Should an
independent Scotland
be part of NATO?
The township of 12 people
which sells four million
cans of beer a year
Scotland
in the
heat
John Cameron
Francis Fukuyama’s 1989 essay ‘The End of History’ argued that we were at a turning point and the ‘logic of modern science’ would lead inevitably to the collapse of tyrannies.
But Simon Heffer in his recent ‘A Short History of Power’ claims it is the nature of power that has changed and countries now seek economic, rather than territorial, expansion.
Certainly as the 21st century proceeds it becomes clearer the case for liberal democracy has not been proved and its achievements are certainly not universally recognised. In addition the notion that only a free market can maximise prosperity is challenged by China where growing prosperity is achieved despite the absence of democratic values.
For much of human history the need for territory and wealth or the toxic fervour of religion and ideology has provoked conflict and there is little hope of that changing. Europe tried to replace national and religious intolerance with supra-national secularism but theocratic Islam and the fundamentalist Christian US have not followed the lead.
It now appears that the West is dividing philosophically with Europe wanting a Kantian ‘perpetual peace’ whereas the US sees a Hobbesian world of competing military might.
The hope is that new technologies and widely-spread new sources of fossil fuel will at least remove international tension based on the belief that we are running out of resources.
But economic power is shifting from the West because of decadent practices such as addiction to debt, welfarism and over-regulation which result in a huge cost base. Western idealism is threatened everywhere by the realities of human nature and the fact that repressive regimes have proved to function so successfully as factories of prosperity.
Conceptions of history such as Fukuyama’s arise in optimistic ages of plenty whereas the recent global downturn offers opportunities for ‘hard-times’ world views like Islam.
The incredible
comeback of
Rick Santorum
Alan Fisher
