Looking at the world through the lens of reaction I see a world falling apart at the seams. This falling apart is slow it began almost as soon as Liberal Democracy stood exultant in August of 1945. The threat of the Soviet Empire gave the West its last sense of purpose. It also reined in the worst excesses of Liberal Utopianism or what is referred to as neoconservatism or neoliberalism. I am using Liberal Utopianism as a synonym for neoliberalism/neoconservatism in foreign affairs. This excess in Liberal Utopianism (LU from here on) had to be secondary to achieving foreign policy gains against the Soviets. The nature of the crisis, I might add, also forced the Soviets to give assistance to ideologically unreliable (from the Marxist-Leninist POV) regimes as well.
While American foreign policy paid lip service to LU goals it was often necessary to make common case with authoritarian dictators, monarchies & outright despots. America's soft idealism meant that rational foreign policy had to be cloaked in the language of LU. The litany of preserving freedom, of making the world safe for democracy, of national self-determination was used as a screen or even a flimsy pretext for America's ambition to hold the Soviet Union in check. These same mantras were peddled by FDR during WW II despite the whole time supporting the Soviets in their murderous goals. In both WW II & the Cold War the US had definite objectives the defeat of Nazi Germany & Japan & the containment of the Soviet Union respectively.
The Berlin Wall fell unexpectedly in 1989 & the Soviet Union dissolved just after Christmas 1991. This led to the US being unrestrained on the world stage & paradoxically turning inward away from the world concentrating on domestic politics with foreign affairs as a sideshow used to distract from Clinton's peccadilloes. The only people still interested in foreign affairs were the true believers the so-called neocons. By the year 2000 as America turned inward Russia ended a slow march from liberalism back to authoritarianism. China continued its move from revolutionary communism to plain old authoritarian mercantilism. However it seemed liberal democracy was still on the march spreading inevitably to the whole world. The future looked like it would be a world of McDonald's & McMansions.
After all why not? One could be assured that in a few years Saudi Arabia would host its first church and Iran would shake off the ecclesiarchy & the Russians would pass through a little authoritarian turbulence before steadying the plane flying on to the uplands of liberal democracy. China would eventually follow Japan, Taiwan & South Korea from economic to political liberalism after all it was the wave of the future. It was wasn't it?
Its obvious we are all one big happy human family & there were no differences a little good old fashioned liberal education couldn't solve. We are all humans & only neanderthal bigots and skinhead Nazis believed that races existed beyond a few obvious cosmetic differences. When September 11th happened it was also obvious what to do we would invade the middle east & jump start their inevitable evolution into liberal democracy just like we did with Germany, Japan & Italy. There were no real differences between the populations that a little hard work and proper education wouldn't solve. America would enter as liberators kill off the region's villainous leadership & let the good people of the middle east elect a new vigorous & more genteel political class of web surfing shop owners & small business men. Thus LU would be the culmination of hundreds of years of Progress as the middle east would become respectable, middle class & peaceful soon followed by the rest of the world.
Go back & read the old posts by instapundit, LGF, & Andrew Sullivan (if the latter two haven't tried to extirpate their old posts in shame). Look at what David Frum, Richard Perle or Thomas P M Barnett wrote. It was just a matter of defeating the bad guys, building infrastructure & integrating these lost lambs back into the international fold. Keep buying junk or the terrorists win. If we give in to xenophobia & stop welcoming endless streams of unchecked immigrants then the terrorist have won. We can't turn away from the world, we must look out to the world & we must keep the world order going. I bought into it. I thought things should be done differently in some cases, but these were quibbles. I wanted an end to immigration, but not free trade. After the stunning success of the invasions of Afghanistan & Iraq my doubts were erased. I supported the neocons I abandoned my skepticism of racial equality and sought comfort in a war well fought. I supported the mission because the only alternative was that these men were wasting their lives on a fool's errand & I wanted the Muslims to pay. I was done mourning the twin towers on September 12th and expected blood & fire. This time even the Lefties could see we were in the right this wasn't Vietnam, 3000 Americans had died on a clear blue day in New York. It didn't seem possible my country would let let them get away with it. I found out it wasn't my country anymore. It may never have been my country at all.
But they got away with it the Taliban will rule Afghanistan again soon & even if ISIS doesn't conquer Iraq & Syria the people who will rule Iraq & Syria will be the same corrupt despot as before or some new fanatical group. Meanwhile the entire global order is on the verge of disintegration. Japan is slipping back into recession, Russia is desperate for higher oil prices & the US has yet to achieve a recovery from the 2008 financial collapse. Mexico & most of Latin America has begun to slip from being mere basket cases into failed states. LU has failed. Most of Asia, Africa, Latin America, & eastern Europe will remain in the hands of or fall into the hands of Authoritarian or Totalitarian ruling Cliques. I now see all of this as if not good than necessary our degenerate culture can't change without pain. If our thede can be awakened from its progressive somnambulism & regain its lost will to survive then the future will be worth all this pain. If our thede doesn't reawaken then we will follow the Algonquins & the Helveti into dust.
Liberal Democracy proved to be just as ephemeral as Athenian Democracy. Democracy is not the future it is an idea that died long ago & should have remained in the grave.
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