Failed States

The one thing that history seems to reveal time again is that no one knows who’s going to fold first. The West might, with its self-conscious dithering and trepidation over its own power. So much of the world’s current security rests on America’s ability protect it. America might become over-stretched. China’s government might be broken by popular backlash from an economy that is prosperous for some but impoverishing for many. Islamofascists might only get as far as endless disruption without making any real political gains in opposing secularity; they offer no real spiritual alternative for living on this earth, only offering a glittering afterlife.

Each Weltanschauung may not be a wholly legitimate response to modernity, but all three pose legitimate questions as to how to address it. Failed states are confronted with all three ideologies. From their perspective, it isn’t obvious which Weltanschauung is the best model to pursue, or be subjected to. We should know who our competitors are on the world ideology market.

[via Donklephant, HT: A Sweet, Familiar Dissonance]