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In terms of the optimism - it really is true that we thought it was the “end of history”. But I won’t fault someone my age thinking that - it was a movie or video game. The good guys won and that was that.
And the 90’s were pretty fantastic, at least for me. Not so much for the folks in, say, Yugoslavia. We were blinded by our ignorance and hope. Putin came into power and started behaving like a former Soviet dictator.
9/11 was…..a huge wake up call. For all of the horrible things that happened on that day itself, it was a realization that we weren’t “done”. We had been naive. And that was depressing to come to terms with. It wasn’t going to be like the movies, ever.
It’s great to see the EU doing well regardless of Brexit. I think they’re a good example of what can happen when everyone decides to work together, and it’s been good to see them make rational decisions while the US has not been in some ways.
TLDR The Cold War was just 1 conflict with a lot of stories. When it ended, that conflict may have been over but there were other conflicts that had been brewing, they just didn’t have our attention and we saw what came after.
There is no movie and the good guys don’t always win. There is no “end of history”. Human rights and democracy need to be constantly worked on if we want to have them. Different countries and cultures working together is a good way to do that. Diversity and accepting people who are different from you are also important. No one can do this on their own; isolationism isn’t the answer.