Past haunts present

There is in Western consciousness a staggering blindness regarding the benevolence of liberalism. The ideology didn’t rise immaculately from the head of Zeus. Western science, technology and market structures led to class and colonial domination with unprecedented prosperity for the few. Posing as progress on the road to civilization, it led to centuries of exploitation and misery for many—often justified because they were different.

Russia, on the eastern edge of the West, suffered the horrors of Stalinism in order to industrialize fast enough to avoid being colonized like the rest of the non-Western world. China was unable to escape Western imperialism and suffered the horrors of Maoism in order to free itself from domination. Both still struggle against the liberal world order.

Historical necessity need not be irrevocable. There are enough past sins for all to atone. Yet little will change unless and until we alter or abandon divisive ideologies that address parochial and transient episodes of the past—ideologies that generally insist on conformity, stifling reflection on very different global circumstances.

Should we suffer intellectual paralysis and fail to envision the world differently, future generations will undoubtedly inherit the abyss we create. They deserve better. DAVID SIXBEY

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