End of an era? Start of a new one? Or just more of the messy present?

I found myself thinking today that 2024 feels like the end of the “1989” period, aka, the end of the End of History. But I’m reluctant to declare “eras” to be ended. One reason is that I’m not sure it means much in most cases. Another is that I don’t have any particular insight into such things. After all, the much-discussed End of History didn’t actually, uh, turn out to the Golden Era of global liberal democracy it was hoped to be.

Also, the philosopher Hegel, who is credited with establishing the concept of the “end of history,” had this to say about recognizing eras: “When philosophy paints its gray on gray, then has a form of life grown old, and with gray on gray it cannot be rejuvenated, but only known; the Owl of Minerva first takes flight with twilight closing in." ("Preface" to Philosophy of Right)

But in 2022, the Russian invasion of Ukraine seems to have put an end to the previous period of at least some hope that the NATO countries and Russia might be able to establish a “common security” arrangement in Europe that would have meant a protracted détente (to revive a once-popular term) between the West and Russia. From today’s perspective, it would have meant many fewer Ukrainians and Russia dying on the battlefield. And it would have meant that in the global power-balancing game, Russia and China wouldn’t be so closely aligned at this moment in opposition to the United States as they actually are. Admittedly, that hope was a long shot. But not at all an impossible one. And it’s still a necessary one.

It's too early to assume that the newly announced Kamala Harris/Tim Walz ticket will mean a turn by the US Democratic Party to actually-progressive politics in the New Deal tradition. But, hey, Walz is even willing to talk about fighting the “robber barons,” so that has to give a flash of optimism to anyone in the US to left of the Democrats’ long-time coal baron Senator Joe Manchin. Walz even says, "One person's socialism is another person's neighborliness."

So, I’m willing to entertain that feeling at least through the Democratic Convention week after next. Democratic candidates who start from the assumption that Dems should fight for their own side are always a welcome sight! (I mean, unless he starts spouting off in non-fighting-Dem language about the need for “bipartisanship” and to “work across the aisle”!)

And the ongoing war in the Middle East, which most observers expect to get much wider and much worse quickly, is a huge reminder that the peaceful End of History really isn’t on the horizon at the moment.

Netanyahu and the rest of the radical right in Israel are actually promoting End Times fantasies to justify Netanyahu’s expanding war, as former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned back in February:

Olmert:

The supreme aim of the far-right duo National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is not the occupation of the Gaza Strip.

Even settlement throughout the devastated Strip is not the final goal of the bunch of messianic hallucinators that has seized power in the state of Israel. Gaza is just the introductory chapter, the platform this gang wants to build as the foundation upon which the real fight they are eyeing will be conducted: the battle for the West Bank and the Temple Mount.

The ultimate aim of this gang is "purging" the West Bank of its Palestinian inhabitants, cleansing the Temple Mount of its Muslim worshippers and annexing the territories to the state of Israel. The way to achieve this goal is blood-soaked. Israeli blood, in the state and in the territories it has been controlling for 57 years now, as well as Jewish blood in places elsewhere in the world. As well as a lot of Palestinian blood, of course, in the territories, in Jerusalem and if there is no alternative – also among Arab citizens of Israel.

This aim will not be achieved without extensive violent conflict. Armageddon. All-out war. In the south, in Jerusalem, in the territories of the West Bank and to the extent necessary also on the northern border. Such a war will bolster the impression that we are fighting for our lives, for our very existence. In a war for survival, it is permissible to do insufferable things, and the hilltop youth are proving daily that among them are many who are capable of precisely that. (1)

Unfortunately, things have gotten much worse since that article in February. Gaza really was only a first step.And it would be very good to shift away from the moment's current state of affairs.

Notes:

(1) Olmert, Ehud (2024): Netanyahu's Messianic Coalition Partners Want an All-out Regional War. Gaza Is Just a First Step. Haaretz 02/22/2024. <https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2024-02-22/ty-article-opinion/.premium/netanyahus-messianic-coalition-partners-want-an-all-out-regional-war/0000018d-d237-d06c-abbd-daf733870000> (Accessed: 2024-06-08).