Every age needs its prophets of doom to warn mankind of the dangers that lie ahead unless urgent attention is given to reform, but it is the destiny of the prophets to remain voices crying out in the wilderness. Niall Ferguson must not be allowed to suffer this fate, because the issues he addresses need our urgent attention. Modern civilization was built and sustained by a network of great institutions, cataloged by Ferguson as representative government, free market, rule of law, and civil society. By showing how each of them is degenerating and in need of radical reform, Ferguson presents a momentous challenge to the leaders and peoples of Western democracies.
A central theme of Ferguson’s argument is that people’s sense of community has weakened. Individuals have become more self-centered, pursuing their own ends without regard for others. This has led to large income and wealth disparities, which has also served to divide communities. Immigrants, both legal and illegal, are often accused of coming to Western countries just to exploit the economic opportunities of increased influx, but indigenous populations have behaved in the same way, enjoying their heritage but neglecting it. institutions that fueled the economic advancement of yesteryear. generations.
Ferguson gives many examples of the degeneration of community spirit, from the sharp reduction in membership of voluntary organizations to the degeneration of the rule of law in the state of lawyers. In all walks of life, people are using their privileged positions to enhance their own wealth and power with a diminishing sense of service to their community. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the transformation of cooperatives, associations and construction companies into private companies and banks.
Niall Ferguson’s book should be a must-read for everyone running for public office in Western democracies. One politician who seems to have responded is David Cameron, whose promotion of the Great Society echoes Ferguson’s call for a higher level of volunteerism and the understanding that people can still do a lot to help themselves. Ferguson recommends that people accept a higher degree of individual responsibility, working together on a basis of trust combined with a lower level of government regulation.
In a call for higher ethical standards, Ferguson comes close to advocating spiritual revival and it’s hard to see how that could happen in modern times. One recalls the slow demise of the movement for moral rearmament a few decades ago. If Ferguson is to be regarded as a prophet, it would be of economic and political liberalism, but this is the same applied philosophy that, according to him, is in crisis. Like the prophets of the past, he does not come to bring a new religion but to reform the old one; It will be interesting to see if his disciples give his message a new name.
