The radical right is correct that the west is waning. But it’s not ‘wokeness’ that’s to blame, says Guardian columnist Owen Jones
The radical right is correct that the west is waning. But it’s rampant capitalism and endless wars that are causing its collapse, not ‘wokeness’his century has one overarching theme: the fall of the west, that is, the US and its European allies. Every major crisis accelerates the unmistakable trend. The war in Gaza is just the latest manifestation.
The west’s decline long predates this current crime of historic proportions, but it is the radical right which has, to date, monopolised this conversation. For it, the explanations for the downfall are, variously, immigration, multiculturalism, Islam, “wokeness”, “gender ideology”, the disintegration of the nuclear family, and so on.
US officials clambering on to helicopters in Saigon, sealing a final defeat in Vietnam. But its main rival, the Soviet Union, proved to be in a farwith the first Gulf war and armed interventions in former Yugoslavia offered up as vindication for “liberal interventionism”. Then came the horror of 9/11 – and the ensuing military adventures that resulted in human catastrophe as well as humiliating failure.
This disastrous economic model not only destabilised Russia, but paid untold damage to western, liberal democracies too. Such unrestrained capitalism directly paved the way for the 2008 financial crash, from which the west never truly recovered. Many of its countries then embarked on a ruinous course of austerity, which led to stagnation and decline, the ideal conditions for a rightwing authoritarian surge.
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