You’d almost think the west was in decline. In Syria, Qatar funds the rebels while Russia keeps the regime afloat. Eastern purchases of western brands roll on: Chinese bidders are now swallowing the French holiday company Club Med, and probably Smithfield, the world’s biggest pork producer. By 2016, China should be the world’s biggest economy. No wonder the British government frets about losing “the global race”.
Yet looked at in another way, the west only gets more dominant. We are winning the battle of ideas. Our universities, media, books, celebrities, brands, our principal language, even our dreams dominate the global conversation. “Western culture” isn’t superior, but its stuff fills the average human being’s head. In the long run, that probably matters as much as economic might.
I noticed it visiting Moscow last month. Most western expatriates I met there had come for money (the Muscovite “salary bonus” and “tax bonus”) and had parked their wives and children back home. Meanwhile, rich Russians were sending their children to British boarding schools and American colleges. Neither group seemed to see their future in the country that paid them.