WATCH: Niall Ferguson Stuns World Leaders at ARC Australia – “Are we the Soviets Now?”

By Alliance for Responsible Citizenship

“Nobody believed in the system anymore.”

In recent years academics have coined the term ‘late Soviet America’ in response to alarming similarities between conditions in the late Soviet Union prior to its downfall, and those we see in US society today and across Western nations more broadly.

At our recent ARC Australia conference, Sir Niall Ferguson shared his insightful analysis of this comparison, and called for a concerted effort to revitalise the West with the liberal-democratic ideals that have underpinned its flourishing.

Here’s what others had to say:

@DrProgNerd
99% of my human interactions are peaceful and without coercion. I exchange my money with people for their products. I wait my turn in line and at traffic signals. I help people when I can. I accept help when I need it.
Why is it that the majority of the time I feel coercion or threat of force is when I encounter the government – that ostensibly works for me – or people claiming a moral right to the shame they demand of me?
People know how to get along with one another. We do it all the time. The pressure to drink/drug oneself into oblivion does not come from the live-and-let-live folks. It comes from the pseudo-virtuous and the State.

@alijames180
This information is great to be heard because it’s crosses all borders. America, UK, EU, Canada Australia etc…

@WisdomFromAshes
That 20-minute talk explains just about everything going on in the US today politically. Excellent, professor Ferguson.

@henrikg1388
I was there in the USSR in 1989 and these observations are spot on. The vibes today are eerily similar. Almost depressing. At times I wish I would never have seen it.

@paulmalcolm1081
In 1971, as part of a school boy water polo team, I travelled behind the Iron Curtain to Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania. My one overriding memory was that there were “rich communists and poor communists”, and that the rich were members of the Party.

@zoltanrudolf
I feel like a Soviet dissident in modern Australia because I am Christian, conservative, white, male and I have a sense of humour!

@mikestanmore2614
Whilst I think professor Ferguson has drawn a valid conclusion, I feel he is restricted by his political stance. The issue is not simply the Democrats, it is US politics as a whole which has failed the average American.

@artinterhakopian9684
Exceptional! As a psychiatrist in the US, I’ve observed the decline and increasing despair for the last 20-plus years. Urgent social reorganization and pro-social measures can reverse these trends.

@steveturners1258
Leonid Il`ich Brezhnev was not all that old: he died not quite 76 years old. His successors Andropov – 69 years old, Chernenko – 73. Gorbachev was young, and he was the one who let the things fall apart.
The most important similarity between late 1980 USSR and today’s USA is the Orwellian amount of political lies necessary to sustain the status quo; the rest is merely a consequence.

@normanmoffatt9707
I went to Australia in 2017, stayed for 6 months. Went back again in 2023, stayed 4 weeks, there was a stark change in every level of the society, and not for the better. I’d imagine that the people living there can’t see these changes because they are gradual, slow creeping like a cancer. One of the many things that stood out is the fact that Australians live with 2 national flags, the only country that does. Living under 2 flags is evidence that this is a divided country, and a divided country has a short lifespan.

@aerialpunk
Very interesting. I k ow a few Canadians analysis’s who seem to think we need to rely on the US to save everyone in the West, and it really grinds my gears. We can look at them for information just like with anyone else (such as in this case here), but we need to be taking responsibility for our own stuff to improve our countries. Just cos the US is the most influential and powerful Western nation doesn’t mean we need to be like them, or that we’re absolved of responsibility for our own people.

@sjbesq1
Yes, in many ways. Corporatization is a principal reason. For example, in 1983, I visited the Soviet Union. I noticed, when I went to a gift shop, how the clerk didn’t care a bit about customer service; she was going to get paid regardless of how she treated me; unlike with small businesses, she was not going to lose her job if she treated me poorly. As big box retailers replaced small businesses in the United States, employees didn’t have accountability and incentive like they used to with mom and pop shops. In general, employees just don’t seem to care. Just one way we’ve become like the USSR. The mass surveillance in abrogation of the 4th amendment would make the Stasi envious. The attacks on the 1st, 2nd and 5th amendments and the culture of censorship are other symptoms. There’s much more.

@vivianoosthuizen8990
Humans have 15 years of childhood 15 years of of youth 15 years of adulthood 15 years of getting old 15 years of being old if you go past this it’s slow dying for 15 years and that’s that.

@nickhanlon9331
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury.” Alexander Tytler…..another bleeping Scot!

@HappyCat-142
Grew up and lived in good old USSR and now living in Canada. I have a very strong deja vu about late USSR and in some ways Canada overdoes what the Soviets were doing

@panzer00
The Republican party has completely shifted. RFK Jr and Tulsi on the side of the MAGA Right gives me hope for the future of the Republican party as a whole.
The Democrats are desperately holding onto their status quo — their “democracy”; it’s blatantly obvious when they accuse their political adversaries of what they themselves perpetuate that they are crumbling.

@gregorschoner9682
Important arguments for perspective taking. However, the Democratic party is not the only part of the elite that has lost contact with reality and with the experience of vast portions of the population. Large corporations pursued their radical outsourcing that rapidly destroyed manufacturing under a political framework supported by both parties. Right-wing media like the Sinclair Corporation destroyed the local media that had connected to people’s experience. Both parties were and are heavily influenced by massive corporate interest whose influence was bolstered by legislative and juridical maneuvers of the Republican party. The Republican party fell first under the onslaught of Trump populism, but it hs continued to pursue this agenda even as it pretends to serve a new cause (just look at the tax cuts that accelerated the deficits). This is not just important for political judgement, but also when looking at how things can be changed. Electing the other party definitely fixes nothing.

@deniserothwell6325
Yes the west are the Soviets now have been seeing this since 2016. I have been to Russia and over the years witnessed the changes.

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Original source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUJMyTJ9gyI