Filed under: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Europe, European Union, Foreign Policy, Islam, The United States, United Kingdom | Tags: History Updated, The New World Order, Victor Davis Hanson
Victor Davis Hanson had a new column up yesterday at the Hoover Institution’s “Defining Ideas” in which he explains our history in statecraft and diplomacy, and what he calls the Old-World Order, since the end of the Second World War, He explains how we got here and where we are today, and what the Trump administration is doing about it. It’s not long and I found it fascinating to have it all put together so concisely.
The present continuance of institutions such as the EU, NATO, UN, and others suggests that the world goes on exactly as before. In fact, these alphabet organizations are becoming shadows of their former selves, more trouble to end than to allow to grow irrelevant. The conditions that created them after the end of World War II, and subsequently sustained them even after the fall of the Berlin Wall, no longer really exist.
The once grand bipartisan visions of American diplomats such as Dean Acheson, George Kennan, George Marshall and others long ago more than fulfilled their enlightened promises. The U.S. in 1945, unlike in 1918, rightly stayed engaged in Europe after another world war. America helped to rebuild what the old Axis powers had destroyed in Asia and Europe.
At great cost, and at times in both folly and wisdom, the U.S. and its allies faced down 300 Soviet and Warsaw Pact divisions. America contained communist aggression through messy surrogate wars, avoided a nuclear exchange, bankrupted an evil communist empire, and gave Eastern Europe and much of Asia the opportunity for self-determination. New postwar protocols enforced by the U.S. Navy made the idea of global free trade, commerce, travel, and communications a reality in a way never seen since the early Roman Empire.
Do read the whole thing, you’ll be glad you did.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Democrat Corruption, Domestic Policy, Economy, Energy, Environment, Free Speech, Freedom, History, Intelligence, Law, Media Bias, Politics, Regulation | Tags: America vs. The "Elites", Pragmatism and Policy, Victor Davis Hanson
An important new article from the Hoover Institution, “Hanson: Struggle Between Elites And Masses Defines US Policy,” is about Victor Davis Hanson rather than by him. I suggest that it is “important” because it is a good look at American policy and “history, he says, offers lessons for today’s technology-driven world, especially when it comes to elites,the masses, and the future of society.”
He says that globalization has enriched the coastal corridors of the country and have more in common with Paris or Tokyo than with Ames, Iowa. The “elite” mindset occurs in this geographic concentration, and their attitudes are favored by Academe, the media, government agencies and technology companies that dominate the airwaves and the internet. There’s a big disconnect. High living materialism on one side, which a more rural America regards as superficial indulgence and decadence, that is not only wrong-headed, but bad for the country.
In terms of public policy, Hanson has recommended “rethinking the geography of power,” starting with moving the United Nations from New York City to Haiti, Libya, or Uganda whose capital cities are underappreciated, yet appropriate cities at the frontlines of poverty and crises and thus better places from which to conduct international governance.
As for US cabinet agencies, he suggested transferring the Department of Agriculture to somewhere more agrarian-minded, such as Topeka or Fresno, where bureaucrats would then spend more time with the farmers they regulate. Likewise, he said, Salt Lake City might be an ideal home for the Interior Department; Houston or Bismarck for the Energy Department; and Youngstown, Ohio, or Flint, Michigan, for the Departments of Labor, and Commerce.
“Washington, DC is often considered out of touch, both politically and geographically, with the rest of America,” he said. “Transferring seats of power to hoi polloi is not just practically smart, but morally long overdue.”
Well, yes. That would straighten out a lot of governmental excess. He said “pragmatism” is the most important quality of rural people. They are familiar with the nature of weather and the seasons. They understand nature better, and have a sense of life as unpredictable and tragic. The disconnect means that the checks on our excesses are disappearing. The coastal elites can give virtue-signalling speeches on TV, but fail to understand the actual consequences of their own abstract ideologies.
When and how did it become acceptable for large businesses to be political advocates? To use their businesses to capture all the personal information of the ordinary American people in order to sell it to advertisers and whoever for whatever purposes, making themselves fabulously wealthy by doing so. And appointing themselves judge and jury of what information we can receive and what information we can publish.
Do read the whole thing. It’s food for thought, and worth your time.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Domestic Policy, Economy, Foreign Policy, Freedom, History, Humor, Immigration, National Security, Politics, Regulation, Russia, The Constitution, The United States, Unemployment | Tags: The Edmund Burke Award, The New Criterion, Victor Davis Hanson
May 30, 2018: After introductory remarks from Roger Kimball, here is Victor Davis Hanson’s acceptance speech of the Edmund Burke Award honoring Outstanding Service to Culture and Society. Well deserved. The ancient world and how it is reflected in today’s society. Wonderful speech, worth every minute.
I post links to a lot of articles by Dr. Hanson. I think he’s probably the most important historian writing today, and captures more of reality in a presently very fractured world.
Filed under: Politics | Tags: Making Sense of Derangement, Society's Pathologies, Victor Davis Hanson
This is a podcast or telephone interview in which Dr. Hanson explains his view of the current mindset, pathology, derangement syndrome, through which we are all living. He makes more sense than most anyone else on the subject. This took place in mid January, 2018. Sightly over 5 months ago, and if anything, it has only become worse. Strange times.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Domestic Policy, Economics, Economy, Foreign Policy, History, Immigration, Intelligence, Law, Media Bias, Politics, Regulation, Taxes, The United States, Unemployment | Tags: 8 Years of Obama, Six Months of Trump, Victor Davis Hanson
A very odd and unappealing opening visual. Here is Victor Davis Hanson speaking at Hillsdale College about the Trump Administration and what is working and why and why not. It’s a little long, but worth every minute. I am a great admirer of Victor Hanson. He thinks clearly, informed deeply by his studies in history and the classics to consider the big picture and how the little events of our times fit in.
It seemed to fit nicely with the absurd New York Times article posted just above. An excellent view of where we are and why. Enjoy.
Filed under: Capitalism, Democrat Corruption, Economics, Education, Energy, Environment, History, Immigration, Law, Media Bias, Progressivism, Regulation, The United States | Tags: California's Central Valley, The Coastal Elite, Victor Davis Hanson
This isn’t new, but is a very good reminder about the culture wars, and who’s on which side and why, and why there are culture wars. Short, but as all of Victor Davis Hanson’s speeches do, it makes you think.
Every day, things seem a little more outlandish. Ivanka Trump posts a picture of herself with her son for Mother’s Day, a charming shot of a mom nuzzling her kid, and the Left falls apart. But Trump is separating children at the border from their parents! Abusing little children! Putting little children in locked pens! The pictures of penned children go viral, when someone notices that it was from 2014, and the Obama administration.
Filed under: Australia, Canada, Europe, France, Freedom, Germany, History, India, National Security, Poland, Russia, The United States, United Kingdom, World War II | Tags: The Plural is Important, The Second World Wars, Victor Davis Hanson
I have no idea how many books have been written on World War II. Many of them important, but Victor Davis Hanson has explained it. I gave my oldest son, who is really interested in the war, and has toured the battlefields in Europe,The Second World Wars for Christmas. He usually mutters about the somewhat conservative books I give him, but he made a special point of thanking me for it. He said it has made it all make sense, and he loved the book. So there are glimmerings of hope.
If you have not yet ordered the book, you’ll be glad that you did. The preface explains the title, and why Victor Davis Hanson was the correct one to tell that story. Memorial Day would be a good time to indulge.
