This week we had the privilege of a visit from John Ralston Saul. Saul is one of Canada’s leading intellectuals. He’s written on an impressive range of topics, from history and economics, to philosophy and social theory. He also writes novels, thoguh I have no idea where the finds the time.
Saul is a contrarian, but an eloquent one. His most controversial book may be his latest one - The Collapse of Globalism. He was here in Shanghai to talk about it (amongst other things) at Literary festival earlier this week. Hank Horkoff invited him to the studio for a chat and he was kind enough to agree.
I was interested in his views on China. The conversation spun off into lots of interesting directions.
I should say, of course, that this was an interview, rather than a debate. (I’m not foolish enough to try debating this fellow) so I didn’t challenge him. If you want to know, I don’t actually agree with him on very much (just so you know). One thing we do share, however, is a disdain for Tom Friedman. (See this classic review of Friedman’s The World is Flat - hilarious.)
Ken Carroll
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[...] John Ralston Saul is one of Canada’s leading public intellectuals. He believes the process of globalization has all but fizzled out. This, I think, was reason enough to invite him to the ChinesePod studio for a chat the other day. The result is posted over at Praxis. [...]
I really enjoyed this interview/conversation and found the threads quite useful for thinking about some of the BIG IDEAS stuff where there are no definitive answers, eg. rise of populism and the connection to fear; mercantilism vs inclusion and balance; the speed of the fleet = the speed of the slowest ship (these are good things to remember!); and the lesson from Agincourt (who knew?)
cheers from Vancouver
where the rain has finally stopped
Wow … good stuff. Nice to hear from someone who does not swallow this globalism pabulum as though it were the only source of food on the planet. A refreshing antithesis to the Saturday show. I’m not sure where the worrisome trends in the world powers are leading (china/us militarism, china trade deals with africa and venesuala, etc), but I am very skeptical of Freidman and others who want to tie it up in a nice pretty theory that says everything would work just fine if people would stop dickering with free trade.
Ken, thanks for doing the interview. Can you tell us how your views differ from Mr Saul? I know a little bit of history, but most of the connections drawn between various events of the past and today, were novel for me. You’ve probably read his book and had some time to ponder these ideas.