Seen today

'We are cursed by what Barbara Tuchman calls the "bellicose frivolity of senile empires."'

Chris Hedges

"European authorities are increasingly willing to use the necessity of countering ‘hate’ to clamp down on opposition, while the will of democratically elected politicians is routinely blocked by non-democratic bodies, especially the judiciary. Presented with the threat of a populist government which might tear up this system, and overturn the sacred ‘rules-based order’, the temptation to place a finger on the scales of democracy may become too strong.

"As a result, liberal democracy is undergoing a crisis, and in many ways is no longer liberal nor democratic, but an oxymoronic ‘liberal authoritarianism’. This was a phrase first used by historians to describe the British rulers of India, starting with the East India Company under George Lyall. It described a system of government under a liberal ruling class who were nonetheless compelled to use authoritarian measures to rule over a population which did not give its consent. As the UK state of the 21st century has started to resemble a New British Empire, so this form of government has returned."

Ed West

Alan MacLeod

@AlanRMacLeod

Fun fact: Barack Obama is the only Nobel Peace Prize winner to bomb another Nobel Peace Prize winner (Doctors Without Borders, 2015)