The following sentence is quoted from K. Ishiguro's Nobel Lecture. What does the phrase "rival camps from which to compete bitterly for resources or power" mean? What is the subject of the verb "compete"?
For the moment we seem to lack any progressive cause to unite us. Instead, even in the wealthy democracies of the West, we're fracturing into rival camps from which to compete bitterly for resources or power.
Notice how the meaning of the sentence becomes clear when we substitute the word to (before the word compete) with the word we:
For the moment we seem to lack any progressive cause to united us. Instead, even in the wealthy democracies of the West, we're fracturing into rival camps from which we compete bitterly for resources of power.
With that substitution, we can see that the subject of the verb compete is we. (I assume you are quoting Ishiguro correctly.)
What Ishiguro is saying is that from their fractured camps, which comprise the wealthy democracies of the West (i.e., we) are competing bitterly for resources of power (instead of sharing the resources of power, a situation which Ishiguro finds preferable).
