From the print and online editions of the nation's premier urban-policy magazine http://www.city-journal.org/cj-comments.xml?story=7026 Manhattan Institute check this link, hermesbirking.net to take huge discount hermesbirking.net to your friends http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#12726 http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#12726 Mon, 16 Jan 2012 09:06:02 EST p.s. Jarad Diamond is not a saint yet (he still has a few miracles to go), however, he was a teacher of mine and mind at RAND and has the ability to figure this out for the rest of the underlings. http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#11108 http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#11108 Mon, 07 Nov 2011 22:01:07 EST Awe, but youth is but a perception. Nietzsche was quite right and still is. But it is thinking that is of most import. I am involved with the "Occupy San Diego" movement at the present. Not a bad thing; not a good thing. Just a thing. http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#11107 http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#11107 Mon, 07 Nov 2011 21:55:47 EST Thank you Adam Kirsh Well reasoned analysis Fukuyama is still struggling To find his way Bruce Sterling too is looking He seems to counter Fukuyama With a concept called Atemporality http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2010/02/atemporality-for-the-creative-artist/ Which seems to be a more gestalt approach That seeks to transcend the post modern view . yamabuki http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#10685 http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#10685 Sat, 22 Oct 2011 13:18:55 EDT East is East, West is West, Exceptionalism is the Best. http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#8803 http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#8803 Thu, 11 Aug 2011 03:36:08 EDT I want Fukuyama to collaborate with Jared Diamond and write a book. http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#8030 http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#8030 Fri, 22 Jul 2011 12:51:53 EDT Not having read Fukuyama's latest book, let me just make a couple of short points on the review. a) There is plenty of evidence that Hobbes is right about the emergence of states -and super-groups more generally- as an answer to war and insecurity. When there is a vacuum in central power, there is a period of insecurity and war, until (as described by Nozick in Anarchy State and Utopia) a sovereign is established. This can be a King, a Mafioso, or a Warlord. We need PEACE before we can worry about anything else. b) Hobbes is wrong about Human Nature - it does seem as if we are, as claimed by Aristotle, social animals. However, it does not detract from his justification/abstract genealogy of political political authority. c) Yes, Darwinian evolution is aimless in one sense. But, as always emphasized by Spenser, it is still possible to think in terms of the more complex, the more viable, and so on. Certainly there is reason to think that the capacity to act in accordance with abstract principle and emotions like loyalty would be beneficial to a group, and that therefore it would thrive over more egotistic groups. In any case, to think that in the end the societies which respond to certain basic human dispositions would be more stable, and out-compete alternatives in the long run is not too optimistic a thought. In particular given globalization and free flow of information. http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#7878 http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#7878 Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:41:52 EDT Does this mean that America, a nation that refuses to abandon God and moral norms, is lagging behind in the march of history -- toward nihilism and the last man? Or does it mean that America remains on a path toward freedom because it has kept its purpose, and its compass? http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#7790 http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#7790 Sat, 16 Jul 2011 16:47:11 EDT Why doesn't Fukuyama have a sense self-knowledge of this trite glib unsound posturing? He sounds like the pope. http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#7687 http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#7687 Thu, 14 Jul 2011 13:53:43 EDT Mr. Kirsch, Thank you for your well thought out and even handed review of Fukuyama's book. Yours is quite the best and most useful of the several reviews of the work that I've read. Well done. http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#7686 http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#7686 Thu, 14 Jul 2011 13:53:33 EDT An astute review, indeed, of more than a famous author's latest book, but rather of his entire intellectual trajectory. The basic flaw in Fukuyama's thinking is having taken Hegel seriously in the first place. At the turn to the 21st century it required a lack of serious scholarship to take Hegel seriously, as did Fukuyama in framing in Hegelian terms the very thesis that made him famous. The swiftest cure for an admiration for Hegel as a thinker is to read him, first hand, and not, as Fukuyama seems to have done, to get to know him second hand through a latter-day Hegelian like Kojève. Then, in apparent disappointment with Hegelian History as a guide to history, to turn to a new mentor in Darwin as a guide to politics is fraught with peril, and Fukuyama has apparently not avoided the pitfalls, to judge by this most informative review. http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#7685 http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#7685 Thu, 14 Jul 2011 11:07:36 EDT This is another comprehensive and outstanding review from Adam Kirsch. It points to yet another instance in which a contemporary thinker overreaches by relying on Darwinian Evolution as basic explanatory principle for all aspects of reality. Fukuyama at least does this with solid argument and a degree of plausibility which is something which cannot be said for those using Darwinian ideas to 'interpret' works of Art and Literature. http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#7681 http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#7681 Thu, 14 Jul 2011 02:00:02 EDT print this off for records? http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#7590 http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#7590 Sat, 09 Jul 2011 00:48:21 EDT Excellent review. Fukuyama claims that "a strong state, the rule of law, and accountable government" make for stable societies, but why obey laws without an individual benefit? Just pick and chose which you can get away with violating, no matter. For a more convincing reason for successful societies read Christopher Dawson's "Dynamics of World History". This author was once esteemed until the nihilistic 1960s came along and embraced Nietzsche. What killed Dawson's influence? Fashion and false believe in Scientism. http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#7044 http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#7044 Sun, 12 Jun 2011 22:09:45 EDT I received 1 st personal loans when I was 32 and it helped my business very much. However, I require the consolidation loans once again. http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#7023 http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#7023 Sat, 11 Jun 2011 11:30:56 EDT For a better understanding of Fukuyama's superficiality, readers might consult a masterly essay on Kojeve by Professor Stanley Rosen of BU, and especially his book, NIHILISM. I think Kirsch wrote excellently; but he is still young and perhaps these important sources are unknown to him. Rosen cut Kojeve to shreds before Fukuyama found and took him seriously, long before, I estimate. Jascha Kessler, UCLA http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#6982 http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#6982 Fri, 10 Jun 2011 00:00:03 EDT Yet another (equally lame) attempt to read Darwin's significance into politics? Thanks for the warning. Sounds like a good one to skip. http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#6949 http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#6949 Thu, 09 Jun 2011 12:37:22 EDT This is very fine indeed. I missed, however, any mention of Rousseau's First and Second Discourses. http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#6939 http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7026#6939 Wed, 08 Jun 2011 20:04:49 EDT