The spread of liberal democracy and the integration of the world economy have created a situation in which the major powers are no longer willing to go to war with one another.
The desire for recognition, the thymotic part of the soul, is the most political part of the human personality because it is what drives people to want to be recognized as superior to others.
Liberal democracy may constitute the "end point of mankind's ideological evolution" and the "final form of human government," and as such constituted the "end of history."
The end of history will be a very sad time. The struggle for recognition, the willingness to risk one's life for a purely abstract goal, the worldwide ideological struggle that called forth daring, courage, imagination, and idealism, will be replaced by economic calculation, the endless solving of technical problems, environmental concerns, and the satisfaction of sophisticated consumer demands.
