New York Times
May 31, 2012
In 1949, Reinhold Niebuhr published a book called Faith and History. Niebuhr noticed a secular religion that was especially strong in the years after World War II. It was the faith that historical forces were gradually bringing about “the unification of mankind.”
Old nationalisms would fade away, many people believed. Transportation and communications technologies would unite people. Values would converge.
This optimistic faith was at the heart of many postwar projects, first the United Nations and then the European Union. The idea was to create multilateral bodies that would hasten the process of convergence, harmonization and peace.
Unfortunately, this moral, cultural and political convergence never happened. In the decades since, people in different nations, even people within nations, have become less alike in at least as many ways as they have become more alike.
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