Milanovic: "The end of the end of history"  The last paragraph.

The current war displays to us that the complexity of the world, its cultural and historical “baggage”, is great and that the idea that one type of system will eventually be embraced by all is a delusion. It is a delusion whose consequences are bloody. To have peace, we need to learn to live while accepting differences. These differences are not trivial differences that go under the current title of being open to variety, in the way we dress, in our sexual preferences or the food we eat. The differences we need to accept, and to live with, are much more fundamental and they relate to the way societies function, what they believe in, and what they think is the source of legitimacy of their governments. That of course can change in the course of time for any one given society, as it did many times in the past. But at a given point, it will differ from country to country, from region to region, from religion to religion. To assume that everyone  who is not “like us” is somehow deficient, or not aware that they would be better off being “like us” will –if we maintain this flawed belief—remain the source of endless wars.

Offensive on a thousand levels, and just stupid. "The weak suffer what they must", say the strong.

Milanovic again, with Jäger and Dominik Leusder, at Eurotrashpod. w. John Fucking Rawls.

The arguments are as absurd as the march for Charlie Hebdo. If the world is nowhere near being fully post-colonial in 2022 it sure as shit wasn't in 1989.  "[T]he idea that one type of system will eventually be embraced by all" may be "a delusion", but all communities should have the opportunity to decide that for themselves, and the comforts of the west are predicated on the fact that the majority of the planet hasn't been allowed the choice.