583. Are We Living Through the Most Revolutionary Period in History? | Freakonomics Radio

Fareed Zakaria says yes. But it’s not just political revolution — it’s economic, technological, even emotional. He doesn’t offer easy solutions but he does offer some hope.

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[jamesreilly]

Fareed has been right about so many things. He predicted that Sisi and the egyptian military would eventually quash the arab spring even as everyone was predicting the opposite.
I would love to see a show with Jon Stewart and Fareed. It would make his thinking accessible to those not schooled in IR and global power.

Also his obvious disdain of Bill Maher is very funny as he tries to hide it.

[erictschaeppeler]

After describing what the US did in Central and South America, and Vietnam, Iraq... you conclude we're the good guys?

[stephenboyington]

There is a very universal tendency when people take power, no matter where it is. They want to stay in power. Many of these leaders or parties cannot understand why anyone should just let other people take over, when there are ways to prevent that. That is the battle all across the world. Do you fight to remove the abusive ruler...or just go along with them to reap the rewards of membership?

[dragonofparadise]

Being a Centrist I feel so ignored and unrepresented I am literally leaving the United States. Both Republicans and Democrats both are bad and are getting further apart. I will simply go to another country that better aligns with my values and has universal health care for all and a large unrestricted housing supply with affordable homes. Here in the US the housing supply is intentionally kept undersupplied to keep the prices going up forever. If the prices do start to drop then make anything not a single family home on a massive lot illegal and start printing massive amounts of fake money so the price increases in fake dollar terms. Sick and tired of this government run scam.

[newpilgrim]

Pushing totalitarian ideas on either side is a death

[DF-ssep]

Turning a communist country into a market economy fast can absolutely be done, it was done very successfully in Eastern Europe. If that didn't work in Russia, it was not because it is impossible. One may even reasonably argue that the process must fast, not gradual, which is how countries like Poland did it.

Those statements show a surprising level of ignorance on an incredibly important topic, in his supposed area of expertise.

[philbeau]

Left wing and right wing are both attached to the same vulture.

[razettoebonvar]

This gentleman is very incorrect about the open vs closed distinction between the "left" and the "right". That was probably true 20 years ago, but nowadays the water is significantly more muddy.