The Wall Street Journal, a few days ago, had a review of Pankaj Mishra’s “Age of Anger: A History of the Present”. I put a copy of the review here.
It is highly relevant to me. A simple summary is: ”as the world became modern, those who were unable to enjoy its promises—of freedom, stability, and prosperity—were increasingly susceptible to demagogues. The many who came late to this new world—or were left, or pushed, behind—reacted in horrifyingly similar ways: with intense hatred of invented enemies, attempts to re-create an imaginary golden age, and self-empowerment through spectacular violence. It was from among the ranks of the disaffected that the militants of the nineteenth century arose—angry young men who became cultural nationalists in Germany, messianic revolutionaries in Russia, bellicose chauvinists in Italy, and anarchist terrorists internationally”
I have contended for a long time that modern commerce is very fragile. That it exists in its fully flowering form in a few places: the United States, Israel and to some extent in Japan. The rest of the world is being dragged kicking and screaming out of a tribal world that they don’t want to leave.
I haven’t yet read Mishra’s book, but I will. Based on the review I read he has understood the origins and fragile nature of modern commerce and identified the Lefty forces that are trying to destroy modern commerce.
Modern commerce evolved in America because the great Western expansion allowed the meritocratic Americans to leave the hereditary elite on the East Coast and create a Western society based on meritocracy, diversity and openness. The British Empire allowed for the same forces to act in the 19th Century.
America and Israel became the only remaining sources of modern commerce up until now. The hostile Lefty forces, growing out of the French Revolution, nearly destroyed America and brought modern commerce to a near painful death until the election of Donald Trump by the Americans in the Old West in November 2016.
By the slimist historical margin modern commerce survived. The forces of media, academia, national government, wealthy people, finance, city governments and big business had successfully colluded to create their own security at the expense of the world of modern commerce. The world of PC, safe spaces, trigger warning, single issue ideology, victimology, hatred of whites and hatred of male virtues had nearly destroyed meritocracy, true human diversity and openness.
The end was very near. New businesses were not being created as fast as old business failed, new technologies were being condemned, the virtues of commerce were totally deprecated. The U.S. president said ‘you didn’t build that business’ saying the government was the foundation and substrata of business. The candidate, Clinton, who ran against Trump attacked the ‘unacceptable income distribution in the U.S.’ and the ‘need for white people to change who we are’. She called all who disagreed with her racists, sexists, homophobes, Islamophobes, xenophobes and a basket of deplorables.
The end was neigh. Commerce depends on people who value meritocracy, diversity and openness and they were almost defeated by a vast collusion against commerce that had crept into the American mainstream from Europe and the rest of the world that hates America and America’s modern commerce.
More tomorrow.