Does anyone have any opinions about Niall Ferguson?
I've always liked the guy. I find his popular writings very accessible and ussually informative.
But I think his feelings on empire may not sit well with a libertarian crowd. What do you lot think?
Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine - Elvis Presley
Never read more than snippets from internet articles, but I like him. Kind of in the way I like Hitchens, though I like Hitchens less.
The Anarch is to the Anarchist what the Monarch is to the Monarchist. -Ernst Jünger
I watched a video (about an hour) where he kept referrring to ideas as "apps" and said that China was "downloading apps like liberal capitalism."
I stopped watching. if he is going to treat me like a 5 year old I'm not going to listen.
It only felt like an hour.
hahaah, that's not the video I watched (it was a speech at the Chatham house). "killer apps." What a tool. I hat e it when old people try to be 'fresh and young'. I'd rather listen to jargon than have old people try to relate to me.
here is the one I watched...watch Mearsheimer, Walt, nye, Brezinski, Waltz, etc. before this dumbass.
However, this is something that is hilarious:
Keynes was GAY, that is why we are dead in the long run!
You mean that wasn't just a gimmick for a TED talk? It's literally a metaphor his uses on a regular basis? What a douchebag.
What really bothered me most about that whole talk was how a lot of it was actually accurate, and not stuff you typically hear admitted by the TED sort. I was happy that such an audience was getting exposed to some reality...but then he just kept on going, and of course inevitably ventured back into typical nonsense. It reminded me a lot of Jared Diamond actually. So close, yet so far away.
It's literally a metaphor his uses on a regular basis?
He even has a book with it in the title.
does the book come as an app?
you know academic's books are good when they are published by Penguin. you'd think a professor at harvard would at least attempt a University press or a private sector academic publisher (Sage or routledge).
I cant seem to get the image to work, but isnt it true that you have written a few penguin classics yourself?
Consumariat:It's literally a metaphor his uses on a regular basis? He even has a book with it in the title.
Does anyone have any opinions about Niall Ferguson? I've always liked the guy. I find his popular writings very accessible and ussually informative. But I think his feelings on empire may not sit well with a libertarian crowd. What do you lot think?
I like him, but I just wished that he would write even more controversial books, though I understand that there are limits to what one can write.
isnt it true that you have written a few penguin classics yourself?
I am not an academic. My works are so old that they are in the commons and any asshole can "publish them."
So, no. i wrote on clay tablets (i think - it's been so long I can't remember exactly). I didn't have these new fangled "papyrus binds" that everyone else seems to have.
If I had a choice I'd publish with Cambridge University Press that way college kids won't make fun of where I publish at. pfft, "penguin..."
I just wished that he would write even more controversial books
What is more controversial than the killer app of liberal democracy? Or saying that Kenyes was gay and that's why his economics sucked (pun intended - that's right I'm a comedian).
Yah, the "killer apps" metaphor gets really old, really fast for anyone under the age of 40. But I can see why he did it that way. As I recall, the book "Civilization" basically came out of a history course he taught to undergrads at Harvard. I think he has described it as his attempt to make an accessible entry to the world history everyone should know. So he is clearly aiming for a wide audience. And I am guessing he thought this would help him reach at least some group of people.
But even though the "apps" methophor sucks, Civilization is still on my reading list. But he actually just came out with a Kindle Single on Maggie Thatcher I will read first.
One thing everyone might find interesting is his special "Empire" (related to his book of the same name), which you can find on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSbMBh0YC1c
All of these people need some catchy phrase with which to distinguish themselves. Whether it's "ideas having sex" or the "selfish gene", or indeed, "killer apps". Grows a bit thin after a while.
Freedom of markets is positively correlated with the degree of evolution in any society...
He's an asshole and a tool.
Student: Does anyone have any opinions about Niall Ferguson? I've always liked the guy. I find his popular writings very accessible and ussually informative. But I think his feelings on empire may not sit well with a libertarian crowd. What do you lot think?
I only know his BBC show on the history of money and finance, which was really cool.
I'd say this was epic fail
Explain yourself? or are you just trolling?