RECOMMENDED READING
I’m still too tired to do an extended commentary but there were a few things that I found interesting to read over the last few days:
TM Lutas ” Garbage Cans and Pressure Cookers”. In reference to Peggy Noonan, whom I like, TM reminds us that elegant prose doesn’t always mean particularly deep thinking.
Praktike, preaching among the heathen, at Dean Nation. In all seriousness, I hope people like prak and Paul Berman succeed in their endeavors. Right and Left in this country should be able to disagree on all aspects of political economy while standing on a common ground in regard to the apalling threat Islamist terror poses toward free societies.
Of course, the Rule-Set Reset ( never let it be said that I am above shameless self-promotion).
The website for The Muslim American Society. I’ve perused it and while these folks are not Islamist extremists they are not going to be first in line to criticize radical Islamism either. Or perhaps even get in that line at all.
For the Anglophiles, two posts from Geitner Simmons– ” Hitler in London “ and ” Decline of the Aristocrats” – informative and well-crafted as always.
From Coming Anarchy ( great name for a blog) a review of PNM.
Dan at tdaxp fisks Juan Cole’s latest on Doug Feith.
JB at riting on the wall deconstructs ” Liberal Democracy”.
February 1st, 2005 at 4:36 am
Mark,
I really appreciate your insight in your article on the attributes of rule sets in The Rule-Set Reset. Taking a concept such as rule-sets which seem intuitively obvious and fleshing it out by looking at the historical context and social contexts is helpful in understanding the depth of meaning of the concept. I believe readers of the RSR benefited from your article by gaining a richer insight in Tom Barnett’s concepts.
Congratulations! I hope we will continue to see more.
February 1st, 2005 at 4:20 pm
Hi Stuart,
Thank you very much !
Tom’s Horizontally conceived work naturally lends itself to Vertical expansion. Edward DeBono described Lateral thinking across domains/perspectives as complementary rather than adversarial toward the Vertical thinking we are familiar from experts in a field, subfield or niche. So when Tom in PNM does this:
….Concept A….Concept B…..Concept C….Concept D…
It’s relatively easy for me to come along and do this:
/ .
Extrapolate
.
.
.
<...Concept A....Concept B.....Concept C....Concept D..>
.
.
.
Causation
.
V
Vertical thinking comes naturally to most of us. Horizontal/Lateral thinking usually does not unless we tend to be one of those individuals regarded as ” creative” but it is a skill that can be taught and learned by most of us to varying degrees. It is in part, a cultural shift in our thinking patterns.
October 24th, 2005 at 10:14 pm
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