The Fate of the World...According to Some

It's been a long day. Between the Rory Kennedy event and the 2 readings, things are tending to look a little grim for the world. But I have hope still! The speaker was fantastic and gave me some great journalistic/documentary aspirations. We'll see...

At first, I wasn't sure what the agenda was for The Coming Anarchy by Robert D. Kaplan. However it began to take shape after a little reading. My first thoughts were the same as any conversation concerning Africa. My heart breaks for the whole continent. I'm overwhelmed with the situation and wanting to help. But when Kaplan used West Africa as a model for the future of the U.S, it got a little scary. It's hard for me to think we could end up that way and "how did this begin and how can we prevent it?" become the bigger questions. In the words of Kaplan, "Democracy is problematic, scarcity is more certain." Those words became clear and evident to me when I thought about the environment as a possible cause for conflict. The population will increase in the poorest parts of the world where development even now is difficult. I never really thought of the environment being such an issue but Kaplan posed it as a threat. One last part of the reading that struck me was the contradiction between Huntington and Kaplan in their views of borders and conflict. Huntington thinks borders will be the natural place for clash between civilizations but Kaplan talks about their insignificance. With Islamic Extremism and the recent terrorist cells, borders mean nothing as the groups of individuals shrink. Even in the U.S, we have so many cultures Kaplan argues that with racial polarity, educational dysfunction, and social fragmentation, it would be easy for a solid feeling of patriotism to slip through the cracks. People would naturally stick to smaller groups. It will be interesting to see what the future holds.

In response to The Rise of Illiberal Democracy by Fareed Zakaria, my definition of democracy was completely turned upside down! I think many people are in the same boat as myself when it comes to having a certain idea of what democracy is according to the Western constitutional liberalism model we see everyday. It's easy to look at struggling countries and our economic/political success (if you can call it that) as a country and want to implement our ideas. Yet when you look closely at the flaws in our system such as the small number of justices in the supreme court with life terms, the not so equal representation in the senate, and more, it seems our form of democracy is just "an exit on the road" as opposed to Fukuyama's "End of History." The word democracy is seemingly misunderstood. Democracy can lead to constitutional liberalism but not necessarily the other way around. I liked how Zakaria gave a lot of examples of different "democracies" to open my eyes to the possiblities of definitions. Democracy doesn't always equal harmony. I also agree with the fact that it is important to not confuse the need for a powerful government with the need for a legitimate constitutional government to build a strong base. It's hard for me to see even constitutional liberalism model of democracy as perfection but it's certainly a start and a place to improve from. Onward ho!