Mild West

"This is the way the world ends/not with a bang but a whimper." So goes TS EliotThe initials stand for Thomas Stearns. Born in the US, Eliot was one of the most influential figures in 20th-Century literature.'s famous 1925 poem The Hollow Men.

Eliot's poem was written after World War One, and reflected the poet's feelings of hopelessness about post-war European culture. But some say it is just as relevant today.

Is this Britain's whimper? The latest test of the UK's "world-class" nuclear deterrentNuclear weapons kept by a country as a warning to others not to attack. has quite literally fallen short again, landing in the sea close to the launch site.

It was supposed to travel 3,700 miles, but it only managed a few metres. For some, it is an embarrassing symbol of Britain's decline.

In the 18th and 19th Centuries, Britain had the strongest military in the world and the most powerful navy in history.

That seems like ancient history now, some say. One anonymous observer quoted in the Sun claimed that the missile that was fired last month "left the submarine, but just went plop."¹

How does a £17m missile "just go plop"? And how does a £4bn nuclear submarine fail to launch it... after an eight-year, £500m upgrade?²

The Trident nuclear-weapons system is part of Britain's nuclear deterrent. It is supposed to shield the country from its enemies. But now Britain seems more like a figure of fun than a threat.

Britannia rules the waves no longer, it would seem. But why should people care? For some, Britain has always been a small island driven by an inflated sense of self-importance.

Others say that Britons should be concerned not about a loss of power, but a loss of ideals. And this movement had an unlikely spokesperson: the Soviet dissidentA person who opposes official policy, especially that of an authoritarian state. and author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

In an attack on Western liberalismA political and moral philosophy that protects and enhances the rights of the individual. , Solzhenitsyn warned of a "decline of courage" and a "spiritual exhaustion" plaguing the West. He called western culture a "cult of material well-being".

Many feels his words were like a warning sign. With threats looming, the West seems powerless to intervene on the world stage.

Is the West in terminal decline?

Yes: The failed missile launch is a sign of a broader failure of western civilisation to adapt to the new power structures created by modernity and globalisationThe growing interdependence of the world's economies, peoples and cultures..

No: It is just a failed missile test launch. As embarrassing as it is, experts say that the odds of such a thing happening in a real-world scenario are extremely low.

Or... If anything, such gaffesBlunders or unintentional actions or sayings which cause embarrassment. are a pillar of British culture. In fact, Britain has often been at its most powerful when it is at its most silly.