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Politics : To be a Liberal,you have to believe that..... -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tom Clarke who wrote (3807)	10/12/1999 9:46:00 AM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6418

Pretty amusing, but he lumps in too many things:I read Fukayama's original essay in The National Interest, although not the inflated book version. He takes off on Kojeve's interpretation of Hegel, which is not very scholarly, but that is inessential. The main point, that insofar as there is a "teleology" to history, it is in the development of the idea of the best polity, and that therefore, it may be that we have come to the "End of History", in a Hegelian sense, is actually pretty reasonable, although there are objections that may be lodged. Since Fukayama extols immigrants for their adherence to traditional values of kith and kin in other essays, it is wrong to lump his argument about history with "moral emancipation" or "rights without duties".... Anyway, although there is something unfortunate about the focus on rights, there is logically no such thing as rights without duties, since to have a right means to have a claim against others to do or forebear in some acts, and therefore imposes reciprocal duties.... Anyone who cares for the condition under which the mass of humanity has to live will be, at times, an "enthusiast for the gross national product", since only the general increase of wealth can raise that condition, or provide the surplus needed for a luxuriant cultural life.... Modernity has a downside, in disrupting the sense of solidarity, rootedness, and moral order that may characterize traditional societies. It also has an upside, in liberating the individual to pursue his interests, instead of endlessly subordinating him to the clan or tribe;in increasing the material means through which humanity may be uplifted; and, in the processes of industrialization and urbanization, increasing literacy, supplying access to other media, and lifting the mass of people out of bucolic idiocy. Remember, the "global village", stripped of over- speculation, is merely the ability to become acquainted with many things beyond your own fence.....