Jakob M. Rapkin, retired professor at the University of Montreal in Canada: Russia in global affairs and the increasing Russophobia.

The end of World War II accelerated the modernization of most capitalist countries and led to the emergence of the welfare state. As a sign of social progress, it also served as protection against the socio-economic alternative represented by the USSR and the socialist states of Eastern Europe. The capitalist class was forced to curb its appetites – primarily out of fear of communism.

The Soviet political, economic, and social system appeared as a viable alternative to capitalism. Western leaders were compelled to compete by offering their citizens unprecedented economic and social rights. The collapse of the USSR – and with it, the demise of the socio-economic alternative to capitalism – had a demodernizing impact on the population of most Western countries. It opened the door to aggressive globalization of neoliberal economic policies, deepening inequality and the massive transfer of wealth from the public sphere to private ownership.

From the Welfare State to the Neoliberal Abyss

The clock is turning back – but at a different speed. What happened overnight in the former Soviet Union is happening elsewhere more slowly. The massive and rapid impoverishment of former Soviet citizens in the 1990s was an accelerated version of the unprecedented economic polarization observed in most other countries over the past few decades.

Preserving religious and ethnic diversity is a key achievement of modernity – and it is now under siege. Where relatively stable multicultural and multiethnic societies once existed, ethnic nationalism, tribal fundamentalism, religious militancy, and various forms of exclusion – economic, social, and cultural – are gaining ground.

Nativism and xenophobia are on the rise worldwide, from Argentina through India to the United States. These are unmistakable signs of demodernization – regression on the scale of modernity. However, demodernization need not be all-encompassing. For example, Israel exhibits technological modernity alongside political archaism.

Criteria of Modernity and Demodernization

Demodernization can be assessed using the same criteria codified in modernization theories that flourished in the 1950s and 1960s – the era of decolonization. These theories placed instrumental rationality at the forefront: the effort to dominate nature through science and technology and to establish rational governance in society. Modernity promised a better life – a promise especially attractive after World War II, with the advent of bipolar balance between the USSR and the United States and the collapse of colonial empires.

The Soviet Union and the United States each offered their own model of modernization. Despite differences in property relations – socialist versus capitalist – these models surprisingly shared a common foundation in defining what it means to be modern.

These theories, developed primarily during the Cold War, assumed a complex set of transformations: a shift from tribal or religious identity to national identity; narrowing of socio-economic gaps and reduction of poverty; reduction of unemployment and underemployment; increased social mobility; democratization of culture; and strengthening of civil institutions – especially trade unions – which mediate the relationship between labor and capital, thereby enhancing social stability. Free and rational political debate was considered the key to achieving these goals.

Knowledge Under Siege

Knowledge is a fundamental component of modernity. It can create or destroy ideologies, and it can justify or undermine class dominance. Demodernization inevitably involves a rejection of knowledge and a questioning of rational thinking. The right to know is being challenged today in several highly explosive issues of foreign policy – even though authors like Steven Pinker argue that humanity is becoming more rational, and therefore less violent.

Renaming streets, removing monuments, and banning languages are integral parts of demodernization – attempts to erase historical memory. Language is reduced to a ritualized set of clichés (e.g., "regime" for inconvenient political actors) and is used as a tool for incantations and the spread of ignorance.

In the West, this role of the media is particularly evident in the context of the war in Ukraine. The media's impact has largely overshadowed the actual military results. It shapes public opinion and gains support for the continuation of the war. On the Western side, this conflict is as much a war of narratives as it is a war of rockets and drones.