Jeremy wrote:
] Writing as the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, Francis
] Fukuyama famously announced the "End of History." The
] world, he argued, was fast approaching the final stage of its
] political evolution. Western democratic capitalism had proved
] itself superior to its historical rivals and would find
] acceptance.
]
] How naive all this sounds today.

First the guy says:

Americans have an ingrained distrust of moral laxity masquerading as “sophistication,” and our dissident religious heritage has made us comfortable with making clear-cut moral choices in politics — “simplistic” choices, Euros would say.

It is precisely because we recognize the existence of evil, pure and simple, that we feel justified in using force to strip power from ogres. Europeans, cynical in politics and morals, think that this attitude makes us loose cannons.

then he says:

The skeptical Founding Fathers, influenced by the British Enlightenment, built a republic based on the anti-utopian belief that men are fallible and selfinterested, love their property, and can best manage their affairs locally.

The Founders saw the café theorizing of Continental elites and French philosophers as a danger to good government, which requires institutional checks and balances and a citizenry of perennially vigilant individual citizens. From America’s beginnings, that spirit of rugged individualism and self-reliance found a home here and stands opposed to collectivism.

These notions are almost perfectly opposed to each other. Either you believe in the perfection of your clear-cut moral choices enough to launch out on unilateral military adventures or you believe that men are fallible and selfinterested and require institutional checks and balances! You can't have your cake...