History is back. Actually it never went away, but in 1989 Francis Fukuyama wrote the essay "The End of History?", which made the claim that history as we know it--competing philosophies, economic systems, and political beliefs, would no longer exist, as we doze off into a post-Cold War European Union bliss, where the few disputes between nations would be resolved by arbitration panels.Simply put, Fukuyama was wrong. A thousand years from now he may be proven correct.
Robert Kagan picks up the ball with his book The Return of History and the End of Dreams,
and Kagan is the guest of Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds and Dr. Helen Smith in the latest Glenn & Helen Show podcast.My take-home from this is that the world is in two camps, free and authoritarian. Sound familiar? Kagan explains that the latter group, Russia, China, and radical Islam, all look back at a period of glory that was snatched away from them.
Listen to or download the podcast here. Or do it my way, and download it onto your iPod and listen, at least in my case, while running.
Tennessee is an important music state. On the day the podcast was released, I was in Jackson, Tennessee, the hometown of longtime Johnny Cash drummer W.S. Holland and the base for many years of rock music pioneer Carl Perkins. Musically speaking, several generations down the road, Reynolds, of Knoxville, under the alias Mobius Dick, graces the introduction and conclusion of the podcast.
Related post:
My Mississippi Manifest Destiny: Carl Perkins
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