My long-term themes of individualisation and the social peace created by the rise of the middle class are connected with my present topic, the decline of the Western middle class, and individual adaptive strategies in the face of this change. They can vary from ever harder competition to political protests and the formation of coalitions, from depression to retreating to alternative playing fields.

In addition to material survival, it is a question of feelings of self-worth and the search for balance. The adaptive strategy of the self-controlling individual who deals with internal conflict may be replaced by different forms of adaptation. Democracy and the rule of law have been connected with the strength of the middle class, so that individual cohesion is once again intertwined with social integration.

Conditions produce adaptive habits and adaptation maintains the conditions from which it benefits. The multifaceted feedback from genetics, the history of typical education and experience, changes in living conditions, politics and ideologies is capable of producing something more than what can be expected from individual factors. That is why history as a social science is so interesting.