Chris Navin

Full piece here.

There is a lot to disagree with in the article (it’s good to know the author knows what “the people” want), but the analysis of how social media and the diaspora played a part in Libya is interesting.  Who doesn’t want real time information, especially during a military operation?

In today’s world, as the U.S. Army Field Manual for Operations notes, “information has become as important as lethal action in determining the outcome of operations.” Now the traditional networks through which information flows—from the mass media to military units—are being rewired. By and large, military and intelligence organizations still see the new networks, and the coöperation and collaboration they engender, as a threat, not an opportunity.

Well, it could be a threat and/or an opportunity, depending on where you stand, depending on the times.

Was it a good idea to direct U.S interests into this operation?  What are some possible consequences?  If, like Saddam, it may be worth simply getting rid of a brute like Gadhafi, does it follow that the liberal internationalist model is inherently “better” than an invasion, occupation and troop presence in the Arab world?

What about Al-Qaeda?

Related On This Site:  Walter Russell Mead At The American Interest Online: ‘Obama’s War’…From The WSJ: “Allies Rally To Stop Gadhafi”…From March 27th, 2009 At WhiteHouse.Gov: Remarks By The President On A New Strategy For Afghanistan And Pakistan…From The New Yorker: ‘How Qaddafi Lost Libya’…

Adam Garfinkle At The American Interest: ‘Remember Libya?’…A Few Thoughts On Watching Operations In Libya

Is Bernhard Henri-Levy actually influencing U.S. policy decisions..? From New York Magazine: ‘European Superhero Quashes Libyan Dictator’…Bernhard Henri-Levy At The Daily Beast: ‘A Moral Tipping Point’…Charlie Rose Episode On Libya Featuring Bernhard Henri-Levy, Les Gelb And Others…

Mead discusses his then new book entitled God and Gold:  Britain, America and the Making of the Modern World.

Maybe there are other options besides Fukuyama’s Hegelian end point of history, and Huntington’s Clash Of Civilizations with regard to our current dealings with the Islamic resurgence and its anti-modern, ant-Western, theocratic impulses (liberal internationalism and Obama’s foreign policy have certainly created problems, but there are underlying issues the West will face):

Mead argues that religion, government, free-trade, capitalism, sport, and especially naval power have shaped our two cultures which have thus shaped the world (a model he suggests originally came from the Dutch).   He is an Obama voting Democrat, a broad thinker, and teaches at Bard College.

This blog welcomes large, grand visions that posit the possibility of finding truth in philosophy, political philosophy, the social sciences and foreign policy not merely based upon reason alone, and a post-Enlightenment pursuit of reason alone which includes scientism, secular humanism, materialism, postmodernism relativism etc. trickling down into the political realm.  Hopefully, Natural Law and Natural Right get a fair shake here in the pursuit of truth.

Some of this has been in the water (the Atlantic?) lately, but it’s quite interesting.

So, it’s easy to feel vaguely good about our relationship, as happens quite practically here, but let’s not forget moments like these:

This is a depiction (thanks to impiousdigest.com) of British troops burning the White House, as they indeed did.

——————————

Related On This Site:  Mead takes a look at the blue model (the old progressive model) from the ground up in NYC to argue that it’s simply not working.  Check out his series at The American Interest.  Technology is changing things rapidly, and maybe, as Charles Murray points out, it’s skewing the field toward high IQ positions while simultaneously getting rid of industrial, managerial, clerical, labor intensive office jobs.  Even so,  we can’t cling to the past.  This is quite a progressive vision but one that embraces change boldly.

Francis Fukuyama has started a center for Public Administration at Stanford…it’d be interesting to imagine a conversation between Eric Hoffer and Fukuyama: Francis Fukuyama At The American Interest: ‘Mexico And The Drug Wars’…Has Fukuyama turned away from Hegel and toward Darwin? Adam Kirsch Reviews Francis Fukuyama’s New Book At The City Journal: ‘The Dawn Of Politics’……From The American Interest Online: Francis Fukuyama On Samuel Huntington…

Reason is using Harrisburg as a model for fiscal failure.

I don’t fault city fathers for trying to bring back jobs and people to the city, but the government can’t “be entrepreneurial” and likely make bad investment decisions (the incinerator and the Wild West museum boondoggle) with taxpayer money at the expense of past private good investment decisions.  Unfortunately, Harrisburg can’t bring back manufacturing and industry as it was, least of all through high taxation while driving out the tax base through political means. The city has some tough choices to make.

Libertarians thrive in California, but unlike California, a voting majority of central Pennsylvanians are likely more rural, conservative, and more religious.

Any thoughts and comments are welcome.

Related On This Site:  Walter Russell Mead takes a look at the blue model from the ground up in NYC to argue that it’s simply not working.  Check out his series at The American Interest.

Technology is making and rewarding a creative class of highly educated, smart, mobile people with wealth, but how do we make the best quality of life for ourselves without slipping into declinism and the rule of the equality crowd?:  Kay Hymowitz At The City Journal: ‘How Brooklyn Got Its Groove Back’…From The American Interest:

How much of a role does government have to play?:  Francis Fukuyama Interviews Peter Thiel-’A Conversation With Peter Thiel’

Trade and commerce aren’t just vehicles for nanny statism, equality delivery services and racial harmony…they are well…trade and commerce:  Via Youtube: Ric Burns—New York: A Documentary Film – Episode One: The Country and The City (1609-1825)…Joel Kotkin Via Youtube: ‘Illinois Is In A Competition’

Cities should be magnets for creativity and culture? -From The Atlantic: Richard Florida On The Decline Of The Blue-Collar Man…From Grist.Org Via The New Republic Via The A & L Daily: ‘Getting Past “Ruin Porn” In Detroit’… some people don’t want you to have the economic freedom to live in the suburbs: From Foreign Policy: ‘Urban Legends, Why Suburbs, Not Cities, Are The Answer’

Is the same definition of ‘community’ connected with one that can stifle economic growth through political means?: Roger Scruton In The City Journal: Cities For Living–Is Modernism Dead?

And how do big-city machines actually work (Boss Tweed and Blago come to mind): Two Sunday Quotations By Albert Jay Nock in ‘Anarchist’s Progress’…

Posting will be lighter than usual over the next week.

Thanks for stopping by, and to everyone that has.

“Government can easily exist without laws, but law cannot exist without government.”

-Bertrand Russell

“It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope.”

-Niccolo Machiavelli

“We hold these truths to be self-evident:

 That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”

From the Declaration Of Independence.

———————————————————————————————————–

Maybe Machiavelli was just really an artist and writer working well within the bounds of traditional moral thinking (Catholic and Aristotelian through the church), but just wanted an audience? to be little shocking?

See Also: Garrett Mattingly On Machiavelli-The Prince: Political Science Or Political Satire?