>So do I, but I think you are fondly remembering a blissful late 20th century that did not in fact exist. All the things you mention were already in place, some of them for a long time. There had already been a number of attacks by Islamic fundamentalists, if not on the scale of 9/11. The U.S. was already inward-looking and not that concerned about what happened elsewhere. Money was already paramount to a probably unprecedented degree. IMO it was not a freedom seeking, optimistic, united world at all.
>
>Where was / is Europe in all this? The U.S. has not done a very good job as the world's sole remaining "superpower" (for now) but who is picking up the slack? No one. It's so much easier to just b*tch about the U.S. I do believe Europeans in general have more of a sense of responsibility for the planet than we do. But where's the action? There is a saying here -- don't just talk the talk, walk the walk.

At least, some people got out of caves (quite recently by geological measure). Sweet talkers were upset by their disturbing behavior.