Fortunately for all of us, the Cold War ended not with a bang but with a whimper. It is surprising, however, that its cessation inspired so little elation.
First two sentences from the introduction to Paul Anthony Rahe’s Soft Despotism, Democracy’s Drift: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocqueville & The Modern Prospect (2009).
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Paul A. Rahe
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The commanding heights of the culture were mostly in the hands of the political left. Even those on the left who had recognized that the Soviet Union were evil had seen it as proof that technocracy were practicable; and they had hoped for America and the Soviet Union to someday “meet in the middle”. The gross failure of a technocratic regime as such horrified them.
The combination of mumbling with stunned silence on the left taught a hard lesson to me about who they were.