Fancis Fukuyama: Satan or Satan's Tool??

Check this out. There is no other global theorist I know of who so easily and constantly posits the end of the world is around the corner. His new thing seems to shooting down anybody who even tries to propose a peaceful future.

Here he is reviewing a book that argues, "Although Europe is largely devoid of anyone resembling a Republican, and America has no socialists, both Europe and America have the equivalent of American Democrats. It is in that intersecting space that Ash sees the “surprising future” he proclaims in the subtitle of this book—the space where John Kerry’s America makes common cause with Euro-Atlanticists. These two forces can, he believes, nudge the U.S. toward greater multilateralism and Europe toward closer trans-Atlantic cooperation." Unsurprisingly, he finds the thesis unconvincing.

I will say this, Fukuyama's observation that, "Americans tend to believe that September 11 represents only the beginning of a new age of nihilistic, mass-casualty terrorism, while Europeans tend to think of it as a single lucky shot, of a kind familiar to them through their experience with the IRA or the Baader-Meinhoff gang" is very perceptive.

My point would be that maybe the Europeans are right on this one. And further, maybe Fukuyama is guilty of the same nihilist millennialism he attributes to Americans.