History doesn't stand still waiting for us to decide where it ought to be heading. Of one thing I am certain, and that is that Modernity (in the broadest sense) will continue to expand across the globe and that the diminishing number of people with Modernity-resistance built into their value system will occasionally form into well-defended blocks behind which their medieval worldview will harden into an aggressive revolt against the prevailing trend. (Iran etc.)
Many moderns will continue to extol the (now largely touristic) value of human diversity while continuing to think rather wishfully that the situation can be kept stable by the correct observance of an international system of good manners.
Now here's an interesting fact I learned yesterday. For the first half of the last century one third of Baghdad's population was Jewish. There were enclaves of similar proportions in cities across the Middle East but persecution at the hands of fascist-inspired Pan-Arab movements like Baathism and the formation of the state of Israel has ensured that they and their descendents are now nearly all concentrated in a small strip of territory that will surely soon be within range of pre-Moderns with nukes.
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