He takes a while getting there (all of which very much well worth your time), but David Gelernter makes a great observation near the end of an article titled, “Defeat at Any Price.”
World War I created the modern world, from the map of the modern Middle East, to the Russian Revolution of 1917, which ultimately birthed not just the Soviet Union, buts also led to the creation of jealous wannabe neighbors, fascist Italy and National Socialist Germany. And as Gelernter notes, Europe’s polar-opposite response to the horrific bloodshed of its World Wars: modern-day transnational progressivism (or “pacifist globalism” as Gelernter calls it in its original post-WWI form) a kinder, gentler collectivism.
Leave it to Theodore Dalrymple to square the circle, though: “Islam, the Marxism of Our Time.”
Which leads to The Obligatory Exit Question: Norman Podhoretz has dubbed the GWOT “World War IV.” In a few centuries, will historians view the last 100 years as merely one long protracted struggle between freedom and collectivism in its many and varied forms?
Late Update: Much more here and here.
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