From: J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Date: Sat Oct 13 2001 - 11:35:08 MDT
From: "Anders Sandberg" <asa@nada.kth.se>
> Which government is easiest to overthrow, the US or the Afghan? The
> Swedish or the Zimbabwian? Open democratic societies are extremely
> resilient, and tend to withstand even severe crises which in less open
> societies would lead to chaos.
Quite so, and as Francis Fukuyama has written:
<<We remain at the end of history because there is only one system that will
continue to dominate world politics - that of the liberal-democratic West.
This does not imply a world free of conflict, or the disappearance of culture
as a distinguishing characteristic of societies. But the struggle we face is
not the clash of several distinct and equal cultures struggling amongst one
another like the great powers of 19th-century Europe. The clash consists of a
series of rearguard actions from societies whose traditional existence is
indeed threatened by modernisation. The strength of the backlash reflects the
severity of this threat. But time and resources are on the side of modernity,
and I see no lack of a will to prevail in the West today.>>
--Francis Fukuyama
Full text:
We remain at the end of history
http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=98776
--- --- --- --- ---
Useless hypotheses, etc.:
consciousness, phlogiston, philosophy, vitalism, mind, free will, qualia,
analog computing, cultural relativism, GAC, Cyc, Eliza, cryonics, individual
uniqueness, ego, human values, scientific relinquishment
We move into a better future in proportion as science displaces superstition.
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