Javier Benegas (b. 1965) is a Spanish political analyst and writer, co-founder of the Spanish daily Vozpópuli, of which he was opinion director, and founder of the think tank ThinkAct, as well as editor of the political and sociological analysis journal Disidentia.

When the twentieth century ended, Eric J. Hobsbawm, in his History of the Twentieth Century, warned that the old century had not ended well. In his view, it went out with a resounding bang and an angry whimper. However, the turn of the millennium did not result in catastrophic pathos, but in a strange unease, especially in Europe. The West had been savouring the triumph over the Soviet empire and the end of the Cold War for decades. Yet far from greater confidence in the future, there was a sense of growing confusion.

At the beginning of the new century, in 2001, the first major shock occurred: the attack on the Twin Towers in New York. An event that was interpreted as the beginning of a new challenge, no longer ideological but civilisational. For a time, the idea of the clash of civilisations provided the centripetal force needed to maintain a certain cohesion. The response of the United States and its allies was to invade Afghanistan that same year, with a military victory that was as dazzling as it was deceptive, because that initial victory would end in an ignominious withdrawal two decades later.
Seven years later, in 2008, the disaster of the Great Recession struck. This time the threat did not come from an external enemy, but from within the economic system. This crisis, comparable to the Great Depression of 1929, called into question the only thing that seemed solid at the time: material well-being. Once the moments of greatest danger of collapse had passed, thanks to huge monetary injections by central banks, a slow and painful recovery followed. But confidence did not recover. On the contrary, the bad feelings with which Europeans had greeted the new century turned into an insurmountable lack of confidence in their leaders and in their own strength.
Then, with their spirits barely recovered, the pandemic broke out in 2020, bringing with it, in addition to numerous deaths, confinements, restrictions, sanitary passports, arbitrariness, abuses of power, moral admonitions, social divisions… a new economic crisis. However, one key ingredient was still missing for the 21st century, not yet a quarter of the way through its first quarter, to confirm the worst omens for Europe: war. And it came with the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

With Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, a disturbing desire for purification seemed to emerge in some individuals who saw Russia’s aggression as a necessary cultural confrontation, not simply a gross violation of international law. Far from condemning the invasion, too many Europeans wanted to see it as a kind of crusade against the Woke empire. There is a certain parallel in the mood of these subjects and that of the young people of the incipient European middle classes of the early 20th century, who seemed stricken by a lack of direction and purpose. Thus, the desire for meaning on the part of those who felt alienated from the world led them to see war as a means by which their lives could be affirmed.

Fortunately, there are substantial differences between the past and the present. Comparatively, European societies in the early 20th century were on average considerably younger and therefore more fiery, and also less affluent and cynical than those of the 21st century. Today’s ageing population, as well as seventy years of virtually uninterrupted peace and prosperity, have turned the old war ardor into a pathetic pout. The truth is that war has long since become unthinkable in Europe. Not politically. Anthropologically unthinkable… but not in Europe as a whole. In less than a month since the first Russian tank crossed the Ukrainian border into Poland, the interest of young and not-so-young people in volunteering for the army increased sevenfold.

While Poland was determined and realistic about the threat Russia posed to Europe, in other European countries, societies viewed the war as a distant phenomenon. Certainly, for the most part they were outraged by it, but their willingness to embrace war as a calamity that could directly involve them was almost non-existent. They discounted that others, namely the Ukrainians, would fight for them. Today, it is a rare European country in which the idea of freedom is not considered the basis on which their democracies are built. However, while in countries like Poland the defence of freedom is assumed, if necessary, by fighting on the front line, in others very few are willing to make sacrifices.

Javier Benegas (b. 1965) is a Spanish political analyst and writer, co-founder of the Spanish daily Vozpópuli, of which he was opinion director, and founder of the think tank ThinkAct, as well as editor of the political and sociological analysis journal Disidentia. He is a regular contributor to various Spanish media, both in the press and on radio and television, and is a prominent contributor to The Objective. He is the author of the essays Sociedad terminal: La comunicación como arma de destrucción masiva (2007) [Terminal Society: Communication as a Weapon of Mass Destruction], co-author of Catarsis. Se vislumbra el final del régimen (2013) [Catharsis. The end of the regime in sight] and author of La ideología invisible: Claves del nuevo totalitarismo que infecta a las sociedades occidentales (2020) [The Invisible Ideology: Keys to the New Totalitarianism Infecting Western Societies] y Vindicación (2022) [Vindication].