John Gray is an important political scientist who believes that so far as the west is concerned the jig is up -it no longer runs the show and because of the destruction of the environment and the emergence of religious extremism the show may be over. Though This article is about one crisis his books and academic articles are more general and provide an excellent source of essays
posted by louis @ 2:25 PM
Eager to start writing again , I hit upon tne idea of starting A blog and calling it cogito ergo sum. For years I have been fascinated by a famous episode in Descartes Life. He decided to take R and R from military service for a few days to sit in front of a fire place,review everything he thought he knew,subject himself to a bath(closer to a tsunami) of scepticism, to see what he came up with that was immune to doubt. Finally it was "I think therefore I am". I have always found this result a bit lame but I have been fascinated by the process. I am also fascinated by the procedure attributed to the British historian, Keith Thomas whereby he took notes at random, put them in appropriate envelopes and when one became thick enough, he reviewed it more systematically. I will do the same on a variety of subjects, religion, politics, film etc until I reach summary statements. This will be useful to me even if no one reads anything I write here.
1 Comments:
While it's true that Western leaders (ie Cheney, Milliband, Cameron) have being talking in the contradiction of self-determinism and territorial integrity, I think one needs to distinguish between rhetoric for image and true intentions. While I think Gray's points about what to do practically are quite right, I think even in the West's declining hegemony there needs to be certain rhetoric to intimidate and discourage what otherwise might be considered cheeky jabs at its decline.
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