While this was an historic time to visit Eastern Europe, I would have had much to say had the region remained at peace. To repeat, my son and I traveled through Poland (Krakow, Wroclaw, Warsaw), Hungary (Budapest), Slovakia (Bratislava), and Czechia (Brno and Prague). It was my first time in each of these countries. I mostly spoke about
As David Friedman has described well in "Legal Systems Very Different from Ours", collective guilt is a thing in many societies. It recurs because if many will be punished for the crimes of one, the many will police each other to prevent crimes.
It is, of course, completely incompatible with any version of liberalism.
Hate to be that guy, but those are Central European countries. Eastern Europe is basically Russia, plus the Ukraine, Belarus, maybe Moldova etc. The countries you visited are quite distinct from Eastern Europe, both geographically and culturally.
Wow, that Rothbard's article was interesting. He seemed quite determined to prove that Czechoslovakia was a tyranny.
And when he noticed that somehow, unlike Yugoslavia, the dissolution of Czechoslovakia did *not* end in bloodshed... he just dismissed this detail as Czechs being "manganimous". As if the hypothesis that a tyrannical nation can become manganimous overnight is more likely than the possibility that the situation in Czechoslovakia was actually different from the situation in Yugoslavia.
If Czechoslovakia wouldn't exist in 1918, then Slovakia most likely wouldn't exist today; most of its current territory would be a part of Hungary, and the rest a part of Poland. Regardless of what was best for Slovaks in 1993, in 1918 Czechoslovakia was the only way for them to survive as a nation.
We must have been in different parts of Budapest. I most wandered around on the hilly Pest side, and the architecture there was exquisite, and pretty much just as good as Prague... except for the giant metronome, of course.
As David Friedman has described well in "Legal Systems Very Different from Ours", collective guilt is a thing in many societies. It recurs because if many will be punished for the crimes of one, the many will police each other to prevent crimes.
It is, of course, completely incompatible with any version of liberalism.
Hate to be that guy, but those are Central European countries. Eastern Europe is basically Russia, plus the Ukraine, Belarus, maybe Moldova etc. The countries you visited are quite distinct from Eastern Europe, both geographically and culturally.
Such a great idea, doing a road trip with your son. He looks happy to be with his dad. I hope it's a memory you both treasure
Wow, that Rothbard's article was interesting. He seemed quite determined to prove that Czechoslovakia was a tyranny.
And when he noticed that somehow, unlike Yugoslavia, the dissolution of Czechoslovakia did *not* end in bloodshed... he just dismissed this detail as Czechs being "manganimous". As if the hypothesis that a tyrannical nation can become manganimous overnight is more likely than the possibility that the situation in Czechoslovakia was actually different from the situation in Yugoslavia.
If Czechoslovakia wouldn't exist in 1918, then Slovakia most likely wouldn't exist today; most of its current territory would be a part of Hungary, and the rest a part of Poland. Regardless of what was best for Slovaks in 1993, in 1918 Czechoslovakia was the only way for them to survive as a nation.
There hasn't been another war between Germans & Slavs since the former were ethnically cleansed from eastern europe, so it seems to have worked out.
We must have been in different parts of Budapest. I most wandered around on the hilly Pest side, and the architecture there was exquisite, and pretty much just as good as Prague... except for the giant metronome, of course.
Great Post!