Keywords: population forecast, interaction of civilizations, globalization, fuel and energy resources, international security
A. V. Akimov's article is undoubtedly necessary and timely. In itself, it is not controversial, since it consists of completely reliable facts, which as such are difficult to dispute, and a collection of conjectural scenarios without choosing and justifying any one, which could be the subject of verification or falsification. But it certainly explicitly and implicitly points out deep problems and encourages far-reaching discussion statements.
Reacting to this correctly provocative text, I would first like to define the basic concepts and methodological principles reflected in the title itself. "Civilization" is a quantitative or qualitative concept: is civility, which has different levels and gradations, a general characteristic of all of humanity, or is it a unique integrity that is fundamentally different from any other civilization and thus divides people sometimes to the point of deadly antagonism? The famous "clash of civilizations" is a euphemism for the well-known struggle of culture with barbarism since ancient times, or is it a recognition of the real incompatibility of different "cultural genotypes" in one "civilizational body"? Finally, are "civilization" and "culture" synonymous in this discussion (as in the English - and French-speaking world) or not, and even terminologically different to the point of opposite (as in the German and Russian lexicon)?
Offering an "applied" definition of "civilization", A.V. Akimov, on the one hand, referred to S. Huntington, who follows the English-language tradition, and on the other hand, noted its inherent "life cycle ... going from birth to growth, flourishing, and then to decay", which fully corresponds to O. Spengler's theory imbued with the German spirit, a fundamental distinction between civilization and culture. In advance and in a working order, i.e. distracting from a lot of problematic ...
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