Without the advantage of a crystal ball, I suspect we will be looking at a New World Order within a decade. Writing at the eve of 2020, we will look back on the first score of the 21st century and see more clearly than we do now that "regime change" was afoot - albeit not the sort we might have imagined when that phrase entered the common parlance. The massing evidence that still requires a conclusion suggests that the 21st century will signal the end of the arrangement of the past 150 or so years. The marriage of Stratification and Equality will unravel, and I fear that it will not be a friendly parting. As is often the case in ugly divorces, those of us - friends of each spouse - will be forced to choose which we will remain our friend, for the other will finally brook no communication with the other. And all the evidence to date suggests that the choice will be difficult: we will not want to choose either, loving aspects of both while fearful of offending the other. We will try to remain friends of each until the bitter end, and - predictably - will end up driving both away.
I missed this interesting piece posted by conservative thinker Patrick Patrick Deneen in late December. The whole piece is worth reading.
I'm working on another essay, and I'm going to try to tie it in with this piece by Deneen as I have the time to do it. It relates to this important balance between Liberty and Equality that I've been harping on. Stratification results when a society is heavily weighted toward liberty Liberty to the detriment of equality. When restrictions are few, the greedy take advantage and aggregate power to themselves, and equality falls by the wayside. Because only the rich and powerful are free in a stratified society. I think Deneen is right that we've allowed the egregious stratification of especially the last thirty years because there was the illusion of continuous growth and improvement, an ever expanding pie, the endlessly rising tide that lifts all boats, and most of us haven't felt the consequences yet of that illusion having been burst.
I also agree with Deneen that this divorce with all the ugly consequences is inevitable if we can't find a political solution to keep the two in balance. The greater we allow the imbalance to develop, the longer and more painful the ordeal to find that balance again.
As readers here know, I was hopeful that Obama and a Democratic congress would be able to effect at least the beginning of a counterbalancing movement, but it's clear that they either don't understand the stakes, or if they do, they don't care or are powerless to do anything about it. The result is that we're evolving into something very different from what we have been--we're becoming, as Deneen call it, an "authoritarian capitalist" society. We've become a ceremonial democracy; the people still vote, but they have virtually no power to effect policies in their legitimate interests.
I honestly believe we have lost our way, but also that it's not impossible to find it again. And the least we can do in the meanwhile is keep the memory alive of what the best among us have hoped we might become. And one of those is whose day we celebrate today.