John Gray's diagnosis of the slow decay of the liberal world order rings true. His reflections on the Russian war on Ukraine, as well as the history of the totalitarian Soviet Communist state, help to illustrate the mindset of the Russian people(s). His excoriating critique of so-called 'woke' ideology justifies a read by itself, as are his brief but illuminating relitigation of the ideas explored in Tom Holland's Dominion and Peter Turchin's End Times.

"Hyper-liberal ideology plays a number of roles. It operates as a rationale for a failing variety of capitalism, and a vehicle through which surplus elites struggle to secure a position of power in society. Insofar as it expresses a coherent set of ideas, it is the anti-Western creed of an antinomian intelligentsia that is ineffably Western. Psychologically, it provides an ersatz faith for those who cannot live without the hope of universal salvation inculcated by Christianity." (p. 110)