Lionel Jospin, former French prime minister, once said: “Yes to a market economy, no to a market society”. Anyone grappling with why the US and Britain have been hit worse by populism than many other democracies might recall his words.
No two western societies have commodified more than the US and the UK. We live to consume. There are worse fates than that. But the price is that we tend to forget the value of other factors, such as the intrinsic worth of liberal democracy. Nemesis comes from believing your own marketing.
The moment of peak hubris of Anglo-American democracy came in the George W Bush administration following the September 2001 attacks in the US. Supported by Tony Blair, Mr Bush announced he would export democracy by force to the Middle East. Germany and France opted out — a wise choice that looks ever better over time. Much of the anti-establishment cynicism in America and Britain was born during the Iraq war. But that pales against the generation-long triumphalism of Anglo-American capitalism.