Just finished reading The Star Fraction (thanks again to Sam for passing a copy on to me) and there's a quote in there that seems oddly relevant. Just to put it in context, it's spoken in 2060-something, after the Fall Revolution.

'Don't destroy our town to save it. Remember how the West saw off the Stalinists and the Islamists. The fun-loving, freedom-loving decadent West undermined and subverted its enemies by making them be like itself, not by becoming grim and hard and serious like them. Those who had the most laughs had the last laugh.'