[x]

Excellent, intriguing article, but it doesn't take China into account. One fourth of the earth's population is bound to have an effect on the future.

Also, Britain and Israel both went far in the direction of socialism earlier, further than France or Germany in the 1940s and 1950s. Things do change and today's natural allies may be rivals tomorrow.

He gets Europe's secular/social democratic synthesis right, but America's Christian/capitalist blend may be more unstable and harder to export. Secular humanism and socialism reinforce each other, though both make for decadent and unsustainable social orders. There are conflicts between Christianity and capitalism that may make the American synthesis hard to maintain.

[Torie]

Secular humanism and capitalism are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, the latter is really needed to effect the ends of the former. It is an apples and oranges thingie. Mixing in nationalism and a Pavlovian hostility to international organizations merely leads one farther astray. This is one of those grand unified theories that lays an egg.

[ez]

Excellent, intriguing article, but it doesn't take China into account.

As per my earlier model, China falls in with the Atheists. You know, godless Communists and all that...

[KC_for_Freedom]

I believe the article is good to, as far as it goes. My contention is that there are only two sides, world socialism and world capitalism. Socialism favors dictators and therefore islam has sided with it. Capitalism and democracy go together, and are sweeping the world. If socialism does not do something soon they will lose

[FITZ]

. There are conflicts between Christianity and capitalism that may make the American synthesis hard to maintain.

Not really ---I don't see the conflicts when American culture brought about the highest standard of living for the most people. Christianity doesn't need to have most of the people living in dire poverty. The good old protestant work ethic wasn't such a bad thing ---and it didn't have to be just for protestants.