“What we were seeing in 2015, more than ever before, were the signs of one of history’s great geopolitical shifts, as the centuries-old hegemony of the West gives way to the new powerhouses of the outside world,” wrote Booker.
The author cited recent visits by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping to Britain, during which, “led by David Cameron, our politicians could not have fawned more humiliatingly.”
“Everywhere we see Western illusions colliding with reality, as when the reckless bid to suck Ukraine into the EU and Nato inevitably provoked a response from President Putin and a Russian sense of national interest that has left us looking pathetically impotent.”
“We might well be haunted by the brilliant title of that otherwise not very good book written by Otto Spengler in the Twenties, Der Untergang des Abendlandes (The Decline of the West). All civilisations, as we know, eventually decline, and Spengler’s title was just 90 years ahead of its time.”
Our spoiled, emasculated, de‑spiritualised societies in the West are in terminal decline https://t.co/uMz2OhcYqT pic.twitter.com/mwi0aampju
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) January 2, 2016
Booker’s article in the Daily Telegraph, which argues that “our spoiled, emasculated, de‑spiritualised societies in the West are in terminal decline.” A survey of readers that accompanied his column found that the majority agreed with him.
“The reason why we do not see just how far our spoiled, emasculated, despiritualised societies in the West have lost the plot is that they are the bubble we live in. But these days there is a great big world out there, much less sentimental and much tougher than what we have become used to. Over the coming years, our world is going to change more than we can imagine,” warned the columnist.
