As we wait for the final denouement in Libya, let’s revisit, courtesy of Chris Brooke and Charlie in comments, this fantastic essay on Gaddafi the modernizer by New Labour intellectual godfather Anthony Giddens, who back in 2006 was ready to believe that Libya could be the new Norway and that it’s leader was a thoughtful chap with a strong affinity for “third way” thinking. Also:
He is not a fidgety person but has a calm, articulate manner
He looked pretty fucking twitchy to me last night.
It's folk like you wot have upset poor Hopi. You've no understanding of the 'complex calculus of evil' y'see.
"Perhaps the best analogy is with relations with the Soviet Union in the cold war. A policy of detente with a regime you cannot remove that appears to be offering a more moderate approach is an entirely reasonable one. It may prolong that regime. It may expose the regime to destabilising influences that end repression early. It is a complex calculus of evil.
But whatever difficult decision you take, it doesn’t stop you being delighted and hopeful and joyous when that repressive regime totters and falls."
Posted by: CharlieMcMenamin | February 23, 2011 at 07:05 PM
Well, it certainly stopped Tony being delighted, hopeful and joyous.
By the way, I assume other people have seen the film of those wankers going door-to-door in the yellow hard hats?
Posted by: ejh | February 23, 2011 at 07:22 PM
Oh, I may have mentioned this before, but my view of Giddens is almost entirely formed by the experience of having worked (my worst job ever) in the warehouse that served, among others, Polity Press, and hence stored Giddens' pension-provider-cum-doorstop, Sociology. It was easily the fastest-moving item in the place, and this was a really big warehouse. There were pallets all over the place piled high with it. Pallets and pallets and pallets. Everywhere. If you were to say "Giddens" to me in thirty years' time, I'd still immediately think of pallets.
Posted by: ejh | February 23, 2011 at 07:38 PM
It's folk like you wot have upset poor Hopi. You've no understanding of the 'complex calculus of evil' y'see.
I love that our beef is supposed to be his failure to invade rather than, y'know - the weapons we sold him n' shit.
Posted by: BenSix | February 23, 2011 at 07:38 PM
To be fair, Giddens' early work was pretty good.
Does anyone know him? I've always suspected that he's terribly naive and unworldly (which seem like odd characteristics for a sociologist thinking about it), but maybe that's my own naivety.
Posted by: cian | February 23, 2011 at 08:43 PM
Off topic. The greatest prank call ever:
http://www.buffalobeast.com/?p=5045
Awesome.
Posted by: cian | February 23, 2011 at 08:52 PM
Don't know him, but I don't think you get to be Director of the LSE without a certain level of worldliness. IIRC, he set up Polity Press with... David Held.
Posted by: Simstim | February 23, 2011 at 08:54 PM
Is that "prank call" page the one described as Koch Whore on Google, but currently giving Page Not Found?
Posted by: ejh | February 23, 2011 at 09:20 PM
Is that "prank call" page the one described as Koch Whore on Google, but currently giving Page Not Found?
At least it wasn't a meth whore.
Posted by: Myles | February 23, 2011 at 09:30 PM
To be honest, there is a certain mileage in the Hopi Sen view, taken purely in the abstract. It's just that it misses out all those private visits to Mubarak's palaces and so on in the very Tony-centred specific.
Now, it is quite possibly true that Blair never benefited personally from the change in Britain's relations with Libya, as opposed to Egypt. But British/Western commercial interests did. & who has Blair been whoring for since he left office?
Posted by: CharlieMcMenamin | February 23, 2011 at 09:53 PM
Yeah. Its on youtube, and mother jones have the details on their website.
Posted by: cian | February 23, 2011 at 09:54 PM
No there isn't Charlie. That post is a slimy thing that crawled out of a bad conscience. It's pure hackery from first to last. You're being too nice.
Posted by: jamie | February 23, 2011 at 10:07 PM
That "Koch"/Walker transcript seems to be working now.
Posted by: jamie | February 23, 2011 at 10:56 PM
Textbooks, for reasons which I genuinely don't quite understand, seem to be incredibly easy to do badly (and still get published) and quite hard to do well. A lot of them seem to be churned out by people who think superficially.
Posted by: Phil | February 23, 2011 at 11:39 PM
I agree with Jamie wrt the Sen, incidentally. Repeat three times: "Communism is bad! Democracy is good!", then re-read that post and see if anything jars at all. Bet you it doesn't.
Posted by: Phil | February 23, 2011 at 11:42 PM
Jamie - are you my Mum in disguise? Few other people tell me I'm 'too nice'
P.S. in the version of this piece you've posted on FFOE you say I'm part of that set up. Wrong Charlie I'm afraid. I have no such august place in the blogosphere.
Posted by: CharlieMcMenamin | February 24, 2011 at 11:31 AM
I find myself idly wondering which currently operating regime, if any, will get the coveted endorsement of Philip Blond. Bhutan, I guess.
Posted by: dsquared | February 25, 2011 at 07:18 AM