I am off to Tel Aviv today. My loyal readers may notice a few less entries, as I try to blog from Internet cafes.
I get about 1,000 readers per week, of which 700 appear to be regulars. These seem like large numbers to me. I feel some sense of responsibility to talk about what I do and why.
I’m going to Israel because I am a fanatic about institutions. Israel is where I think new institutions are evolving.
Israel is the place because it is new. The first really new society that is fully in the Enlightenment. The population is very diverse, enthusiastically democratic, mostly immigrants, very well educated, technologically competent and deeply immersed in commerce. These are the ingredients of a modern society that can experiment with all institutions ranging from democracy to the arts.
This is the right time. It seems to me that Israelis have been through the first period of peace, the mid-1990s when they thought that a Palestinian peace treaty was just around the corner. The Israelis are now in the second period of peace where they realize the Palestinians are barbarians, never to be part of Israel and it is time to continue building a wonderful society without giving them any more thought.
I’ll meet as many people as I can and report back what I find.