I have not read the book, but this review makes me want to get my own copy.
THE OTHER AREA WHERE FUKAYAMA was extraordinarily prescient was in describing what kind of people might emerge from the comfort that liberal democracies produce. He makes repeated mention of the C.S. Lewis phrase “men without chests” to characterize the kind of loathsome creatures that might emerge from our splendid modern societies. Fukayama was writing 15 years ago; I bet he’s surprised at how rapidly chestless we’ve all become.
The Bush 41/Clinton years marked a signal decline into chestlessness. Both presidents presided over numerous misguided attempts to make life fair. Bush’s “Americans with Disabilities Act” remains (with the arguable exception of campaign finance reform), the single most damaging piece of legislation of the past 25 years. It wasn’t so much the provisions of the Act that were so harmful, although they represented an unacceptable amount of governmental overreach into private sector affairs, it was the message that the act gave to all Americans – If life has treated you unfairly, we’re from the government and we’re coming to help.
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