ABSTRACT
In watching the flow of events over the past decade or so, it is hard to avoid the feeling that something very fundamental has happened in world history. Modern liberalism itself was historically a consequence of the weakness of religiously-based societies which, failing to agree on the nature of the good life could not provide even the minimal preconditions of peace and stability. The Soviet Union, then, is at a fork in the road: it can start down the path that was staked out by Western Europe forty-five years ago, a path that most of Asia has followed, or it can realize its own uniqueness and remain stuck in history. The passing of Marxism-Leninism first from China and then from the Soviet Union will mean its death as a living ideology of world historical significance. In the post-historical period there will be neither art nor philosophy, just the perpetual caretaking of the museum of human history.
