TRIGGERnometry The West’s Struggle With Reality - Doug Stokes
17 snips
Oct 22, 2023 Doug Stokes, Senior Advisor to the Legatum Institute and Professor of International Security at the University of Exeter, discusses the decline of Western civilization and its implications. He critiques how campus culture wars reflect broader geopolitical issues, emphasizing the danger of prioritizing individual narratives over shared truths. Stokes warns against the erosion of meritocracy in favor of inclusivity and the rise of tribalism. He also probes the relationship between personal struggle and resilience, and the fragile nature of Western values in contemporary discourse.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Truth and Power
- Post-structuralist thinkers prioritize epistemology (how we know) over ontology (what exists).
- They argue that truth and objectivity are illusions, making power central to all discourse.
Ideology's Human Cost
- Campus ideologies, when applied in the real world, reveal their human costs.
- This occurs within an increasingly multipolar world with rising geopolitical tensions.
Clinton's Peace Talks
- Bill Clinton, during Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, used the agreement on the current day (Monday) as a starting point.
- This highlights the importance of shared reality for more complex negotiations.
