I think that’s an interesting suggestion, and lot of people have written about the suicide of the West obviously. And actually, if you look at what Gibbon wrote about the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, it’s quite clear, that was a suicide too. That may be there is a finite gift of cohesive energy that keeps a civilization going, and when that store of energy is depleted, there is then this moment of weakness, when you, as it were, turn on yourself the accusations that you ought to be turning on others.

And you meekly surrender to your fate. I don’t think we’ve got to that stage yet because I think the mass of ordinary people would resist this. And people are strongly aware, given the massive communication in the world today, that actually it would be better if we weren’t like everywhere else. I think most people who criticize America vigorously are not prepared to do what their words suggest and migrate to Iran, and in their hearts they know that it’s better here. But of course one of the things that’s good about being here is that you can criticize it. And you can make a reputation by being the scourge of the establishment. You can’t make a reputation that way in Iran. Encounterbooks, december 2018