There Is Already A Generation Of European

Except For Its Worst Inner-city Slums, America Is Not The Primitive Capitalist Jungle Of European Imagination, Where Human Beings Slink Away Like Wounded Animals To Die In Bloodstained Holes.

What Is The Elephant In All Our Rooms? It Is The Global Triumph Of Capitalism. Democracy Is Fiercely Disputed. Freedom Is Under Threat Even In Old-established Democracies Such As Britain. Western Supremacy Is On The Skids. But Everyone Does Capitalism. Americans And Europeans Do It. Indians Do It. Russian Oligarchs And Saudi Princes Do It. Even Chinese Communists Do It... Karl Marx Would Be Turning In His Grave. Or Perhaps Not, Since Some Of His Writings Eerily Foreshadowed Our Era Of Globalised Capitalism. His Prescription Failed But His Description Was Prescient.

The Main Problem With American Power Is Not That It Is American... No, The Main Problem With American Power Is The Power Itself. It Would Be Dangerous Even For An Archangel To Wield So Much Power.

The First Job Of The Historian And Of The Journalist Is To Find Facts. Not The Only Job, Perhaps Not The Most Important, But The First. Facts Are The Cobblestones From Which We Build Roads Of Analysis, Mosaic Tiles That We Fit Together To Compose Pictures Of Past And Present. There Will Be Disagreement About Where The Road Leads And What Reality Or Truth Is Revealed By The Mosaic Picture. The Facts Themselves Must Be Checked Against All The Available Evidence. But Some Are Round And Hard--and The Most Powerful Leaders In The World Can Trip Over Them. So Can Writers, Dissidents And Saints.

I Have A Dreadful Feeling In My Bones That Future Historians May Write Of The May 2014 Elections: "this Was The Wake-up Call From Which Europe Failed To Wake Up."