History clearly didn't end with the triumph of market capitalism and democracy. Those who seek to disprove this old dogma often point to the eruption of radical Islam and the counteroffensive by the West — two events which have indeed overshadowed the last decade in many countries. But history has accelerated more dramatically — in the wrong direction — in three nations that contain a much larger part of the world's population.
In Xi Jinping's China, a proposed national security law aims at securing "ideological security" and "cultural security." A skeptic would see the move as an effort by China's unelected rulers to maintain their grip on power, a strategy which includes exploiting hard-line nationalism. But the same urge to promote ideological and cultural conformity also motivates the elected rulers of India and Russia.
In all three countries, a crackdown on nongovernmental organizations — usually denounced as handmaidens of the West — and a greater intolerance of dissent have accompanied a fresh attempt at mass ideological indoctrination.