World Politics Since 1989, by Jonathan Holslag

Author: Jonathan Holslag. Review by Reg Naulty

The quotation at the beginning of this impressive book indicates a concern for morality: ‘No society is fortunate when its walls are strong while its morals are in ruins.’ Morality forms part of the book because of its connection with economics. In the west, a huge percentage of wealth is spent on consumption. In China, by contrast, a much greater percentage is spent on infrastructure, which produces more wealth in the future.

Jonathan Holslag argues that the decoupling of wealth from virtue has brought a ‘decadence trap’. What must the leaders of foreign governments think when they see news clips of rock concerts? It is not surprising that Chinese leaders suspect that the west is a purveyor of nihilism, and that countries like India and the Middle East are wary of the US particularly.

Holslag writes that, in the west, society is frayed by individualism and materialism, and that it needs to re-invent itself. How it may do that, he does not say. After all, he is a political scientist, not a moral philosopher. He remarks that social cohesion requires common values, though he almost never mentions religion. This of course can be a source of common values, and may be a remedy for some of the things which concern Holslag.

Over the thirty years covered by the book, globalism has slipped into disrepute, to be officially replaced by patriotism (but which, Hoslag points out, often descends into localism). There is something which overcomes that: theism. The different theistic religions have all developed ethical systems. They would all accept the ten commandments as well as Jesus’ teaching that not by bread alone does one live. If adhered to, this would solve a lot of the west’s problems.

Unfortunately, the unity of theism has been obscured by Islamic terrorism. But thinking of Islam in terms of terrorism is like thinking of Christianity in terms of the conflict in Northern Ireland. It loses the big picture. Theism might well be championed. Belief in God could be a unifying force on a global scale.

Of course, not everyone in the west is a theist, but enough people are. Theism everywhere has to cope with creeping positivism, usually acquired gradually and unconsciously, by which I mean the view that only science explains the world. Creeping positivism comes with the omnipresence of technology. Its first sign is the status given to doctors and engineers, and the loss of religious status. The counter to that is that God must be found to be active in our world. A religion of experience does that. The great faiths all have pathways to religious experience, but it needs leadership.

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