Quote of the Day (Janan Ganesh, on the 1960s, ‘The Last Pre-Global Decade’)

“The 1960s were the last pre-global decade. The 1970s would bring free-floating currencies and the opening of China. It would bring OPEC crises that smashed apart the highly managed economic order. The 1980s would go much further. For people who have found globalisation discombobulating (and you will have noticed there are a few), the 1960s must seem like the last stand of a more familiar world. In other words, a decade that has for so long been synonymous with breakneck progress is now idealised for exactly the opposite reason. The ‘meaning’ of the 1960s has slowly changed.” —British journalist, author and political commentator Janan Ganesh, “Remembering the Last Pre-Global Decade,” The Financial Times, Aug. 17-18, 2019

Quote of the Day (Timothy Snyder, on Globalization, Totalitarianism, and History)

“Both fascism and communism were responses to globalization: to the real and perceived inequalities it created, and the apparent helplessness of the democracies in addressing them. Fascists rejected reason in the name of will, denying objective truth in favor of a glorious myth articulated by leaders who claimed to give voice to the people. They put a face on globalization, arguing that its complex challenges were the result of a conspiracy against the nation. Communists ruled for longer, for nearly seven decades in the Soviet Union, and more than four decades in much of Eastern Europe. They proposed rule by a disciplined party elite with a monopoly on reason that would guide society toward a certain future according to supposedly fixed laws of history….

“Americans today are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism in the 20th century. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. Now is a good time to do so.”—Yale historian Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons fromthe Twentieth Century (2017)

The accompanying photo of Timothy Snyder was taken Mar. 31, 2016, by Frauemacht.