Charlie Rose interview with Fukuyama and Gideon Rose here (~24 minutes)
Gideon Rose, Foreign Affairs editor, advocates for a more optimistic vision of ideological continuity in a post- war American model. His is a vision that reconciles capitalism with democracy as he sees them. American culture is still ahead of the curve, on this view, and staying ahead of the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China). While the BRIC’s may be growing a middle-class, (Russia’s questionable) there’s no guarantee of success for these players. Yet, there’s an interest for America and the West to include them and bind all of us in some international efforts.
At the same time, technology (technocracy?) is rapidly changing the game, and the winners are often highly intelligent, often very well-educated, highly flexible people who are designing systems that are eliminating many industrial, clerical, labor and white-collar labor intensive jobs in America that aren’t coming back. We’re competing globally and wealth is concentrated in pockets.
For Fukuyama, this is creating a stagnation of political and monied interests (and political partisanship). The recession wasn’t severe enough to force the kind of responsive politics necessary to handle our problems as he sees them (and he seems to know what this requires…partially…a technocracy!).
Everyone wants access to a grand vision, making sense of the world and our place in it. But also everyone wants one that favors their ideals, interests and preferences as well. Kantian perpetual peace is also mentioned. Good discussion.
Related On This Site: Walter Russell 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. Repost-Via Youtube: Conversations With History – Walter Russell Mead
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…
Have you downloaded the apps…and the concepts of Enlightenment and post Enlightenment liberty that can lead to runtime errors and fiscal failure? Sachs and Niall Ferguson duke it out: CNN-Fareed Zakaria Via Youtube: ‘Jeff Sachs and Niall Ferguson’
Do we try and invest in global institutions as flawed as they are…upon a Kantian raft…Kant often leads to a liberal political philosophy?: Daniel Deudney On YouTube Responding to Robert Kagan: Liberal Democracy Vs. Autocracy
John Mearsheimer’s offensive realism (Israel can’t go on like this forever, the Israel lobby leads to bad U.S policy decisions): Repost: From Foreign Affairs Via The A & L Daily: ‘Conflict Or Cooperation: Three Visions Revisited’…From The American Interest Online: Francis Fukuyama On Samuel Huntington….is neoconservative foreign policy defunct…sleeping…how does a neoconservatism more comfortable with liberalism here at home translate into foreign policy?: Wilfred McClay At First Things: ‘The Enduring Irving Kristol’
