Bruce Ackerman, political writer

A 100 writers and thinkers were asked: Left and right defined the 20th century. What's next?
Hardly any of them think the world will get better in the coming decades; many think it will get worse

Cosmos vs patriots. Cosmopolitans come in two varieties: for left cosmos, the pressing need is to deal with world problems—global warming, nuclear proliferation, and the unjust distribution of wealth and income.
For right cosmos, it is to break down barriers to world trade.
Cosmos of all stripes demand a big build-up in the powers of world institutions, and a cutback on state sovereignty.

For local patriots, the cosmos represent a new imperialism of Davos-man and his do-good hangers-on.
Left pats insist on protecting local workers from foreign competition and local cultures from McDonaldisation.
Right pats want to protect the natives from strange ethnics and engage in pre-emptive strikes against threatening foreign powers.
Pats of all varieties insist that the nation state remains the best last hope of democracy against the meritocratic pretensions of cosmo-elitists.

Bruce Ackerman