. Perhaps full equality is a utopia. But the very desire for this equality, the successful passage of the path to its achievement is already a big breakthrough. However, humanity needs a goal. The goal for the future.

Earth is the cradle of humanity. And our destinies are inextricably linked with the planet. But curiosity always pushed us to new discoveries, prompted us to move to new horizons. We know from history that the Big Resettlements of Peoples took place not only because of curiosity, but also under the influence of unfavorable conditions in the original places of residence of these or that people. And we are taking the risk to go through this way again—but on a scale of all humanity. Professor Stephen Hawking said that he was convinced that humanity must leave the Earth. “The Earth is becoming too small for us, and our physical resources are being drained at an alarming rate. We have given our planet the disastrous gift of climate change, rising temperatures, the reducing of polar ice caps, deforestation and decimation of animal species. When we have reached similar crisis in our history there has usually been somewhere else to colonize. Columbus did it in 1492 when he discovered the new world. But now there is no new world—no Eutopia around the corner. We are running out of space, and the only places to go to are other worlds. Spreading out into space will completely change the future of humanity. It may also determine whether we have any future at all. Wherever we go we will need to build a civilization, we will need to take the practical means of establishing a whole new ecosystem the will survive in an environment that knows very little about, and we will need to consider transporting several thousands of people, animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, and insects.” Hawking said the Moon and Mars were the best sites to begin the first colonies, stating that a lunar base could be established within 30 years and a Martian outpost within 50. But he also suggested leaving the Solar System and venturing to our nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, where, as scientists believe, there exists a habitable planet known as Proxima B.

And it is true. Natural resources are rapidly depleting. The peak of coal mining, according to various sources, has already been passed. We are rapidly moving towards the passage of a peak of oil on a planetary scale—and it is precisely oil that is now, in fact, the key energy supply for humanity. It is not so important when it comes—in 2030, 2040 or 2050—because it comes. Also the reserves of copper, which is an extremely important resource for technological development, and the reserves of other metals are depleted too. The depletion of natural resources may eventually lead to the fact that space exploration will become impossible due to lack of resources or a high cost of living. The depletion of mineral resources will ultimately affect food production, and as a result, humanity will be faced with food deficit, and then with hunger. Even now, on Earth, the evil of hunger is not eradicated completely, and in case of depletion of natural resources, humanity is at the very edge of extinction as a biological species. In the face of such an unfavorable perspective, it is especially important to establish a dialogue between people, because any lack of resources leads to crisis, that often turns into wars. Military technologies are constantly being improved, and therefore the Third World War will most likely destroy humanity. Or it will reject it in technological development hundreds of years ago. One way or another, the consequences will be terrible.

The space race of the 1960s allowed us to look into space. The landing of a man on the moon, sending space missions to other objects of the solar system—all this has become a reality. However, the leap that Neil Armstrong said was not well developed. Science fiction writers, as well as futurists, dreamed that in the 21st century, humanity would inhabit the vastness of the Solar System and this will allow us to continue along the path of interstellar travel. And in fact, we just opened the way to space. The jump did not take place, including because of the competitive nature of space exploration, and even more so the desire for its militarization. At the moment, mankind is not in a position to extensively explore space because of its disunity. Each country, which has enough forces and means for this, has its own space program, which pursues strictly defined goals. Interstate space programs, for example, the activities of the European Space Agency, also do not allow large-scale exploration of space in the interests of the whole world. However, many scientists from different countries successfully interact in various fields of science. The recent successes of China in the exploration of the Moon, the successful missions of NASA rovers—all this suggests that in the case of the joint efforts of all mankind, the successful colonization of the Moon and even Mars will not become an impossible task. Moreover, the international legal status of the Moon emphasizes its belonging to all of humanity.

It is the exploration of space and its exploration that should become a common goal for us for the future; however, we can achieve this only by establishing a dialogue between peoples and countries. Because despite the fact that we can belong to different cultures, we are all primarily human beings.