John Hulsman, Straight Shooter

A friend sent me a link to a C-SPAN video featuring John Hulsman. I had never heard of him. Here's his bio as it appears at C-SPAN.

John Hulsman is a senior research fellow at the Hague Centre For Strategic Studies, and president and co-founder or John C. Hulsman Enterprises, an international relations consulting firm. He advises both public and private groups on what he calls the decline of the West, and the rise of the Indian Ocean Rim and China. His books include Ethical Realism, the Godfather Doctrine, and a biography of Lawrence of Arabia entitled, To Begin The World Over Again.

I learned three things about Hulsman as I watched the video. First, he is a fiscal conservative in the sense that Dwight Eisenhower was a fiscal conservative. This political species is on the verge of extinction today. No doubt the John Boehners or Rush Limbaughs of this world would label Hulsman a socialist who believes in big government or some such nonsense. That's how far gone these Republican wackos are. Hulsman has a political philosophy, but is not political in the contemporary sense—politics makes you stupid. Thus, Hulsman is a throwback to the world of the 1950s and 1960s.

Second, I learned that Hulsman is a former Washington insider who fled that world to do international consulting. He describes his consulting business at the beginning of the video.

Third, and most importantly, I learned that Hulsman is a straight shooter. Listening to him talk about the corrupt elites in the Imperial Capital is like a breath of fresh air.

The discussion gets very interesting when Hulsman says—

January 13th there was an event at Cato... Another thing I learned in Washington is that it is almost impossible to lose your job. It's not the real world. I worked hard at it, but ...

Starts at the 11:15 mark

Here's another quote to pique your interest—

coupla reasons... one, and you know this about Washington, it's hard to explain to viewers, but it's a bit like high school. You want to be seen with the cool kids...

Starts at the 38:41 mark

If more people understood this, we'd all be in better shape. Disclaimer: I don't agree with all of Hulsman's views. For example, he went to high school during the Reagan years, and doesn't yet grasp that the Empire's decline got underway when he was in the 10^th grade. Being a foreign policy wonk who is now living in Europe, perhaps Hulsman isn't familiar with the economic data (e.g. in wealth & income inequality) that convincingly demonstrates our decline.

Start the video, and then use your mouse to move the progress slider forward to very shortly after the 11:00 minute mark. Simply release it if you want to start watching at the "impossible to lose your job" mark. I recommend you watch the whole thing if you've got an hour to spare.

Comments

[sharonsj]

What I found most interesting was the confirmation that our elected reps have no idea what is going on outside of D.C. when it comes to the average person. When posters claim that Dems in particular are clueless, and that Repubs are ruthless idealogues, we are right on the money (pun intended).