It took  a long time but I finally finished reading Paul Johnson's Modern Times.  It was an excellent read and elegantly makes a point that all intellectuals (real and pseudo) should ponder.  Namely, that freedom, not coercion leads to optimal outcomes.

While this may be a bit facile, the evidence amassed in this nearly 800 page behemoth regarding the history of the 20th century in all its boldness and bloodiness does justice to the idea.  The last paragraph encapsulates the book's idea perfectly and so I quote it,

"Certainly, by the last decade of the century, some lessons had plainly been learned.  But it was not yet clear whether the underlying evils which had made possible its catastrophic failures and tragedies- the rise of moral relativism, the decline of personal responsibility, the repudiation of Judeo-Christian values, not least the arrogant belief that men and women could solve all the mysteries of the universe by theirn own unaided intellects- were in the process of being eradicated.  On that would depend the chances of the twenty-first century becoming, by contrast, an age of hope for mankind."

If the 1980s brought the end of the Cold War and freedom from the Iron Curtain by 1989 and the 90s seemed a time of joy in the West, what does the future portend? 

The lessons Johnson seems to believe were learned may not have been learned so well.  Much of the ideological underpinnings, at least amongst the intelligentsia, that led to the misery of the 20th century is still present.  It seemed discredited and permanently laid upon the "ash heap of history" once the Berlin Wall fell.


Yet the financial crisis, fears of global warming, racial and identity politics and growing statism within the heart of the West raises the prospect that a new cycle of history is upon us with the same, old lessons needing to be relearned.

Are we up to the task?