In retrospect the world of 2012 seems such a quainter quieter place, where when we worried it was about the possible "what ifs?", that we really did not think would come to pass, despite the history of 9/11 (2001) and "The War on Terror". The world still seemed "bounded and explainable" to all those fortunate not to be in a war zone. Afghanistan was heading down a road "we thought" we [The West] controlled and could and would be put to rights. Afterall there was only one global Superpower in town - the USA and its weight was unstoppable (see below, Jon Ronson gives an off the wall, humourous assessment of idiosyncratic and peculiar dangers the world was facing. The danger was from within, it seemed adolescent and seemed to be small. You could make jokes about it. a bit like a BBC2 family sit-com):
It seems that what you are not looking for, like another major war in Europe the like of which has not been seen since the Second World War, a Superpower Trade Wars and the complete failure of Western intervention in non-westernised cultures, these are the things we should have really been worried about!
I tend to think of 2012 as the peak of post Cold War civilisation, despite 9/11 etc. It has just been downhill from the on, primarily, IMHO, due to the effects of globalised deregulated capitalism pumping ever accelerating amounts of wealth upwards. Whatever you may think of Brexit or Trumps tariffs, they are one response to a world in which 'they' increasingly have all the money.
ReplyDeleteAs in no near peer superpower or block like NATO starting a war, the action was swinging to the Middle East and/or Near East - the traditional land of the 18th century "Great Game".
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