We live in a world of change so fast that the younger generation is hard put to it to keep up with its tempo – which explains why the latter-day younger generation has its eyes fixed on the present and the future, and has little or no time to ponder on the past.

This burns much of the energy of adolescence and limits perspectives. As a result, there seems to be no interval between the decay of the old and the formation and establishment of the new.

At this stage, the world is experiencing the spreading triumph of market economics and the furious speed of globalisation, all of which came hard on the heels of the collapse of totalitarianism. Before that, 19th century capitalism, that flowered in the early stages of the Industrial Revolution beget the Marxist response, which was rooted in a scientific view of history and class, and drew its inspiration from those French revolutionaries who believed that man had it in his power to create heaven on earth.

At the most extreme, this notion spurred the growth of the Soviet Empire and the depravities of tyrants in the Nazi mould. It institutionalised evil in structures that combined corruption, incompetence and rapacity, and overshadowed the worst excesses of feudal times.

Years of transition

The years of transition were marked by titanic struggles, error, confusion, uncertainties and intransigent fanaticism, all of which have since melted in the cauldron of history.

But new desires and objectives took form. There was a time when state ownership and redistributive taxation were considered as the engine of industrial efficiency, and a social equity reflecting an egalitarian wish for a more socially coherent and harmonious society.

This has since been repackaged and now represents a general aspiration for a prudent fiscal policy and a free market.

Nowadays, no successful parties, of the right or of the left, campaign for increased spending, bigger deficits or greater government intervention in the economy.

Fiscal morality, and market economics with a heart, have replaced the slogans of nationalisation and profligacy.

New, dominant factor

It has been said, quite rightly, that these political developments owe much to the decline of class as the spur of voting behaviour. Increasingly, voting patterns reflect the emergence of a new dominant factor capable of swinging the pendulum. The floating voter floats with a will of his or her own.

Economic growth, the enhancement of net disposable incomes, the spread of ownership (in stocks and shares, as well as property), greater mobility, the information revolution, and the mass popular culture associated with it, have empowered the thinking electorate everywhere.

To this must be added the collapse of deference, the decline of authority and the erosion of social ranks, all of which have fractured voting blocks and led to the virtual disintegration of class ramparts.

The carpet is being pulled from beneath the feet of entrenched vested interests and, to a smaller or greater extent, of political parties.

Change has empowered the young.

Sweep of history

Political competition in the developed democracies now revolves around how to deliver market economics with a social conscience, with the debate shifting towards greater accountability and social responsibility.

The realisation seems to be taking root that, in the last resort, human nature pines for truth and freedom and that, however much politicians of every hue try to indoctrinate people, the desire for truth and freedom would always survive the driest winter and blossom after overwhelming stress and diversity.

In the sweep of history, empires have fallen and many tyrants have come and gone. In our own lifetime, it has taken long years of oppression and armed conflict until Nazism and Soviet communism were rooted out and the infamous wall was pulled down.

The barbed wires rusted and were not permanent, just as surely as millions of people everywhere threw their foreign yokes and emerged from the shadows of colonialism.

In short, class-based history ran out of chapters. The prohibitive cost of Cold War technology broke the back of wretchedly weak economies. The human spirit, expressed in the will of millions of people to be masters in their own home and to have a direct say in the shaping of their destinies, has prevailed.

In some countries, the human spirit manifested itself in heroism in front of the tanks and in the words of dissidents and poets. In others, it has been expressed through the ballot box shielded by the right of free speech and freedom of association

Two centuries before Christ, Epictetus was asked: What is it that every man seeks? His answer was “to be secure, to be happy, to do what one pleases, without restraint and without compulsion”.

The arduous thing is to realise what to do with one’s freedom.

Today’s young generation must constantly bear in mind that freedom is not to be confused with the free and easy or the free-for-all. It has a price which enriches only those who cherish it.

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