Mr. Bean, you honor me with your comment. I can’t even imagine how I brought forth such a response, but in my opinion what you have written here ought to stand alone.

I have not read the book you cite and in my health it would be foolishness to start unless there comes a time I know I can finish. But all of the threads in your conversation are elements I’ve been frustrated trying to weave together.

I don’t think the Cold War dichotomy even explained the Cold War.

I agree with what you say about testosterone poisoning so strongly that before my health crashed I had in mind a novel about the unintended consequences of China’s One Child policy.

For what it’s worth, the line of inquiry that interested me when I was professoring was the decline of the nation-state as the dominant form of social organization and the rise of the transnational corporation.

The term “globalization” arises in the context of capital ignoring borders. Labor has always done the same, and I’m not sure where Mr. Trump got his ideas about the beautiful, perfect wall. Did he not read the newspapers when the Eastern European borders could not be sealed by shoot-to-kill orders?

On my first visit to the EU, I found crossing those newly invisible borders an emotional experience. So many died in the European forever wars and now you can’t find anybody to stamp your passport. The demise of border formalities was a good thing, so I just shake my head at the political tendency arising on both sides of those borders demanding they be closed.

I’m blathering because your comment set me off in so many different directions. That’s more a compliment to you than an excuse for me.