It has generally been the tendency of every generation to think that its own times are somehow worse and/or more disruptive than those of the preceding age or even than what their more remote forebears had to live through. This is a matter of basic human psychology: Events we experience personally, either directly or in some indirect way – even just as news – cannot fail to take a greater meaning and to concern us more deeply than the past movements of a History which has not touched us and of which we know (or think we know) merely from books.
However, we do ourselves and our societies a disservice in yielding to this natural, present-framed instinct, and generally in not seeking a wider perspective from which to draw not just some therapeutic sense of “hope” but real inspiration and guidelines for action. Common sense should suffice in recalibrating our self-perception: There is no need to become specialists in Applied History for this purpose – much as Applied History is now, undoubtedly, the single most valuable academic pursuit related to matters of international (and indeed national) politics.
Our Western world is now certainly in a state of turmoil and upheaval not seen in a long time; but one not particularly bad at the scale of history. Under Donald Trump’s second presidency, the United States has changed course in foreign policy – let alone in domestic affairs. An unvarnished version of the American interest and power-politics has taken the place of internationalism and global responsibility and leadership through a sense of Western fellowship, as the guiding principle of US conduct on the world stage.
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