We interrupt our regularly scheduled JFK programming for this special message. David Kaiser, a prolific and subtle diplomatic historian, has a piece on his blog,History Unfolding, that is well worth reading. Kaiser’s long historical perspective frames our political realities without pity.
The critical development of the twenty-first century, I am convinced, is the growth of a new global aristocracy, reflecting our new economy. It is dominated by financial interests, energy magnates, and the leaders of the new technology in cyberspace. It is allied with, or dominates, many of the governments around the world–including those of Russia and the United States. (I really don’t know what the situation is, in this respect, in China.) It is having major impacts on foreign policy and war. And it is relatively impervious to the workings of democracy, which it has learned, here in the US, to control.