This book is a spectacular down-to-earth attempt to trasnscend positivism as well as Marxism. The very logic of the erudite author's argument alights in a blind alley, where the Heideggerian ambivalence remains the only saviour. This daring milestone in the history of thought would always be an inspiring read.
The Central Liberal Truth : How Politics Can Change a Culture and Save It from Itself by Lawrence E. Harrison The Seeds of Affluence and Poverty, June 3, 2006 Reviewer: M. L Lamendola (Merriam, KS USA) - See all my reviews
Harrison looks at broad trends, and--admittedly--draws broad conclusions. But as you look at the cases, you can see these conclusions are, by and large, reflected in reality. Harrison also does a good job of explaining what the effects are of various religions, cultural taboos, and attitudes. He looks at the effects of female literacy, punctuality, and trust--or the lack of these. These various factors flavor the stew that gives a country its culture. As I read this book, I kept nodding my head: "Yes, that makes sense" or "That's a well-supported point." I kept feeling I was learning how culture is more than a mere factor in the progress of a nation--it's a determinant. Then, toward the end of the book, we see the real reason Harrison had the word "liberal" in the title. Harrison ties the whole book into the standard commentary of the left, just (thinly) disguised a bit. I have read several books that, had the author restrained himself from needlessly adding in leftist statements, would have been just fine. These authors have an almost Pavlovian approach to writing--no matter what they write about, they have to either lace the whole piece with leftist opinion or write a fine book and then cap it with leftist conclusions that really have nothing to do with the book. As I said in the beginning of this review, the real problem Harrison is talking about is statism. We get it from the left and from the right. Liberalism is an enabler of statism, not a solution to it. Statism is the belief that the government actually solves problems--and the more government you have, the better. This belief has dominated politics since the early part of the last century. It failed most dramatically perhaps with the Soviet Union. But it's also failed in the United States, and we have the flight of capital and talent to prove that.
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