[lit-ideas] Re: Fukuyama and the end of history
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2006 10:07:20 -0700
Omar,
The article you quote [http://www.wesjones.com/eoh.htm ] appeared in the
1989 issue of The National Interest. About this article, Fukuyama writes
on page xii of his book, The End of History and the Last Man, 1992, "The
present book is not a restatement of my original article, nor is it an
effort to continue the discussion with the article's many critics and
commentators. . . . While this book is informed by recent world events, its
subject returns to a very old question: Whether, at the end of the twentieth
century, it makes sense for us once again to speak of a coherent and
directional History of mankind that will eventually lead the greater part of
humanity to liberal democracy? The answer I arrive at is yes . . ."
As to the article's paragraph you refer to, this was developed in The Last
Man portion of his book, Part V. I don't recall Fukuyama doing as Andreas
suggests, "Constantly attacking liberal democracy as a ploy of weaklings."
I recall him being ambivalent about life where Nietzsche's "Last Man" has
prevailed much as the paragraph suggests. I do not find Fukuyama wishing
for any alternative to Liberal Democracy.
Lawrence
-----Original Message-----
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Omar Kusturica
Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2006 10:22 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Fukuyama and the end of history
--- Andreas Ramos <andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Lawrence, you've forgotten the book. I read it
> several weeks ago.
>
> Page references? It would quite a task. The book
> constantly attacks liberal democracy as a
> ploy of weaklings.
The last paragraph of F' "End of History ?" essay
reads:
The end of history will be a very sad time. The
struggle for recognition, the willingness to risk
one's life for a purely abstract goal, the worldwide
ideological struggle that called forth daring,
courage, imagination, and idealism, will be replaced
by economic calculation, the endless solving of
technical problems, environmental concerns, and the
satisfaction of sophisticated consumer demands. In the
post-historical period there will be neither art nor
philosophy, just the perpetual caretaking of the
museum of human history. I can feel in myself, and see
in others around me, a powerful nostalgia for the time
when history existed. Such nostalgia, in fact, will
continue to fuel competition and conflict even in the
post-historical world for some time to come. Even
though I recognize its inevitability, I have the most
ambivalent feelings for the civilization that has been
created in Europe since 1945, with its north Atlantic
and Asian offshoots. Perhaps this very prospect of
centuries of boredom at the end of history will serve
to get history started once again.
http://www.wesjones.com/eoh.htm
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