It would be great if Yascha could bring on someone from the conservative side to represent the counter-argument - namely that human nature is essentially fallen and fixed. Certainly some of Yascha's friends from the Dispatch (either Jonah Goldberg or David French) would be more than capable of the task.

As an adherent of the conservative position myself, I find it less pessimistic than Bregman does, essentially: 1. To the extent that we find peace and good in the world, we should think of it as a precious inheritance to be protected for future generations. 2. There is no "arc of history" that guarantees good outcomes - these are the result of individual agency. 3. State of nature reasoning is of limited use for determining the structure of a just society on its own; a more empirical approach is required. Efforts to radically change to society to fit a pre-conceived notion of the good should be viewed skeptically, especially if untried.

On that last point, I worry that Bregman is not too many steps removed (philosophically) from the kind of consequentialist leftism that brought us some of the worst crimes of the 20th century. His ending remarks on "mobilization" in particular were concerning.