Dr. James Hunter has been an invaluable source of incredible scholarship for decades which have influenced me highly. I'm deeply indebted to him and grateful for his work.
I've come to believe that there probably is some ceiling level of the combined factors of total population size plus the amounts and kinds of ethnic and cultural diversity being added to it, beyond which the points of disagreement become so numerous and unsolvable that democracy becomes no longer an effective form of government. That it simply starts to fail at some such point of structural overload of its machinery. If true, the United States seems to have passed that ceiling of population and diversity. And, again, if true, the most likely eventual solution might be continued geographic self-sorting... people moving to be among other like-minded people... followed ultimately by fracturing into two or more nations. While not an easy to achieve or pretty solution, that might be better than an intact United States held together like China and Russia are, by autocratic strong-man rule. The U.S. is the world's second most populous and multi-cultural democracy. Consider the world's largest and most diverse one. India's 1.3 billion population contains many different languages, religions, sub-cultures, cults, and an enduring very specific caste system. And I submit that the Indian national government is indeed overwhelmed. Byzantinely and infuriatingly bureaucratic, usually inert, regularly unjust when it's not in paralysis, and many of the results it does produce are accomplished by greasing a wheel or two. If some natural ceiling of number of people, cultures, and competing interests does exist for democracy to function even just reasonably well, India illustrates it.
Or totalitarian government! It's almost as if there are some powerful politicians, officials and executives that don't actually want us to have a democracy anymore... it's almost as if some people want to divide us untill they can JUST RULE us without our input... 😮
Totally agree. I think a lot of people are in denial about how hard it actually is to have a multi ethnic democracy at all, let alone one that's as big in both population and size as the US. I find very few people really talking about this. It seems like many people are scared to critique democracy almsot at all, let alone the multi ethnic or multi cultural angle. It's always funny to me how Europeans from countries the size of US states often with similar or even smaller populations comment like "well, you guys are just ignorant! Why don't you just do the government good!" Like it's all already figured out.
Interesting interview and good to know where the term "culture war" came from. I wish there was more focus on the cure and not just a history and diagnosis of the problem. Does not providing a cure somewhat point to the sad thought that there isn't one?
Because this guy doesn’t understand the culture war fully. It is truly a war between the godless and the faithful. This is why this guy can’t provide a solution because the only solution is within God and Christianity. Once that is understood the solution becomes apparent. This guy is an old boomer thinking the secular and the faithful can’t still be melded together somehow. It can’t be.
Thanks Aaron for presenting Dr. James Davison Hunter to this audience. Great podcast!
Dr. James Hunter has been an invaluable source of incredible scholarship for decades which have influenced me highly. I'm deeply indebted to him and grateful for his work.
I've come to believe that there probably is some ceiling level of the combined factors of total population size plus the amounts and kinds of ethnic and cultural diversity being added to it, beyond which the points of disagreement become so numerous and unsolvable that democracy becomes no longer an effective form of government. That it simply starts to fail at some such point of structural overload of its machinery.
If true, the United States seems to have passed that ceiling of population and diversity. And, again, if true, the most likely eventual solution might be continued geographic self-sorting... people moving to be among other like-minded people... followed ultimately by fracturing into two or more nations.
While not an easy to achieve or pretty solution, that might be better than an intact United States held together like China and Russia are, by autocratic strong-man rule.
The U.S. is the world's second most populous and multi-cultural democracy. Consider the world's largest and most diverse one. India's 1.3 billion population contains many different languages, religions, sub-cultures, cults, and an enduring very specific caste system. And I submit that the Indian national government is indeed overwhelmed. Byzantinely and infuriatingly bureaucratic, usually inert, regularly unjust when it's not in paralysis, and many of the results it does produce are accomplished by greasing a wheel or two. If some natural ceiling of number of people, cultures, and competing interests does exist for democracy to function even just reasonably well, India illustrates it.
Or totalitarian government! It's almost as if there are some powerful politicians, officials and executives that don't actually want us to have a democracy anymore... it's almost as if some people want to divide us untill they can JUST RULE us without our input... 😮
Totally agree. I think a lot of people are in denial about how hard it actually is to have a multi ethnic democracy at all, let alone one that's as big in both population and size as the US. I find very few people really talking about this. It seems like many people are scared to critique democracy almsot at all, let alone the multi ethnic or multi cultural angle. It's always funny to me how Europeans from countries the size of US states often with similar or even smaller populations comment like "well, you guys are just ignorant! Why don't you just do the government good!" Like it's all already figured out.
This was great, even if I think Hunter is many years late to putting this account into the public. I hope there can be more conversations with him.
Interesting interview and good to know where the term "culture war" came from. I wish there was more focus on the cure and not just a history and diagnosis of the problem. Does not providing a cure somewhat point to the sad thought that there isn't one?
Because this guy doesn’t understand the culture war fully. It is truly a war between the godless and the faithful. This is why this guy can’t provide a solution because the only solution is within God and Christianity. Once that is understood the solution becomes apparent. This guy is an old boomer thinking the secular and the faithful can’t still be melded together somehow. It can’t be.
Broad identification and recognition of the problem is the first step
"An expanded view of freedom". Lol, yeah thats what we need is MORE freedom lmao.
This talk was a real snoozer.
I think if you have more interest in how it comes apart, you might like WhatIfAltHist.