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« Elsewhere | Main | Molly and John »

January 29, 2007

Musings About Civilization By One of Da Boyz

Donald Pittenger writes:

Dear Blowhards --

It's out there. It's huge. And Instapundit already linked to it.

There's everything from a Japanese colonel riffing on the third-generation problem to the persistence of barbarian habits to what to consider when civilization unravels.

If you haven't seen it already and have 15 minutes to spare, click here to read what's on John Jay's mind. He's one of the Chicago Boyz, and fellow-Boy and Blowhards commenter Lexington Green says he plans to print it out and give it a read.

Truckloads of food for thought, a lot of which gets high scores on my plausibility meter.

My only advice is to skip the first paragraph, which is more of a distraction than an introduction

Later,

Donald

posted by Donald at January 29, 2007




Comments

Well, I tried to read it and gave up. It seemed like an endless, bloviating prologue. I couldn't stay with him merely to see if he ever gets to the point, if he has one.

Posted by: Peter L. Winkler on January 30, 2007 5:26 PM



As another "Chicago boy" (a graduate of the U. of Chicago who took classes from two of the luminaries pictured on John Jay's mast head) I found this piece disappointing. Some of his points are undeniable, such as third generation dissipation, but I was not at all impressed by his banging that tired old "generation of 1968" drum. I mean, really-- that line was worn out even before the security guards escorted Spiro Agnew out of the white house (after first checking his pockets for silverware and other assorted valuables). Old values have been eroding in favor of new values since the world began and we could concoct a best of times/worst of times argument for most generations during that period. One thing we can be sure of: each generation brings another crop of Cassandras like Spengler predicting the decline of the west. Someday one of them will be right, but so far they have been wrong and John Jay doesn't seem to be the person to buck that trend.

Posted by: David on January 31, 2007 3:36 AM






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