There is a famous quote by Henry James about the meaning of the First World War, here its essence:
"The plunge of civilization into this abyss of blood and darkness... is a thing that so gives away the whole long age during which we have supposed the world to be, with whatever abatement, gradually bettering".
I rather think that this mad, bloody circus of an era gives away the effects of Washington consensus and the full liberalization and deregulation of capital movements. The sobering effects of the world wars have gradually worn off, the central meaning of the resolution of them was not human rights and liberal democracy but making the world again safe for destructive, blind, ever corrupt, ever corrupting, ever corrosive capitalism. And so here we go again.
