I think the world is locked into struggle between a heartless corporate neoliberalism and a rage-filled blood-and-soil nationalism, neither of which offers hope for the human future.
Pankaj Mishra, author of AGE OF ANGER (2017), said this is part of a conflict of ideas that originated with Voltaire and Rousseau in the 18th century and is still going on, all over the world, today.
Voltaire taught that if you give up your outworn prejudices, superstitions and customs, and embrace science, reason and commerce, you will gain the power to determine the course of your life, as well as enjoy a rising material standard of living.
His enemy, Rousseau, spoke for all those who were angry because this bargain was not kept, or because they rejected the bargain in the first place.
They included millions of people in Europe and North America in the 19th century and also billions in Asia and Africa in the 20th and 21st, who have been uprooted from village communities and left to fend for themselves in an unforgiving global economy.
Voltaire, although a brave defender of religious and intellectual freedom, despised the ignorant masses. He admired “enlightened” despots, such as Frederick the Great and Catherine the Great, for trying to force their unwilling subjects to adopt modern—that is, French—ways of life.
Rousseau cared nothing for modernization. His ideal was an imaginary Sparta, an austere, primitive and close-knit society of brave warriors. He thought it unimportant that Spartan warriors were predatory and merciless to others. What mattered was their comradeship with each other, and also their manliness.
Another theme of Rousseau, in contrast to Voltaire, is the need for manliness and the corresponding need to keep women in their place. Once again, this is an example of Rousseau wanting something he didn’t have. He was never able to fulfill the traditional role of the male, which is to be a protector and provider for women and children.
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