How do you write about a book that is almost 600 pages long (in small print), has 25 pages of references, and the ambition to explain political institutions from the dawn of mankind to the French Revolution, from kinship-based bands of hunters to Voltaire? This was Francis Fukuyama’s objective in this monumental (yet eminently readable) book, “The Origins of PoliticalOrder” (note the plural).Global Inequality
My review, given the size and importance of the book, will be done in two parts, First, here, I will review the logic of the arguments put forward by Fukuyama. In the second review, I will engage into some critique....
A Grand Fresco: The Origins of Political Order
Francis Fukuyama against mainstream economics
Branko Milanovic | Visiting Presidential Professor at City University of New York Graduate Center and senior scholar at the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), and formerly lead economist in the World Bank's research department and senior associate at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
An interesting article, Carl Jung said something silmiar, how religion tamed nations that were once full of lawlessness and bandits.
ReplyDeleteThe Chinese has six great civilisations, and all of them collapsed. Perhaps we can save ours.
ReplyDelete“The Chinese has six great civilisations, and all of them collapsed. Perhaps we can save ours.”
ReplyDeleteNo we cannot save ours, since most people don’t want to be saved, individually or collectively.
For example, in the Tweet below, Tulsi Gabbard notes that the Mueller investigation found no collusion. Therefore let us work together on our pressing issues. Tulsi asks for support for her Securing America’s Elections Act (HR 1946) which would require voting systems in Federal elections to produce a voter-verified paper ballot of each vote cast on the system (rather than rely on the rigged electronic voting machines, as the USA does now).
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1111386620698083329
Tulsi’s tweet got a thousand responses, 99% of them viciously negative. Most Democrats are furious that St. Mueller found no collusion. Most of their attacks on Tulsi consist of mere name-calling. Some call Tulsi a Russian agent. Some say there is no 300-page Mueller report at all. Some say that Mueller himself does not exist at all. Anything to avoid facing reality. Anything to avoid showing humility and rationality.
No we cannot save ourselves, since most people don’t want to be saved, individually or collectively. Most people live in a self-righteous dream world.
One of the hardest truths we must face in this world is that most people are cattle. It's depressing, but that's reality.
Incidentally in the 2020 election, Tulsi will face a challenger in Hawaii named Kai Kahele.
ReplyDeleteThis guy is a real a**hole, and therefore he has the support of the Democratic National committee.
It’s not only Democrats who are mostly cattle. Republicans are too. The end of the Mueller investigation has allowed Trump to regain some of his base, even though Trump has done nothing for them.
ReplyDeleteAt Trump rallies the cattle chant “AOC sucks!” referring to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
They denounce AOC’s call for Universal Medicare, calling it “Communism.”
Again, most people don’t want to be saved, individually or collectively. They whine and moan, but they will do anything to avoid change.
FYI Twitter is not journalism or even a media source, it is a platform for the abbreviated rants of anonymous psychopaths of every form and a corporate / political psyops vehicle.
ReplyDeleteI didn't suggest that Twitter was journalism. I said Twitter comments show that most people are mindless cattle. Now they are gloating that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ “Green New Deal” did not get a single yes vote in the US Senate.
ReplyDeleteI don’t know anything about AOC’s “Green New Deal,” as I have not looked into it, but I am convinced the AOC means well, as do candidates Andrew Yang and Tulsi Gabbard. It’s depressing to see these people well-meaning attacked by the mindless cattle.
In all societies the worst problem is not the rich elitists at the top, but the stupid peasants below.