[lit-ideas] Re: Book Review
- From: Andy <min.erva@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2008 07:46:57 -0800 (PST)
I'm hard on Americans, but the rest of the world isn't any better. If
anything, they're worse. We are Europe's product, the same Europe that warred
for centuries and who only got their act together after the most fearsome war
the world had ever seen. I think some of the reasoning behind having an
Economic Union was to prevent further wars among the states. Under the surface
there's still a lot of tension in Europe, as demonstrated by Denmark's taunting
of the Muslims. Taunting does not make for good problem solving. The Asians
are hardworking and thrifty, the way we once were, but they killed off so many
baby girls that they're actually short on marriageable women now. That is not
the height of functionality.
What we're facing today is globalization, and nobody can stop other countries
from developing. Unfortunately we've been throwing punches instead of rolling
with them and keeping ourselves current.
Here's an On Point discussion with Parag Khanna who wrote a book on the
U.S.'s new "second world" status and how we got there post 1999. By putting
most of our resources into the military and deemphasizing infrastructure and
people, we have nothing to keep up with. We need to rethink ourselves right
down to the roots. Maybe Obama can inspire the changes, but most likely they
will come only from dire necessity. When the student is ready, the teacher
will appear. There is hope, but like the Europeans, we will have to hit bottom
before anything will change. It's just the way humanity does things.
http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2008/03/20080306_b_main.asp
John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
But now there is Obama. Hope is not quite dead.
John
On Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 12:50 PM, Andy <min.erva@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I know I've been a little negative lately, but I can't resist, I have to
post this. I heard Morris Berman interviewed about this book quite a while ago
on Book TV. Note the review by the NYT. One has to wonder if affluence agrees
with homo sapiens. Maybe that's the problem.
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2448
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