Missive #648

The New York Times bestselling author of The Origins of Political Order offers a provocative examination of modern identity politics: its origins, its effects, and what it means for domestic and international affairs of state

In 2014, Francis Fukuyama wrote that American institutions were in decay, as the state was progressively captured by powerful interest groups. Two years later, his predictions were borne out by the rise to power of a series of political outsiders whose economic nationalism and authoritarian tendencies threatened to destabilize the entire international order.The book promo is written from the same bias as found in the book. That is the identity of the right is bad but the identity of the left is good. The author was not sparing in displaying his dislike of Trump during his first term; I can only imagine how he feels now. These populist nationalists seek direct charismatic connection to “the people,” who are usually defined in narrow identity terms that offer an irresistible call to an in-group and exclude large parts of the population as a whole.

Demand for recognition of one’s identity is a master concept that unifies much of what is going on in world politics today. The universal recognition on which liberal democracy is based has been increasingly challenged by narrower forms of recognition based on nation, religion, sect, race, ethnicity, or gender, which have resulted in anti-immigrant populism, the upsurge of politicized Islam, the fractious “identity liberalism” of college campuses, and the emergence of white nationalism. Populist nationalism, said to be rooted in economic motivation, actually springs from the demand for recognition and therefore cannot simply be satisfied by economic means. The demand for identity cannot be transcended; we must begin to shape identity in a way that supports rather than undermines democracy.

Identity is an urgent and necessary book—a sharp warning that unless we forge a universal understanding of human dignity, we will doom ourselves to continuing conflict. — Book promo @ goodreads.com

I have not copied the posting which is long but suggest reading it link. It discusses the dollar’s reserve status [that] is an exorbitant privilege. That is changing and will impact almost everyone in the world.

People want neoliberalism so badly that they are willing to lay down their lives for it. They are willing to accept the most terrible forms of torture for it. — by Clarissa

I did get out for a walk again after not doing so for four days. This is probably the longest break that I have taken in years. I have made it a habit in recent years to make my shopping days also a rest day from walking. My excuse for the other three days was the cold and rain which totaled 0.84″ from the storm that lasted for those days. Yesterday was also cold during the morning walk with temperatures in the upper 30s or lower 40s and a light wind. The route that I took was the best of the three that I had to chose from but it was still muddy and had standing water. The expected high for yesterday and today was 53 and 54 with the remainder of the 10 day forecast to be in the 60s. It froze again this morning; not exactly snowbird temperatures but no more rain predicted.