Have you seen this?

http://www.radioopensource.org/globalizations-double-edged-sword/

“However, Robb’s talk of a virtual state amounts to little other than the fact that geography doesn’t matter.”

Utterly brilliant. But because geography doesn’t matter, wouldn’t it follow, also, that the realist nation-state developments are by nature weakened, having emerged according to the limits (and strengths) imposed by geography? I.e., their foundational premises no longer apply.

However, the “Eeyore” outlook (HT: Haft of the Spear) is only one operative outlook, complaining about the Pooh Bears and Tiggers, and so forth. Everyone in the 100 Acre Wood must avoid the destructive tendencies of Tigger, but most succeed in doing so and fixing what he has done — or coming to the conclusion that his disruptions are not all that terribly disruptive.

Meaning, that so far in my reading of the book, I detect a skewed perspective, which I’ll try to address in the forthcoming review!

Curtis — could you rephrase? Your analogy is too dense.

Utterly brilliant. But because geography doesn’t matter, wouldn’t it follow, also, that the realist nation-state developments are by nature weakened, having emerged according to the limits (and strengths) imposed by geography? I.e., their foundational premises no longer apply.”

Nice extrapolation. However it isn’t quite correct that distance doesn’t matter -it’s that the transaction costs of distance, to varying degrees, have been eroded and most of all in regard to information.

Formerly insuperable barriers are now…well…”superable”. That doesn’t always mean cheap or easy, much less ” free”, but many more things are now in the realm of the realistically possible than in 1980.

My 100 Acre Wood analogy suffers from a poor memory of Winnie the Pooh books/cartoons, which is why I copped out by using the analogy! Essentially:

Haft described Thomas Barnett as “Pooh” and Robb as “Eeyore.” At ZenPundit, I asked who Tigger is. Mark may have claimed that title… but when I wrote the comment here, I had in mind that Tigger is the the GG. So Robb, as Eeyore, complains not only about what he sees as a too-rosy outlook coming from Barnett (Pooh) but also about the fairly incomprehensible but very freely moving and self-interested Tiggers (GGs) he sees emerging. However, most people either fix what Tigger does or get used to it and largely ignore it, letting him b-bop around the Wood. (Not likely, for GGs.)

I suppose a full 100 Acre Wood analogy could be drawn to include the other characters. Interestingly, if memory serves, although each character welcomes the presence of the others, on the whole, they also remain very insular and consistent — i.e., never change character.

Incidentally, I once looked at three archetypal Weltanschauungs [1] and suggested that the Tigger-GG’s (really, in the post, the Islamic Jihad) were the primary exponents of individual freedoms: free to go where they want when they want and do what they want, even if they would not allow the same to everyone.

Mark,

Good call on transaction costs. I wonder though if we should not dismiss geography altogether (total freedom) or focus on the cheapening of transactions (more freedom than before), but rather begin to wonder if a new set of limitations, different limitations, occur, so that realism can endure but must change its focus.

[1] http://www.phaticcommunion.com/archives/2005/10/triune_disunity.php