Walter Russell Mead, a professor at Bard College, writing in Foreign Affairs (May/June 2014) suggests that Americans and Europeans risk losing all that they have gained after the end of the Cold War. They are, he says, becoming “a narcissistic consumer with no greater aspirations beyond the next trip to the mall.” They are “unwilling to make sacrifices, focused on the short term, easily distracted, and lacking in courage.”

What happened to our victorious march to democracy in every corner of the globe?

Flying in a small plane over one of Saudi Arabia’s deserts in 1991, I read of the first attempt of the old Russian guard to bring back Soviet Russia after Gorbachev’s pivot toward the West. Boris Yeltsin, showing courage he lacked later in bringing true democracy to his country, stared them down and won the day. Russia appeared once more set on the road to what we call Western liberalism.

But something has happened on the way to the glorious finale of Soviet communism’s demise, of the Arab spring, and of nations on every populated continent accepting democratic ideals.

Every blessing, every progression seems to host a two-edged sword. The digital revolution has made neighbors of us all. It has revolutionized everything from medicine to street protests to Wall Street, yet we seem to have lost our ability to live for more than ourselves.

Is there hope? Probably not in the places of usual power—governments and corporations. If rescue comes, it will probably come in the guise of small communities of people deliberately deciding to live intentionally instead of grabbing for the most toys before dying.