What I'm Reading This Month
By Richard Wilson
November 2006
This month I’ve been reading and re-reading and re-reading Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History and the Last Man published by Free Press in 1992.
It’s an unusual rarity that a book on the philosophy of politics and economics written nearly fifteen years ago would provide today’s reader with a spirit of optimism about the political and economic future of our nation and mankind; and, as in my case, provide an 80 year old mind with a totally new view of the future. Mr. Fukuyama converted me and many of my friends from flaming old style liberals, ready to redistribute the wealth, into neo-liberals quite ready to support freedom of a capitalistic system with all its well-known warts.
The book is based upon the philosophy of the German philosopher Hegel who argued that man is driven by his desire to be recognized as a human being, and that some have more of a need for recognition than others. Thus if a society has no peaceful outlet for this drive for recognition, those with a strong need will end up in politics and lead the nation into political wars to gain recognition by conquest. If no peaceful outlet is provided, history shows the strong will destroy mankind in political war.
Therefore, the best and most useful system according to the author is liberal democratic politics with a liberal capitalistic economy. In such a system those driven by a need for recognition can use the economy to gain recognition, but, with democratic politics guiding the nation, their economic battles will be regulated to produce ever more advanced prosperity for society and a rise in the living standards of working people not so driven.
Mr. Fukuyama, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, combs the evidence left by nations that have come and gone to show clearly that, at the end of history, with the last man standing, all nations will have a system of liberal democracy and liberal capitalism and all other systems, including fascism and communism, ultimately collapse from within.
Each nation will be different, based on their culture, but all will end balancing freedom and equality to allow those born with greater economic endowments to lead mankind to prosperity within safe limits, while providing a safety net for those lacking those endowments.
I dare anyone interested in philosophy as applied to politics and economics to read the first chapter and try to put the book down.
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