Samuel Phillips Huntington: April 18, 1927–December 24, 2008

I guess news moves a little more slowly over the holidays. I had no idea Dr. Huntington had died until I opened the Economist today. Below, an excerpt from the commentary article.

I recall my professors spoke of him dismissively, before 09/11 that was. Is optimism inherently dangerous? Are liberalism and culture diametrically opposed?


"Both well and badly. Huntington came as close as anybody to predicting September 11th and the “war on terror” with his strictures about Islam’s “bloody borders”. He also came as close as anybody to predicting America’s agonies in Iraq by pointing out that democracy is the product of very specific cultural processes. His argument that modernisation does not necessarily entail Westernisation also looks prescient: why should the Chinese embrace the American economic model when it seems to produce such economic havoc? And why should authoritarian regimes in the Middle East embrace democratisation when it might mean handing power to Islamists? The master emerges better than his pupil, Mr Fukuyama."

Additional Rules

I so enjoyed the "1001 Rules for My Unborn Son" that I started writing some of my own. I submitted them to that webpage via email, but I am posting them here as well:

1. When at a diner, follow diner rules: Burgers, eggs, simple sandwiches.

2. At a fine restaurant, trust the chef. Everywhere else, order off the menu; if you want personalized food, eat at home.

3. Food is for sharing; a means, not an end; not for remedy nor gluttony.

4. Get involved: Being a member of your community means being part of it.

5. Treat those in need with dignity, few others will.

6. Mind your tone: It's difficult to speak calmly, with assurance and confidence, but necessary.

7. Grammar counts: have command of a language (or two).

8. Words are tools, maintain a well-stocked and well-used toolbox.

9. Happenstance is a better friend than prescience; you don't need to take credit for all of the good things that happen to you.

10. Real men read philosophy, fiction, and poetry; Not all knowledge has pre-ordained utility.

11. Interests may come and go, but if you don't follow some of them some of the time, they stop coming.

12. If you're bored, then you're boring.

13. Build one lifelong partnership.

14. Curiosity is more fun than faith.

15. Know the scientific method.

16. Thank those who compliment you.

17. Be able to walk a mile comfortably in any footwear you own.

18. Build traditions; allow them to change.

19. Asking people where they are from is insulting.

20. 'What do you do?' is a demeaning and belittling question; see how far you can get into a conversation without knowing a person's profession.

21. Nostalgia has its place, but there are always things that are better now.

22. Watch old movies.

23. Know how to build a fire.

24. Keep in touch with old friends, they'll be happy to hear from you.

25. Love is many things, try to know each of them.

Libertarianism Is Dead

Jacob Weisberg writes a too short epilogue for the "intellectually immature" worldview that is Libertarianism. I've taken the opportunity to summarize here using his own words, but hope that someone can point out a more fully fleshed piece at a more rigorous (or at least academic) home. I provide a fast-forward version here:

But to summarize, the libertarian apologetics fall wildly short of providing any convincing explanation for what went wrong. The argument as a whole is reminiscent of wearying dorm-room debates that took place circa 1989 about whether the fall of the Soviet bloc demonstrated the failure of communism. Academic Marxists were never going to be convinced that anything that happened in the real world could invalidate their belief system. Utopians of the right, libertarians are just as convinced that their ideas have yet to be tried, and that they would work beautifully if we could only just have a do-over of human history. Like all true ideologues, they find a way to interpret mounting evidence of error as proof that they were right all along.

...Cox and Gramm, in particular, are often accused of being in the pocket of the securities industry. That's not entirely fair; these men took the hands-off positions they did because of their political philosophy, which holds that markets are always right and governments always wrong to interfere. They share with Greenspan, the only member of the trio who openly calls himself a libertarian, a deep aversion to any infringement of the right to buy and sell. That belief, which George Soros calls market fundamentalism, is the best explanation of how the natural tendency of lending standards to turn permissive during a boom became a global calamity that spread so far and so quickly.

...The worst thing you can say about libertarians is that they are intellectually immature, frozen in the worldview many of them absorbed from reading Ayn Rand novels in high school. Like other ideologues, libertarians react to the world's failing to conform to their model by asking where the world went wrong. Their heroic view of capitalism makes it difficult for them to accept that markets can be irrational, misunderstand risk, and misallocate resources or that financial systems without vigorous government oversight and the capacity for pragmatic intervention constitute a recipe for disaster. They are bankrupt, and this time, there will be no bailout.