# That came first? The Fukuyama or the youtube?



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

One of the great classic youtube videos:






An excerpt from Fukuyama's recent book, _The Origins of Political Order_, p. 13 in the paperback:



> Indeed, the kinds of minimal or no-government societies envisioned by dreamers of the Left and Right are not fantasies; they actually exist in the contemporary developing world. Many parts of sub-Saharan Africa are *a libertarian's paradise*. The region as a whole is a low-tax utopia, with governments often unable to collect more than about 10 percent of GDP in taxes, compared to more than 30 percent in the United States and 50 percent in parts of Europe. Rather than unleashing entrepreneurship, this low rate of taxation means that basic public services like health, education, and pothole filling are starved of funding. The physical infrastructure on which a modern economy rests, like roads, court systems, and police, are missing. *In Somalia, where a strong central government has not existed since the late 1980s, ordinary individuals may own not just assault rifles but also rocket-propelled grenades, antiaircraft missiles, and tanks. People are free to protect their own families, and indeed are forced to do so*.


The youtube video is from 2009; Fukuyama's book is from 2011.

Fukuyama does not cite the video. It is extremely possible that Fukuyama thought of this entirely by himself, and it is also possible that the makers of the video and Fukuyama move in similar circles where they encountered/created these ideas (it may even be that the makers of the video are his students or something), but I am most intrigued by the possibility that he was simply professionally embarrassed to cite youtube.

Just thought that was fun.

If any of you Fukuyamas out there want to cite my posts in your academic research, the way to do so is:

Objective T. Science, _Pithy Snippets of My Extreme Insight, Startling Originality, and Unrivaled Humility_ (internet: talkclassical.com, [year of post]).

or:

Science, Objective T. _Pithy Snippets of My Extreme Insight, Startling Originality, and Unrivaled Humility_ (internet: talkclassical.com, [year of post]).

If you need to annotate the bibliography, the standard explanation goes: "Much more than the title indicates, this is an invaluable guide to all important questions and problems connected with religion, politics, and science."


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