Viewed from this perspective, the collapse of the Soviet Union was not only the collapse of the most organized center of opposition to capitalism, but it was also the collapse of the last European empire. We'll have to see whether the Chechnyans and others succeed in their attempts to finish off the process of decolonization. What is especially dispiriting about this resurgence of national identity is its ruggedness and vulgarity. One would hope that the people of the world had learned, through painful and obscene lessons, that simple assertions of primacy of one group over another were unacceptable. Apparently such is not the case.
Voices are especially loud, raising a chorus of hatred and exclusion.
Somehow it has become respectable to articulate and hold positions of superiority. Market capitalism may induce a commitment to representative democracy That tension between capitalism and democracy may have a happy outcome. The globalization of capitalism is perhaps one of the major forces in the world which is acting as a restraint on unbridled economic nationalism. The Left in America cannot help but be frightened at its ideological sympathy with Pat Buchanan as he demands that American jobs be saved from Free Trade. One cannot help but be struck by the symbiotic relationship between market capitalism and representative democracy.