We're at a strange moment, trembling between optimism and pessimism. Much of this is economic; after a gloomy four years or so, there are signs that a more solid economic recovery may be in the works.
The bloody fault lines of conflict today are mapped out not between democratic and undemocratic civilizations, but between global forces of antidemocratic power and human struggles for freedom in every culture.
The loss of the West's moral authority is the exact opposite outcome that Western minds expected when they celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.