Throughout the cold war until the collapse of the Soviet Union, an unbroken parade of conservative wise guys pontificated, unchallenged, that Communism, once in power, could never after be gotten rid of except possibly in case of conquest by foreign anti-communists.
Communist totalitarianism was so complete, the mechanisms of terror and control so overwhelming, that it could indefinitely survive the ceaseless and unmistakable refutation of its utopian, chiliastic dogmas by history.
And then ALL of the intelligence services and wise men of the West were shown up.
In our time, in all free societies, churches survive as private associations of voluntary members disinclined to accept the authority of their clergy in faith or morals, and wholly unaccepting of their control of the state.
History shows religions can hang on for millennia.
But it does not show that even the most bloodthirsty and brutally determined of them can maintain clerical domination indefinitely in the modern age.
As to Jihad vs. McWorld, in the long run, my money's on the Golden Arches.
Or is it Larry Flint vs. Jerry Falwell?
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