Carol Quigley, The New World Order and the new word: “Adventitious”

I spent most of yesterday sidetracked on Carroll Quigley. All I wanted was to get a small reference about Milner’s Kindergarten because I realized that I had come up with an idea for changing the world that suspiciously resembled it. In one of the more rational articles, “From Mesopotamia through Carroll Quigley to Bill Clinton: World Historical Systems, the Civilizationist, and the President” (David Wilkinson, Journal of World-Systems Research, 1[1]: 1995), I found several word I actually had to look up. Adventitious appeared in the following:

A theoretical defense of free trade could certainly have been couched in Quigleyan terms (as promoting increased per capita production); so could a polemic (against vested interests preferring their own sectoral prosperity to the general interest). Clinton avoided such discourses, preferring a populist rhetoric of “jobs” and an inspirational rhetoric of fearlessness. But these were adventitious, and do not seem to reflect the reasoning process which led him to favor NAFTA in principle, and free trade in principle. [emphasis added]

Image Credit: Manhattan Bridge under construction-1909. Library of Congress collection.

About the Author

Forrest Christian

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E. Forrest Christian is a consultant, coach, author, trainer and speaker at The Manasclerk Company who helps individuals and companies find insight and solutions to what seem like insolvable problems. Cited for his "unique ability and insight" by his clients, Forrest has worked with people from almost every background, from artists to programmers to executives to global consultants, both as individuals and as leaders of organizations at least as diverse. [contact]