A highly stylized theory of entrepreneurialism which contends startups aiming to solve clear, ‘big’ problems are most likely to transform the future. The author posits the ideology of competition is a false objective for businesses, which should instead seek to become monopolies. In Silicon Valley, this usually requires proprietary technology, network effects, economies of scale, and distinct branding. Along the way, the founder of Paypal-turned-financier outlines some practical advice (e.g., equity for employees) and also libertarian political thought: faith in indefinite progress leads to pursuit of rent, whereas faith in definite progress leads to inventions that transform the future – careers in law or finance versus going to the moon. The jumping off point, the question of singularity (i.e., exponential advance), is worth further pursuit. Interesting but lacking in the economic grounding that appears early in the book, and may grow dated.
Book abstracts
12. Levin, Great Debate (28 Oct 2014)
Modern American politics was presaged by the ideological division between Tom Paine’s Enlightenment rationalism and Edmund Burke’s liberalism. Their opposition is primarily evident in competing notions of man’s nature, the sociopolitical role of history, the ideal of justice and social order, generational independence (‘choice’) and obligations, reason, and ultimately the pace of reform. Richly demonstrated by original quotes, particularly from Burke, such that the work is a useful blueprint for the Anglo-Irishman’s thought. (Relatedly, Burke’s thoughts on the sublime and the beautiful are outlined on p57). Levin raises the question whether Burke is more concerned with organic development of social order and decision making, or natural law. Finds its stylistic footing in later chapters.
13. Bailyn, Origin of American Politics (2 Nov 2014)
The political climate of pre-revolutionary America was based on the worldview of anti-Walpole politicians in Britain. Simultaneously, although formal colonial executive power was in fact stronger than in the British system, the absence of monarchical-aristocratic features (patronage or ‘influence’) reduced the government’s power. Thus the government paradoxically was notionally stronger but actually weaker; royalists meanwhile worried of the democratic (populist) elements threatening the crown and ‘mixed’ constitution. Therefore the situation was latently revolutionary. Overlong sentences but clearly organized and persuasive.
14. Krauze, Redeemers (30 Nov 2014)
A short biography of the leftist Mexican poet Octavio Paz mixed in with still shorter sketches of comparable neo-Marxist intellectuals and heroes of the late 19th and 20th century. While ranging from Marti to Chavez, the author focuses on Mexico and returns often to the topics of the Catholic Church, postcolonial society, the place of indigenous Indians, the sociopolitics of revolution, and finally the relative value of democracy vs political messianism (i.e., progressivism or ‘redemptive leadership’), from which the work draws its title. Ultimately Krauze comes down on the side of democracy. A quick and useful primer on a collection of failed ideologues.
1. Scruton, Meaning of Conservatism (2 Jan 2015)
Sketches core concepts of British paleoconservatism, concluding the virtuous individual – not individual freedom or the social contract – is the objective of community, government, and politics. There is no universal politics of conservatism: it varies depending on the social order, and each society exists through its unique structure. Community and tradition store (institutionalize) social wisdom. Therefore it’s up to progressive philosophies to demonstrate why their wisdom is superior, not to the conservative to show his should persist. The progressive threat to society is authority which does not map to social order or historical identity. Law, which is the will of the state, should also be the will of society: individual freedom and the absence of harm are insufficient objectives. Thus, if the state is the protector, it must support property rights. Institutions, however, must be self-directed with the state playing the role of guardian. ‘Establishment’ is how the state embeds these social institutions within the overall order. Originally written in the late 1970s, the book is concerned not only to address socialism but also liberalism including a free-market worldview the author sees as represented by Hayek, Friedman, and even Thatcher. As ever, Scruton is broadly provocative, draws attention to paradox, and makes frequent reference to Kant. Worth rereading.
2. Keegan, The First World War (8 Jan 2015)
Narrates the warfare of 1914-18, focusing on the strategic failures of each side in the initial going and then in accommodating trench warfare and incipient mechanization. Technically excellent, Keegan’s major extension is to dramatize the senseless waste of millions of enlisted men. Though touching on diplomatic events and social currents, Keegan offers no significant insight in the broader realm of political history. The author fails his self-appointed task of describing why the world’s most advanced region succumbed to self destruction.
3. Downing, Military Revolution and Political Change (18 Jan 2015)
The endurance of medieval forms of constitutional government and the revolution of early modern warfare, which required state centralization of resources, accounted for the democratic trajectory of western and central European countries. After reviewing forms of late medieval government and warfare, the author uses a comparative framework to evaluate Prussia and France as absolutist cases and England, Sweden, and the Netherlands as republican exemplars. The work is a useful riposte to class and economic determinism, but lacks truly original expression, the text being heavily footnoted with citations of generally accepted historiography. It is also written as if for a graduate seminar: impossible not to learn, but better off with Fukuyama.
25. Menzies, Afternoon Light (10 Dec 2022)
Essays in postwar government by Australia’s longest-serving prime minister, showing a pragmatic, legalistic bent. The politician ought neither trust in emotion nor be a cynic, but demonstrate pragmatism. Menzies sketches leading contemporaries, notably Churchill and Queen Elizabeth as well as his predecessors. In portraying diplomatic efforts to persuade Nasser to negotiate over the Suez Canal, the author asserts Eisenhower undermined efforts. The Australian and American constitutions are compared, the latter charter being more subject to political considerations, and the relationship of Australian government to the British metropole considered. Menzies criticizes the Commonwealth’s automatic admission of newly formed republics as well as treatment of South Africa and Rhodesia. The object of Commonwealth meetings is not to issue resolutions but to exchange ideas.
4. Pangle, Ennobling of Democracy (2 Feb 2015)
A Straussian (i.e., Socratic) argument for resurrecting Classical republican approaches to citizenship and education in America circa 1990. Postmodernist thought is insufficient to the task of civic education because it considers itself in search of a successor to modern rationalism, and so cannot present youth with a certain basis of inquiry and evaluation. (This school of thought, a dying spasm of Marxism exemplified by Jean-Francois Leotard, is indeed likely to never emerge because it corrupts Nietzsche and Heidegger.) The book then turns to an extensive, fast-moving comparison of modern and ancient conceptions of the republic and democracy, finding the dialectic method is necessary to restore American civic mindedness and also the US university; however, Pangle is careful to underline that the dialectic is dangerous for the under-prepared.
5. Blainey, A Shorter History of Australia (10 Feb 2015)
Geography and economics have been more important to Australian history than politics. The ‘tyranny of distance’ shows itself in Aboriginal culture, Western settlement and economic development, foreign relations, and so on. They have often been interrelated, as in the development of export products (notably wool and mining) or the influence of drought. Owing to scarcity of labor, working conditions and labor law have been advanced, leading to egalitarianism (equality of outcomes) and also devotion to sport (as outside leisure). Black-white relations, obviously one-sided and sometimes fraught, are not more significant than the latter 20th-century influx of Asian peoples, which supplemented steadily decreasing European migration. Crisply written.