The West Will Prove Resilient

If, as the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter famously argued, the essence of capitalism is "creative destruction", then Europe should be living through one of the most creative periods in its history. All around us, currencies are collapsing, debtors are defaulting, banks are bankrupt and the governed are ungovernable. We are witnessing nothing less than the last days of Leviathan: the end of the epoch that began with the rise of the modern state four centuries ago. Today's global crises transcend the capacity of governmental machines even to grasp what is happening, let alone to steer the course of history. The implosion of the eurozone, for example, reflects the impotence of the chancelleries, overwhelmed by events and forces beyond their control. Europe's political class is stretched on a Procrustean bed of its own making.