December 10, 2009
November 30, 2009
From Newsweek: ‘Singh’s War, No Mercy For The Maoists’
So, how do you prevent growing tribal grievances and anger by the people left out of India’s recent economic growth from becoming support for the violent and revolutionary hard left..?
“This time, India has to get the mix right. For the tribal people, there will soon be opportunities; for the Maoists, there will be no mercy.”
See Also On This Site: Martha Nussbaum In Dissent–Violence On The Left: Nandigram And The Communists Of West Bengal
So, where did Marx get his ideas, anyways? Peter Singer discusses Hegel and Marx
A Few Thoughts On Isaiah Berlin’s “Two Concepts Of Liberty”
November 22, 2009
From The NY Times Via The A & L Daily: ‘Who Fears a Free Mikhail Khodorkovsky?’
So how is the old state apparatus faring in Russia during the Putin clampdown, and who are its challengers..?:
“His motives may have been mercenary, but Khodorkovsky in his cell has come to embody the fiat of the state, its arbitrary and boundless power”
A really good job by the Times.
Towards A Theme On This Site?: Communism In America: The Politics Of Noam Chomsky-The Dangers Of Kantian Transcendental Idealism?…From CATO: ‘New York Times “Celebrates” The Fall Of The Berlin Wall’
In India: Martha Nussbaum In Dissent–Violence On The Left: Nandigram And The Communists Of West Bengal and India and America, surely Amartya Sen is deeper than that?: From Outlook India Via A & L Daily: An Interview With Amartya Sen
So, where did Marx get his ideas, anyways? Peter Singer discusses Hegel and Marx
A Few Thoughts On Isaiah Berlin’s “Two Concepts Of Liberty”
November 16, 2009
Cathy Young At Reason: The Rise Of Communist Nostalgia
Full article here.
Young suggests that for some East Germans recalling Communism:
“According to an analysis in the German magazine Spiegel, what drives this rose-colored view—shared by many young people who barely remember life under communism—is a peculiar sense of pride and humiliation.”
We’ve all moved on Young seems to be arguing, and it’s important to point out the problems we do have and attempt to define them. Perhaps Young, much like Fukuyama, thinks that the overall trend is toward progress and liberal democracy, and that few who lived under communism regimes would really go back:
“Communist nostalgia is overrated. But, recalling the fall of the Berlin Wall, one does feel nostalgia for a time when one could celebrate an uncomplicated victory of good over evil.”
Also On This Site: Would some at the NY Times agree?: From CATO: ‘New York Times “Celebrates” The Fall Of The Berlin Wall’, From The Christian Science Monitor Via A & L Daily: An Interview With Francis Fukuyama, Obama’s Decision On Missile Defense And A Quote From Robert Kagan’s: ‘The Return Of History And The End Of Dreams’
November 11, 2009
John Kerry At Newsweek: ‘Beware The Revisionists’
Kerry has some good advice:
“Now we must choose a smart way forward so no one asks whether we’ve made a mistake in staying. The main lesson that Obama must absorb from Vietnam is the necessity to explain our goals in Afghanistan, and to choose clear and realistic strategies to meet them.”
…so we can avoid:
“Let me be clear: more than 58,000 American troops died because they were sent into battle based on false assumptions, flawed goals, and faulty strategies”
It was all flawed? Here’s what Henry Kissinger also said at Newsweek as well, though I think he was leaning toward more troop involvement:
“For the immediate future, it is essential to avoid another wrenching domestic division and to conduct the inevitable debate with respect for its complexity and the stark choices confronting our country.”
Related On This Site: From Bloomberg: More Troops To Afghanistan? A Memo From Henry Kissinger To Gerald Ford?…From The NY Times Video: ‘A Schoolgirl’s Odyssey’…From The WSJ: Graham, Lieberman and McCain “Only Decisive Force Can Prevail In Afghanistan…From Commonweal: Andrew Bacevich “The War We Can’t Win: Afghanistan And The Limits Of American Power”
November 10, 2009
From CATO: ‘New York Times “Celebrates” The Fall Of The Berlin Wall’
In your ideological discontent with ‘capitalism,’ do you have to get into bed with some of Slavoj Zizek’s ideas…especially on the 20th anniversary of the day the Berlin Wall came down?
Still waiting on the Times to stop the ideological retreat…
Also On This Site: Adam Kirsch In The New Republic On Slavoj Zizek: The Deadly Jester…Slavoj Zizek In The New Republic: Responding To Adam Kirsch
October 24, 2009
From The Christian Science Monitor Via A & L Daily: An Interview With Francis Fukuyama
So to Robert Kagan, Fukuyama might argue:
“…the pessimism about civilization that we had developed as a result of the terrible 20th century, with its genocides, gulags, and world wars, was actually not the whole picture at all. In fact, there were a lot of positive trends going on in the world, including the spread of democracy where there had been dictatorship. Sam Huntington called this “the third wave.”‘
And (particularly with Russia in mind):
“Clearly, that big surge toward democracy went as far as it could. Now there is a backlash against it in some places. But that doesn’t mean the larger trend is not still toward democracy”
Fukuyama also points out on what he bases much of his thinking; extending Samuel Huntington’s framework:
“Huntington’s argument was that democracy, individualism, and human rights are not universal, but reflections of culture rooted in Western Christendom. While that is true historically, these values have grown beyond their origins.”
And what about China?:
“You cannot solve the problem of the “bad emperor” through moral suasion. And China has had some pretty bad emperors over the centuries. Without procedural accountability, you can never establish real accountability.”
You can teach people to be moral in this argument, and instill moral values, but without levers and counter-levers, we’re only a step away from tyranny.
Related On This Site: Kagan’s new book “The Return Of History And The End Of Dreams“ seeks to challenge Fukuyama’s thinking…does it succeed?: Obama’s Decision On Missile Defense And A Quote From Robert Kagan’s: ‘The Return Of History And The End Of Dreams’
Stanley Kurtz suggested Fukuyama’s Hegelian influence is too much to bear: From The Hoover Institution: Stanley Kurtz On Francis Fukuyama and Samuel Huntington
Also: From The American Interest Online: Francis Fukuyama On Samuel Huntington…A Few Thoughts On (Absolute) Idealism, Both Religious And Political/Philosophical
October 20, 2009
From Outlook India Via A & L Daily: An Interview With Amartya Sen
“I am a friend of the Left and my politics has been on the Left, but sometimes it’s difficult to recognise what is Left, what is Right. I am in favour of fighting today’s battles rather than yesterday’s battles. I think this gut anti-Americanism—don’t make it the headline (laughs)—is a problem. It is a minor problem, but one of the reasons why the Left cannot liberate itself from the Cold War. It made sense at some stage to oppose America for various reasons. But I think gut anti-Americanism is certainly pulling the Left back now.”
Of course, that’s the Indian left. It seems that if you think deeply enough, you think through a lot of party ideas. Yet, those ideas run deep in your own mind and childhood, and maybe you never stop really stop wrestling with them.
If you’re more familiar with Sen’s work, feel free to comment.
Also On This Site: Certainly the work he and Martha Nussbaum did is to better the quality of life in India, and create more economic opportunity there, but is there also global left-leaning international platform being built too…are these the best ideas to understand the range of American political and philosophical traditions?: Amartya Sen In The New York Review Of Books: Capitalism Beyond The Crisis
Can you maintain the virtues of religion without the church…?: From The City Journal: Roger Scruton On “Forgiveness And Irony”…Are we going soft and “European”… do we need to protect our religious idealism enshrined in the Constitution….with the social sciences?…Charles Murray Lecture At AEI: The Happiness Of People
September 24, 2009
Obama’s Decision On Missile Defense And A Quote From Robert Kagan’s: ‘The Return Of History And The End Of Dreams’
Obama has pulled out of the missile defense program in Eastern Europe, and some are calling this a capitulation to Russia. Here’s a quote from Robert Kagan that perhaps could clarify that position a little better:
“That is the primary motive behind Russia’s opposition to American missile defense programs in Poland and the Czech Republic. It is not only that Russians fear the proposed sites may someday threaten their nuclear strike capacity: Putin has suggested placing the sites in Italy, Turkey, or France instead. He wants to turn Poland and other eastern members of NATO into a strategic neutral zone.”
Because, as Kagan argues, we’re not living anymore in the heady days after the fall of communism and a coming liberal international order (See Francis Fukuyama’s The End Of History). We’re living in a world where Russia is playing old-style, nation-state power politics to regain its former scope, complete with a lot of strong-arming its former satellites and shutting off access to its resources when it sees fit.
Kagan broadens the picture further: China and India are gaining national strength (though still fragile) and their governments’ and peoples’ conception of their own identity will change accordingly. They will want more resources, to have more control over their own waters and trade routes, and have larger and larger spheres of influence. Matters of national pride and identity (Taiwan) are not to be taken lightly. They will push nations into potential conflicts, shifting alliances, and a scene more closely resembling 18th and 19th century European states and geo-politics.
Philosophically, Kagan clearly has doubts about the Enlightenment roots of the popular vision of liberal international order (with roots in Kantian “perpetual peace” and Hegelian dialectical progress…). However, he argues that there is a future, and there are moral obligations that (I would imagine individuals have in it), and that democracies have to one another to shape that world going forward (as we progress through our collective will?).
It’s definitely worth a read for its keen eye on the international scene and its challenge to a liberal internationalism.
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So, as for the missile-defense program…was it an appeasement to Putin…do you trust Obama’s vision for the world and America’s place in it…is he positioning us well between our own interests and our own moral obligations?
Addition: A reader links to this piece and argues that this is Obama trying to forge common interest with Russia, which may bear fruit.
Another Addition: Juan Cole argues how shrewd a move this is here. Obama is rounding up Kagan’s autocracies (Russia, at least) as well as the democracies (France, at least) and putting the full heat on Iran.
Yet Another Addition: It’s looking like Russia’s not on board with Iranian sanctions.
See Also On This Site: From The American Interest Online: Francis Fukuyama On Samuel Huntington…From The Chronicle Of Higher Ed: Russian Forum…Dick Cheney Travels To Georgia: Is the U.S. Allied With Georgia?
September 23, 2009
From The Atlantic Wire: Obama’s Speech To The UN
Full post here (pre-speech)
Afterwards here.
The criticism from the right will continue: Obama is not much of a leader, trying to be all things to all people. The U.N. is simply a world stage for him to do this. Later on, behind closed doors, political realities will force him to make deals and decisions within his own party, against the interests of many Americans (and people on the right), as well as most other countries at some point.
Also, it will be interesting to watch how the Russian-Iranian-Venezuelan allignment plays out. The leaders of each of these countries and their people have a strong anti-American pool of sentiment to draw upon, as they set up policy and diplomacy (and nuclear programs) against us, exploiting our over-reach and any mis-steps to solidify their own power.
Also On This Site: Do we have to rationally pursue most of our interests outside the U.N.?: From Bloggingheads: Robert Kagan Discusses The U.N. Security Council…Barack Obama President Elect: A Few Hopes From An Independent
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