Years of Poems and Spirits

Immigration in Europe, Kastoyano’s book:
In France, they try to sweep the foreigness away; In Germany, they try to sweep the Germanness away.

French Laicite: secularism as a civil religion. Church clergy as paid public servant.

Competitive marketing among the religions:
Only if when religion has no state sponsorship (unlike in N. European Lutheran countries), and has to compete against each other (or secularism), does one tend to display fundamental tendency.

Prior to 1980s, “state” was not widely used. Political scientists rebelled. “Bring the State Back in”:
1. Separate state from the populace;
2. The coercive nature of state;
3. Nation and state.

Huntinton: Clash of Civilization
Robert Kaplan: The Coming Anarchy

Robert Cohen: End of Hegemony (”Hegemonic Stability”)

Leo Strauss: Chicago, Timeless Dialogue, Natural Law
Student: Jerry Weinberger, Benj. Franklin (Straussian style)

David Landis: Industrialization

Quotation style:
1. Ignore identation unless 5 lines or more. Always single-space.
2. If quoting from the beginning, “Yada yada …”. –the dots and the period.
3. If quoting from the middle of the sentence, “Cap-first letter, no need to use [] or …”

Numerals:
1. Never start a sentence with a numeral.
2. 20 or beyond are numerals. If lower than 20, spell out.
3. Jun. 19 not Jun. 19th!

When writing research paper, always in present perfect tense!

Realistic Wilsonianism

The term has grabbed attentions from the Economist and the New Yorker recently.

His argument: the “War on Terror” vastly overstates the scope of the problem.

The jihadist movement is not global war comparable to the world wars or the Cold War. The movement is instigated by Muslims living in the West (not literally but I guess he meant they constantly feel threatened?) but NOT those living in the Middle East (yet we are at war with them).

Fukuyama flirted with neocons but recently spoke against them (e.g. Karuthammer).

But Rummy’s comparison of jihadism to facism is not totally without reason: both ideologies can be tagged by: economic devastation, failed liberalization, demagoguery, anti-liberalization and racism. The difference, of course, is between German efficiency and Oriental hoodoo-ism.

I read part of F.F. essay “End of History” but did not understand what he meant. His apologists argued he didn’t mean that literally. Rather he was referring to end of ideological struggle that has defined modern history. So he seemed to imply in the beginning part of the essay.

Not sure Communism can define the whole of modernity (nationalism, imperialism, etc.)? Plus, Hegelian historicism does not have an “end”. Dialectic denies the existence of terminal stage or teleological meaning. Then how can one title one’s essay “End of …” and goes on quoting Hegel?