Fareed Zakaria | Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present

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Fareed Zakaria is the host of CNN’s flagship domestic and international affairs program Fareed Zakaria GPS, which has aired around the world since its debut in 2008. Also a weekly columnist for the Washington Post, he formerly served as editor of Newsweek International, managing editor of Foreign Affairs, a Time magazine columnist, an analyst for ABC News, and the host of PBS’s Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria. He is the author of four New York Times bestsellers, including Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World, The Post-American World, The Future of Freedom, and In Defense of a Liberal Education. In Age of Revolutions, Zakaria melds historical study with contemporary analysis to map the ways in which societal upheavals and political paradigm shifts define our current culture of polarization.
Pine Tree Foundation Endowed Lecture
Recorded March 28, 2024
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The views expressed by the authors and moderators are strictly their own and do not represent the opinions of the Free Library of Philadelphia or its employees.

[@Jai2ez]

Those of you watching... be thankful. This man is one of the great thinkers of our time and we are lucky to have him.

[@Fedarcyk]

😊😊😊

[@johnanderson3700]

I’m in process of reading it now. I am very impressed with his knowledge and ability to communicate. I’m anxious to complete it as I find in what I have read so far the promise of a better understanding of today’s deep divides in our culture. He demonstrates both a grasp of understanding the issues and an effective communication of these issues in easily understandable terms.

[@dharmakaurkhalsa3923]

Great 👍🏾 and hopeful. ❤

[@lizgichora6472]

Thank you Fareed Zakaria for a great historical lecture. Forward!

[@ShuangningHuo]

Very insightful speech. Great thinker.

[@bertnijhof5413]

I did watch two excellent KZbin videos. One from a lecture of Bernie Sanders at Havard Kennedy School about the US Oligarchy and this one from Fareed Zakarai about the Age of Revolutions. Good that you did not forget the Dutch Republic. Together it gives a good idea, what is the issue with our democracies, the extreme economic inequality and the cultural aspects, feeling not really respected and idealizing the fifties and sixties. That cultural part is typically an issue for old people like me. I was born in the week that WW2 in Europe ended. I was lucky, I had great parents and I understand both sides of the coin, that Bernie and Fareed explained to us. Living in the Netherlands our transport was train, bus and bike. My father did buy his first 2nd hand car in 1965, when he was 43. I bought my first car in 1971 a new Fiat 127, when I was 26. I was the first one in our wider family, who bought a house in the seventies. My father had a 2 year schooling as a factory worker and he finished as head of a small office responsible for factory machine planning. I went to college, studied electrical engineering, worked with computers, specializing in Air Traffic Control and I ended as Chief Architect of Eurocontrol (European FAA). However my father did drive the most comfortable car I ever drove, a Citroen ID19 with hydraulic suspension. With a switch you could even select the distance from the car-bottom to the ground, nice for driving in the forest and very nice for changing wheels. Later in life I did drive nice European cars like Alpha Romeo and Volvo, but no one could beat that Citroen. I bought my first big SUV (Toyota Land Cruiser 2nd hand, I'm Dutch), after I emigrated with my great Dominican wife to her country after my retirement on 1-1-11. As a last remark I like to pass on the wisdom of a Dutch History Professor to the Americans. After a documentary about the Golden Age of the Dutch Republic, the reporter said, it is a kind of sad, that we lost all that power and the prof said: "Why?" "We are still one of the happiest and wealthiest countries in the world and we don't have worry anymore about, which neighbors will attack us next time!".

[@nathanngumi8467]

Great discussion, can't wait to read the book!

[@jannestrang]

I like this technocratic optimism

[@aiyengar]

Brilliant and insightful

[@kushalsarkar3630]

Excellent commentry

[@luisbuenaventura771]

Much much brilliant than Harari’s tales and fables!

[@VernonNickersonSCHOOLCOACH]

@37:26 ff - I would argue that faith has not faded-TRUST HAS BEEN AND CONTINUES TO BE VIOLATED-and not repaired, GRIEF AND LOSS are pervasive, but have not yet been grieved

[@Vincent_Upstate]

Who’s trust and by whom

[@josecornado38]

I believe FZ was referring to the assassination of Carrero Blanco by ETA. I believe he was handpicked by Franco.

[@GlobalDrifter1000]

The stock market tripling is great for those in the top 10%. People like you.

[@Vincent_Upstate]

The point is it’s a metric economists of all persuasions can agree upon, including right leaning capitalists

[@GlobalDrifter1000]

@@Vincent_Upstate Not.

[@joiedevie3901]

The only thing worse than reading Zakaria's vapid tome of sophistry is having to listen to him hawk it as if it is some magnum opus of socio-political theory. What hogwash. He made more sound arguments when he was plagiarizing.

[@pubguc6771]

What is there's rights of general scientific jont venture group and others

[@GlobalDrifter1000]

The economy is shooting up for whom? Certainly for people and your economic class.

[@Vincent_Upstate]

What a sad ad hominem

[@GlobalDrifter1000]

@@Vincent_Upstate what a sad fanboy

[@janklaas6885]

📍34:57

[@martynhaggerty2294]

Here in Australia, we take in half a million migrants a year .

[@sidi.soueina]

The unavailing of the clash of political clans. Very nice.

[@InfoSopher]

I used to like him but my sense is that he's out of touch. 10:00 I am sceptical of his notions on how he measures the economy. Which his whole premise is built upon. It's way too simplified. The number of people who have profited e.g. from high asset prices have become fewer and fewer. His description of the cities at 19:00 goes along the same lines of missing the downfall of the middle class. 27:50 Here again all he does is compare general statistics rather than looking at how people are actually doing. 52:00 "These people". Here he is creating or adopting an "other", which limits the degree of empathy for those referred by it.

[@joiedevie3901]

His last series of commentaries and WaPo articles would support your assessment of his current obtuseness. And now this book . . .

[@safwanhayeehateng4497]

😃😃

[@oppenheim2]

He doesn’t understand that the new Renaissance, centered in CA, is revolutionizing the world as we speak.

[@nalanala9725]

He is simply incorrect about many things in his speech. Embarrassing.

[@2103038335]

I don't see how a deteriorating social fabric is a sign of "progress". This guy seems extremely out of touch.

[@ashkanshekarchi7753]

On technology front, he is quite blind or oblivious of China who’s leading in scientific researches of 37 out of 44 critical technologies.

[@flxjay8985]

37 from 44? Where did you read this?

[@ashkanshekarchi7753]

@@flxjay8985 Look at table 1 nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3150205583/view

[@ashkanshekarchi7753]

@@flxjay8985 also look at this: www.pgs.com/globalassets/technical-library/tech-lib-pdfs/industry_insights2023_04_critical_technology_tracker_final.pdf

[@Vincent_Upstate]

Nice unsourced anecdote

[@paulburns4715]

top'cop go'too thier'son cop'of cop's::cop's::twelve of'them::not haveing to'be concern'd about'what enter's them meant for'them::not'the here&now's::proof'negative looq'around::purchturch'lovevein blusbers'poetdeim

[@sharonlee7111]

FJB

[@dariosilva85]

What a fool. He starts by praising the Netherlands rise because of decentralization, commerce and capitalism. But yet he is a leftist, and says stupid things like "yes, we should have distributed more".

[@Vincent_Upstate]

You must have skipped the entire 20 minutes where he talks about the etymology of right and left.

[@wade2bosh]

Not a leftist

[@dariosilva85]

@@wade2bosh Somebody that says "we should have redistributed more" is a leftist. Get your mind straight.

[@nikitatrotsky6918]

Russia will be fine trust me

[@mandyshanks2327]

He gives me the creeps

[@sidi.soueina]

You mean he is not white.