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 time has done nothing to diminish its relevance.

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. Sources say that it was due to a failure of the missile's booster rockets.

It was supposed to travel 3,700 miles, but it only managed a few metres. For some, it is a humiliating 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. The English politician Sir William Blacstone described it as "the floating bulwarkA defensive wall. of our island", our "greatest defence and ornament".

But nowadays, it is comparatively lacking in gravitasSeriousness, and an intelligent manner. . One anonymous observer quoted in the Sun claimed that the missile that was fired last month "left the submarine, but just went plop".¹

It verges on farceAn absurd situation, or an absurd and comic play. , say some. How does a £17m missile "just go plop"? And how does a £4bn nuclear submarine fail to launch it... after a protracted eight-year, £500m upgrade?²

It probably does not fill you with confidence. The success rate is not high: the UK has only tested Trident missiles 12 times since the weapons entered service in 1994.

And it is only one in a series of embarrassing gaffesBlunders or unintentional actions or sayings which cause embarrassment.. During the submarine's refit last year, it was reported that a nuclear engineer had superglued broken submarine bolts back together in a nuclear reactor chamber on the HMS Vanguard.³ In 2016, a Trident missile launched from HMS Vengeance is said to have veered off course towards the US before automatically self-destructing.

The Trident nuclear-weapons system is part of Britain's nuclear deterrent. It is supposed to shield the country from its adversariesRivals or enemies. . But with all eyes on the UK, the nation is more likely to seem 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. Reminiscing about glory days ruling the oceans verges dangerously on imperialRelating to an empire. nostalgia.

Others say that Britons should be concerned not about a loss of power, but a loss of its most intimate ideals. And this movement has an unlikely prophet: the Soviet dissidentA person who opposes official policy, especially that of an authoritarian state. and author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who warned us almost half a century ago of the decline of Western society.

In an excoriatingExpressing strong disapproval of. 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" and called for a re-awakening of its moral visions.

In many ways, his words are an eery warning of present powerlessness. The spectre of Russian imperialism looms large once more, and yet the US equivocatesBeing intentionally vague or unclear. on sending aid to Ukraine.⁴ War in the Middle East has caused dangerous divisions at home. And the possible assassination of dissident Alexei Navalny in Russia last week was carried out with impunitySafety from punishment. It derives from a Latin word for penalty..

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 globalisation.

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 gaffes are a pillar of British culture. In fact, Britain has often been at its most powerful when it is at its most silly.