[eesmith]

You started with the quote "Such regressive developments can only be pauses in an ongoing forward movement." and described it as "Trashy globalist arrogance".

I don't think you noticed that the author was constructing that position as something to knock down, or at least reevaluate. That paragraph starts:

"Closer to home, those who believe that history flows forwards are adamant that the institutions of the European Union will long outlast the nation states that exist on the continent today (many of which are themselves not very old). ..." and ends " But what if these supposed reversions to the past are actually glimpses of the future?."

The subsequent paragraph gives on alternative interpretation, "a Maori-style concept of time of the kind Norman Davies describes may prove a better guide to events."