With thanks to Batiushka, our writer

Introduction

Allegedly, Nero fiddled while pagan Rome, which he had himself set on fire, burned. Now we have the image of President Putin fiddling while pagan Rome’s successor-Empire (the pagan West) burns. The difference is that the President did not set it on fire, this Rome set itself on fire and, moreover, has so far refused all Russian help to put out its self-made inferno. Therefore, Russia is in no hurry to end the fire in the Ukraine, which the West is entirely responsible for. Let it squirm: Winter is coming and after that there are the US elections in November 2024, which is why the self-serving Western elite does not want to end the Ukrainian conflict just yet.

The West has already been forced to abandon its best hope in the Ukraine, that of victory, and its second-best hope, that of a Korean-style ‘frozen conflict’. The liberation of all the Russian east and south of the Ukraine will continue, while the rest of it will be neutralised and denazified, made into a harmless landlocked satellite. After that, Europe will have to adopt a very different attitude towards Victorious Russia, as also to BRICS. As for the US, it will have to sort out its own colossal, fentanyl-coloured fiesta of gangsters and banksters. And then probably that violence-enforced artificial union will in its turn split apart and have to be renamed.

The Renaming of Places

Leaving aside the small, self-absorbed and collapsing West, the rest of the world is already looking at renaming itself in our post-American Age. India may soon change its name from the English ‘India’ back to the Hindi ‘Bharat’. This is just the latest in a long and slow series of name changes following post-colonisation. Surely it is only right that countries should go by the own names and not by foreign names. Will China be next? Zhongguo? In any case, even without this latter change, which would give BRICS + 6 the Polish-looking name BRBZS, BRICS + 6 will need a new name.

The process of renaming the countries and settlements of the post-Western world has been under way for several years. Old colonial names are being abandoned. Among very many examples, perhaps better-known are the changes from Peking to Beijing, Bombay to Mumbai, Siam to Thailand, Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, Zaire to DR Congo, Rhodesia to Zimbabwe, Nyasaland to Malawi, South-West Africa to Namibia, Burma to Myanmar, Ceylon to Sri Lanka and recently Turkey to Turkiye. However, the processes of dewesternisation and nativisation still have very far to go.

Let us take terms like the ‘Far East’, the ‘Middle East’ and the ‘Near East’. These are all absurd. East of what? From the Japanese viewpoint what is called the ‘Middle East’ should be called the ‘Middle West’. Fortunately, these terms are already disappearing in favour of the geographically accurate ‘West Asia’ and ‘East Asia’ and the meaningless term of the ‘Near East’ has nearly vanished. Of course, that still leaves us with the term ‘Europe’. This is problematic because Europe is not a geographical Continent, curiously, it is the only ‘Continent’ whose English name does not begin and end with the letter ‘A’.

All the other Continents are separated from one another by oceans. Yes, admittedly, a very narrow piece of canal-cut isthmus does connect Africa to Asia and, similarly, North America to South America. However, the peninsula of Europe has a ‘frontier’ with Asia which is thousands of kilometres in length and its location between Europe and Asia has never been clear. This is because Europe is a construct, a cut-off, an artificial Continent. Will the day come when we shall drop the word ‘Europe’ entirely and instead call the region North-West Asia or simply Eurasia? (Etymologically, the word Europe simply means ‘the west’, just as Asia simply means ‘the east’).

Then there come Australia and the Americas. Definitely not ‘New Worlds’ for those who lived there for tens of thousands of years before Europeans only quite recently discovered them and renamed them. The Latin name Australasia is slowly being replaced by Oceania. Perhaps that is good, though ‘ocean’ is still not a native word. But what about the name Australia? What could that change to? As for the Anglo-Dutch ‘New Zealand’, it may yet be replaced by the native Aotearoa. Regarding the Americas, no serious alternatives seem to be on the table. It is still strange that two Continents were named after an Italian mapmaker who never lived there, but only briefly visited. Some have suggested ‘Brasilia’ for South America, but that in any case is a Scots Gaelic word meaning ‘Big Island’. As for North America, ‘Turtle Island’ seems an unlikely choice. The question remains unanswered.

Then there is the whole question of the term ‘The West’ itself. This too is a construct. Europe must be the ‘Middle East’ as seen from New York, but then New York must be the ‘Middle East’, as seen from Los Angeles and Europe from there must be the ‘Far East’. However, if we abandon Eurocentrism, which is at the heart of the problem, and put Japan in the centre, then New York is in the ‘Far East’ and Europe is the ‘Far West’ and Western by culture Australia must be the ‘Far South’. One day we shall have to find accurate terms.

The Renaming of Wars and History

The renaming of wars is another problem caused by Eurocentrism. The obvious examples are the First and Second ‘World’ Wars, which really should be renamed the First and Second Western Imperialist Wars. However, there is a multitude of more recent examples. The Iraq War really should be called the Anti-Iraq War, similarly the Korean and Vietnam Wars should be renamed the Western Genocide in Korea and the American Occupation of Vietnam.

If we go further back in history, we find the unannounced Japanese attack on Russia called ‘the Russo-Japanese War’. Since Japan was used as the Western proxy for this attack (just like the Ukraine today), it should be called the Western and Japanese War against Russia. Then in the 19^th century we have the so-called ‘India Mutiny’, correctly called in India/Bharat ‘The First War of Liberation’. The Crimean War should be renamed the Anglo-French Invasion of Russia. As for the ‘Opium Wars’ surely ‘the British Genocides in China’ would be more apt.

Then there is the renaming of historical periods. What are ‘The Middle Ages’? In Western Europe there is little agreement as to what the term means, let alone the absurdity of its use for Non-Western cultures. What we can say for sure is that Western people who lived between, say, the eleventh century and the fifteenth century did not think that they were living in the Middle Ages. And then when was the ‘Renaissance’? And what was ‘Gothic’ Architecture? So many names which only betray the prejudices and ignorance of those who invented them – usually centuries after they existed.

Another such example is the strange phrase ‘Anglo-Saxon’. Today, curiously, it tends to be used for ‘Anglo-American’. In any case, it has nothing to do with the Germanic peoples who were called the Angles and the Saxons. Indeed, they never used the term ‘Anglo-Saxon’ to describe themselves. They called themselves ‘Englisc’. This was pronounced not ‘Inglish’, as today, but English. They were the real English. Those who came after them were the Normans (who in fact were the last Viking pirates and plunderers) and then came the Anglo-Normans.

The latter consisted of Normans and mercenary traitors among the English, who lacked any identity, principles or beliefs (they mainly lived in urban conditions and not on the land). They chose to conform to those who had power and money, in other words, to the new ruling class of power-loving aristocrats and money-loving merchants. That is called the ‘Establishment’, as it consists of foreign invaders who ‘established themselves’, exploiting and involving cowardly and unprincipled locals. And the Anglo-Normans are still very much the Establishment of the UK today. As for the people, they are still today called by the Establishment ‘plebs’, which is the Latin word for the common people.

In Continental Europe, a similar situation pertains. Thus, the Franks in most of North-Western Europe and the Lombards in Italy replaced the native peoples. In what is now called France, they replaced the Gauls, in what is now Germany they replaced the Wends and the Saxons. Here too we should be talking about Franko-Gauls, Franko-Saxons, Lombardo-Italians as the ruling Establishments.

Conclusion

What is clear is that the post-Ukrainian world is ushering in a New Age, the post-American world. This world is going to end up being very different from the American Age, 1922-2022 (RIP – if you can rest in peace). What will it be called? The Post-Post-Modern Age? The Post-Imperial Age? The Post-Western Age? The Post-Barbarian Age? The Global Age? The Multipolar Age? The Real New World Order?

We, who are on the cusp of it all, will discover the names in the history books of the future and they have not yet been written. All we can be sure of is that very many changes are not just on the horizon, but are actually happening here and now, right before our amazed eyes, and they have been happening ever since 24 February 2022. Be prepared for more momentous shifts in history.