Eduardo Gonzalez

notes

the year of fukuyama

⠀

  • Lee Kuan Yew, critics of democracy keep bringing him up because he's unique
  • Fukuyama's argument in The End of History and The Last Man isn't that there will be no more wars, but that there is no serious alterative to liberal democracy.
  • Yet, China (1.4bn people) became a world leader in science, technology and economically. They have extremely low crime, drug use and illegitimacy rates, but also no democratic institutions and no free press.
    • China Model: technocratic skill + political meritocracy>voting + mobilized citizenry. could be argued as a result of unusually wise policy choices.
  • But in 2022, both main threats to liberal democracy collapsed: Russia+China
    • China's Zero Covid policies lasting for so long indicate a deep pathology about the Chinese system (Japan, Taiwan and South Korea had similar policies but the Chinese system was the one that allowed most underlining neuroticism to run wild)
    • web of digital codes everywhere (restaurants, apartments, complexes, public restrooms and spaces) that people must scan.
  • While stable, doesn't seem to be a global example
  • Russia should have at least influenced other Easter European countries on issues like abortion, immigration, gay rights, but all ex-soviet-union nations (except Hungary) turned more hostile to Russia.
  • Russia was too risk-acceptant, intoxicated with masculine dreams of conquest
  • China was too risk-adverse, too neurotic to respond to threats in a measured way
  • Both involve a governing elite that is able to convince the public of making sacrifices for (irrational) goals.
  • Both Democrats and Republicans: recognize capitalism as a way of organizing the economy, accept 2 major pilars of American welfare state (social security + medicare).

note mentions

Eduardo Gonzalez

ego