Where Did It All Go Wrong?
Enrol at the bottom of this page, starting 9:00 AM on April 7
In 1989 the Berlin Wall came down. The cold war ended. The Soviet Union collapsed. A peaceful era beckoned. Francis Fukuyama proclaimed “the end of history”, that all nations would gravitate to democracy. Many did in the 1990s. Dictators were in retreat. Apartheid ended. The new internet thing promised a global, interconnected community. Globalization promised economic connections that would make inter-state war unthinkable. Clinton and Blair offered a “third way” in politics that would make everyone happy. All we had to worry about was whether Clinton did in fact have sex with “that woman”.
It’s all gone to ratshit. We have a terrible war in Europe with the threat of use of nuclear weapons; a third world war is not unthinkable; great power rivalry is worse than in several decades; we can see at least a new cold war for the foreseeable future. Democracy is in retreat everywhere, even in the longest-standing democracies; political polarization and populism are serious problems. Inequality is a scourge; oligarchs and obscenely rich people rule. Terrorism is a constant threat. The internet has turned out to be as negative as it is positive, and it’s also controlled by oligarchs. We are still in a pandemic that has killed millions. Oh, and the effects of climate change are getting worse every year. As Seinfeld might have said: Not good.
In this course we’ll explore how we got from the serene 1990’s to where we are now, only one generation later. What underlying forces have led us here? Or is it all just because of a few individuals like Bin Laden, Putin, Xi and Trump? Who or what is to blame? Are we destined for a “dark age” as Jane Jacobs predicted, or will all this pass?
Date and Time: Fridays, April 22 to May 27 (six sessions), 2-4 PM.
Location: Online
Moderator: John Simke
Cost: $36
Booking: See Terms and Conditions. Please note, maximum of two spots per person. When the course is full, to go onto the waiting list, please send us an e-mail at [email protected]