jorb wrote:Well, OP is two years old, so it isn't exactly 100% up to speed with my present philosophical outlook. I do not not today associate the words "ideology", "nationalism" or "liberalism" -- with the latter two concepts obviously being species of the first -- with anything positive. My view is simply that personal autonomy is a social concept that has no meaning outside the context of an antecedent polity. Robinson Crusoe on his island is not in any meaningful sense free, he is merely isolated. Further, I do not believe that something as ephemeral as ideas can on its own form the lasting basis of a functioning polity, and hence I consider family, culture and nation to be relevant to political discourse, and in that capacity also legitimate values well worth defending.
The good society is a fruit of culture, not one of politics, ideologies or revolutions. Societies are precious flowers that one grows, not mechanistic contraptions to be construed from on high by virtue of some grand central plan.
So jorb, harking back to your OP, I am interested in knowing where you see H&H standing in a historical point of view? W7 seems more chaotic than any world I can remember playing in. People try to build long-lasting kingdoms or trade metropolitans yet it seems they eventually succumb to hostile invaders who have no apparent goals other than to see everyone and everything around them burn to ground. I'm no history buff but it does interest me to a point, so would you share some of your insight?
The unfed mind devours itself. - Gore Vidal