What leads people to do seemingly mad things? We are accustomed to the idea that extreme circumstances can generate extreme behaviour. Most famously, the combination of economic and national humiliation that faced Germany after the First World War are cited as the fertile soil that gave rise to Nazism.
And yet, it evidently is not just hardship which produces extreme decision-making, or extreme politics. One of the things which surprised researchers in the early 2000s, as the world raced to learn about Al Qaeda, was the discovery that the majority of Osama bin Laden’s followers were middle class, well-educated men. This contradicted the stereotypical assumption that terrorists were the victims of a downtrodden upbringing.
Indeed, there is good reason to believe that comfort can produce radicals almost as easily as oppression.
Francis Fukuyama’s 1989 essay, The End of History?, propelled him to fame by identifying liberal democracy’s inexorable success, just as Communism collapsed. He doubled down on the theory in a book, The End of History and the Last Man in 1992.
Since 9/11, Fukuyama has been given a hard time by those who argue that challenges to Western liberal democracy from Islamists, Russian aggression and Chinese authoritarianism prove him wrong, and that the battle of ideas is far from over.
In truth, though, he never argued that conflict or debate had ended. Whether he oversold his thesis in its title, or his critics misrepresent his case, is a separate argument.
Revisit his writing and you will find a perceptive prediction of new sources of conflict, which closely match what we are witnessing now.
“If men cannot struggle on behalf of a just cause because that just cause was victorious in an earlier generation, then they will struggle against the just cause. They will struggle for the sake of struggle. They will struggle, in other words, out of a certain boredom: for they cannot imagine living in a world without struggle.
“And if the greater part of the world in which they live is characterised by peaceful and prosperous liberal democracy, they then will struggle against that peace and prosperity, and against democracy.”
How acutely that describes much of the right and left in the Western world in 2025.
What other theory better matches the decision of so many people of the United States of America – an unmatched superpower, the largest economy on the planet, the linchpin of global trade, the cultural hegemon, the multi-century champion of industrial revolution after industrial revolution currently repeating the trick again on space tech, digital and AI all at the same time – to intentionally opt to torch the institutions and constitution which enabled their nation to succeed, the direct economic benefits of that success, and its reputation among its natural friends?
The Americans appear to be trying to sacrifice their imperial power just because they got bored of it making them so comfortable.
Nor is it only Maga supporters who exhibit the signs of having been radicalised by boredom. On the left, there are plenty of equivalents across the Western world.
square CLIVE MARTIN
It's time for Keir Starmer to prove he's a real football fan
Read MoreWe see it in the falling approval rates for democracy among young people; we see it in the outright denial of the successful progress of anti-racism in the last 60 years; and we even see it in the rise of edgelords like Kneecap, the Northern Irish rap group.
Personally, I thought it was quite quaint that the fate of the hard men of the IRA was to have their blowhard blood-and-guts mythology repackaged into a sort of Troubles cosplay as a marketing gimmick. After all, it was long past due that we all recognised that the balaclava is a fundamentally ridiculous item of clothing.
What could be a surer product of the safety and comfort born of the Northern Irish peace process than the appearance of a terrorist fancy dress novelty act chanting “Ooh-ahh, up the Ra”?
To repeat: “If men cannot struggle on behalf of a just cause because that just cause was victorious in an earlier generation, then they will struggle against the just cause… [if] the world in which they live is characterised by peaceful and prosperous liberal democracy, they then will struggle against that peace and prosperity, and against democracy.”
In a sense, we are lucky to live in an age in which idle buffoons have the luxury, the security and the calories to pull on silly tricolour balaclavas, or silly Maga hats. Few generations in human history have been so free of hunger or danger, or to be so indulged.
However, it does not stay a joke for long. There is a fundamental hollowness in this pampered rebellion for rebellion’s sake. When you define your own value only by what outrage you can generate, then you will always be hungry for the next, more extreme, hit.
Kneecap have escalated to cheering on Hamas and Hezbollah, and allegedly inciting fans to “murder your local MP”. Maga are down in the gutter, denouncing Ukrainians for fighting to stay alive. Each is a walking, talking warning that if you stand for nothing, you will easily fall for anything.
Fukuyama was right that boredom is the dangerous child of success. We all strive for security, and stability – but we neglected to work out how to keep it if we are lucky enough to achieve it.
Mark Wallace is chief executive of Total Politics Group
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Kneecap and Maga have more in common than they realise )
Also on site :
- Today's Wordle Hint, Answer for 1410, Tuesday, April 29, 2025
- The Beths Announce North American Tour Dates Alongside New Single, ‘Metal’
- Four dead after car crashes into after-school camp in US state of Illinois