I’m en route from Dubai to London, and this new essay of mine just dropped on The Ideas Letter, the publication of the Open Society Foundations. I always love reading their pieces, and I hope this one measures up. They were terrific to work with on this.
I wrote a piece previewing it, so some of you have a good idea of what to expect, but this is much more fleshed out. Please click through here to read the essay, and tell me what you think.
Meanwhile, I have Jonathan Czin on the podcast, and that will drop early next week. It’s about his fantastic forthcoming piece in Foreign Affairs, which is one of the more sensible and balanced pieces I’ve read on the Chinese leadership in some time.
Have a great weekend folks! And my half-off sale is still on until I get back to the States, so do take advantage of that.
- Kaiser
Love the essay Kaiser - have shared to my network. Here in NZ (as I assume in the US) there is an ENORMOUS amount of energy wasted on partisan and culture wars which is badly eroding the clarity of thought and unity needed to move the country forward…. Political competition has become an end in and of itself vs as a means to develop a more intelligent consensus on how best to take the country forward - progress has stalled even regressing on some measures. A huge contrast to the trajectory I have observed over many years visiting China . We don’t want emulate China obviously but there is a lot to be inspired by and curious about.
One of the best essays I've read in quite some time. I echo Trevor's comments. We should be humble, curious, and open minded about China's development, and be more introspective about our own failures and successes. I admire the sense of reality you portray, while our system is not universally applicable it still offers value and must not be jettisoned in the face of challenges - just adapted to new circumstances. We've been drinking our own Kool-Aid for too long?