Today the post-Berlin Wall world turns 21, but far from becoming an adult in freedom it remains mired in protectionism, big-state nannyism, huge deficits, unsustainable entitlements, corporate bailouts, overbearing central banks, limits to free speech, currency debasement, and ideological wars and proxy conflicts.

Here’s what we had to say about the 20-year old post-Wall world last year…

Berlin Wall Day: 20 years on

When the Wall came crashing down 20 years ago, there were only a few who foresaw the world we would be moving into… very few.  As Francis Fukuyama so famously and incorrectly believed in his 1989 work, The End of History, the last great ideological struggle was over and the world would settle into a state of peaceful coexistence where free market capitalism and globalisation would proliferate and lead to prosperity for all.  Looking back perhaps Francis’ thesis was so quickly gobbled up by Western intellectuals because the world was just so anxious to hear that finally we could all just get along.  He had an upbeat message in world that was long overdue upbeat messages.

Hindsight is 20/20 for all of us now, but guys like Samuel Huntington were pretty accurate in their assessment at the time.  A clash of civilisations has occurred, and not only are there still great ideological struggles infecting the globe, but the communist ideology remains alive, if slightly unwell.

The glaringly obvious point to make on this the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall is how little fanfare and coverage it has received.  Sure, dignitaries and leaders are converging on Berlin to show face and commemorate the occasion, but there has hardly been a major expression of joy about the event. 

To say the least people are not exactly enamoured with the post-Wall world, and to be fair, how much has really changed?  Ok, if you were a polish peasant farmer living under collectivist shackles, a lot has changed.  Or, if you were a Turkmenistani goat herder, perhaps a lot has changed.  But for the non-Warsaw Pact Western world, and the non-communist world as a whole, things aren’t a whole lot different from a systemic perspective.

Think about it.  Threat of nuclear war?  Still there.  Dictatorships and oppression?  Still there.  Wars and proxy wars?  Still there?  Communist ideology?  Still there.  Russian regional aggression? Still there.

In fact, all the supposed end of tyranny has brought us is more tyranny, more government control, more government debt, more debauched monetary policies, more inflation, more of everything inimical to freedom.

The truth is, socialist/communist ideology isn’t dead.  It not only lives in North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela, but also all across the globe, in Western universities, Arab dictatorships, social welfare states, unions, socialist parties and any number of other organisations.  As Mark Steyn said recently, fascism was the evil tyranny that everybody loved to hate, while communism was the good tyranny, that the intellectual elite kinda secretly hoped would work.

In fact the very fabric of the supposedly free market and free society is tainted by socialist/communist ideology.  We are not genuinely free at all in the post-Wall world.  The monetary system is completely controlled by the state.  We are told how much money must be created and what money we can use.  Resources are constantly being expropriated by the state.  Economies are still subject to a degree of central planning, health care is nationalised meaning the state effectively has a say in your own body, and the government picks who survives and who fails.  The state is basically the de facto morality and social conscience, legislating what is right and wrong, permitting and forbidding, and levying “sin taxes”.  The state is the chief overseer of all things, regulating prices, clamping down on ‘hate’ speech, requiring onerous licenses, rationing resources according to political favour, allowing and disallowing businesses to open and trade, and taxing free enterprise and productivity at every turn.

The world is not remembering November 9, 1989 with massive fanfare and celebration because so many are so disappointed with the post-Wall world.  It has the guise of freedom, but beneath the facade remains entrenched, large over-bearing government, and ‘legitimate’ tyranny.

The Wall as a symbol of people breaking free from tyrannical rule is a romantic picture, but the reality is that much more than a wall still needs to be destroyed.  The Berlin Wall may have crumbled under the weight of a genuine cry for freedom, but tyranny still lingers in all its insidious forms.