The Telegraph, June 25 2022, Robert Tombs
Lucky people in the Western world who belong to the so-called ‘boomer’ generation have lived through one of the most benign periods in history. No global wars, no revolutions, no uncontrollable economic disasters, no epidemics that could not be treated, but rising wealth and life expectancy. Softer values and looser morals suited this age of safety, as sterner virtues seemed outdated. That time is over.
The West is confronted with a new type of predatory enemy, combining criminality with ideology. We see this in Russia and China. If we were only facing corrupt regimes, we could intimidate or buy them off. As for ideological contests, we have won them before. But today’s enemies combine the ruthlessness of the mafia with a bitter ideological resentment of the West. And they command technological tools that in Orwell’s 1984 were mere fantasy.
At least we are not burying our heads in the sand, as in the 1920s and 30s, when dogmatically pursuing disarmament, sticking to the Gold Standard, and trusting in the League of Nations and ‘appeasement’ hastened the very disasters they were meant to avoid. Today Britain, the United States, and some European and Pacific allies are hastily facing up to the violence of Russia and the looming danger of China. But we don’t have to look far to find 1930s-style wishful thinking in countries dependent on Russia for energy, and economically hobbled by the Euro, which like the Gold Standard creates a façade of stability through austerity – but which, unlike the Gold Standard, cannot be jettisoned.
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