dark. The rain that continued to fall from the gloomy sky added to the already gloomy mood. We talked about geopolitics and agreed that the West should prepare for a hard landing. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find any good news anywhere.
Where has the confidence of the Reagan and Thatcher eras gone?Instead, there is a culture war going on.
Some of us are veterans, one or two of them from the transition to the Reagan administration and into the most successful decade in modern peacetime history, in which Margaret Thatcher played a key role. I had spent time in Washington in 1980, which was a prelude. After all, the West won the Cold War, the Soviet Empire collapsed, Marxism became authoritarianism, decades of acquiescence in British decline ended, and China tentatively moved toward international legal membership. seemed to be taking appropriate measures. and the economic system. It will soon be possible to declare the end of history and usher in a new world order. Sam Huntington would warn of the coming clash of civilizations, but even if he was proven right, we were confident that our civilization would win. Peaceful day.
That said, back in 1980, an amiable former actor and a high-pitched woman whose position in her own party was never secure were about to forge one of the most transformative partnerships in world history. If someone had come forward, they would have been considered a victim. Another type of weather: sitting for long periods in the strong sun without a hat. I was one of them, including many Tories, who completely underestimated Margaret Thatcher. Oh, I have little faith.
However, during that great era, mistakes were made that allowed the enemy to counterattack. While free marketers took command of the economy, in Marxist terms, they ignored the culture, the Marxist superstructure.