Thoughts on: ”The Origin of Political Order” by Francis Fukuyama

I feel defeated. This book is way beyond my level of understanding of Political Theory and it was too much for me to take in.

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The book is trying to discover the origins of political institutions, that we take for granted today, and that is not a small task. Starting in prehistoric times and ends with the French Revolution. To make task even more monumental, and the subject even broader, it’s not just focused on one area of the world but tries to cover all state building projects across the globe. India, China, the Middle East, Russia, Africa and the list goes on.

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A reviewer on Goodreads called it; “the best fan-fiction for “Civilization V” ever written” , which cracked me up.

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For me it was too broad. Too dense. It’s truly epic, and probably really good if you have the stamina and intense passion for political institutions.

If I can retain at least a fraction of the information in this book I will at least stand a chance the next time I decide to dwell into this genre.

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My takeaway from reading this book is that the state of the world, and how we got here, is nuanced and complex as fuck. We better come to terms with that sooner rather than later. We live in an era where we are bombarded with oversimplified messaging everywhere, whether it is used to win our votes in some election or to get clicks on websites. To quote Einstein; “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler”.

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“The Origins of Political Order” by Francis Fukuyama

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3/5

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