US Retardation of Free Markets (was Airport insanity)

[John Kelsey]

>From: "R.A. Hettinga" <rah at shipwright.com>
>Sent: Oct 27, 2004 9:37 AM
>To: cypherpunks at al-qaeda.net
>Subject: Re: US Retardation of Free Markets (was Airport insanity)

...

>This is actually the running fantasy in Marxism since the 1950's, when it
>turned out that that, instead of the "workers" eating the "bourgeoisie" by
>the firelight or some Glorious Revolution or another, would instead be come
>"bourgeoisie" themselves.

I think this bit gets at the heart of why the Islamic fundamentalists are hard to deal with.  For most people I know, some notion of peace and prosperity is the thing we want from our governments.  Different people differ on how to do that (like, whether the government should employ most of the doctors or the teachers),  but that's the kind of goal that makes sense.  And that's largely what the West has to offer.  Not membership in a master race, or a date with destiny, or as vision of yourself as part of a great, centuries-old Jihad, but safe streets, working sewers, functioning markets, and a rising tide that promises to life all boats eventually, so that one day, your poor people, like ours, will be overweight from spending too much time sitting in front of the TV in an air conditioned room.  

The Islamic fundamentalists can't offer that.  A country run by these guys is just not going to be in the forefront of technology, its economy will grow slowly, and it's likely to always be close to going to war with some infidels around it.  No peace, not much prosperity, but a lot of capital-P Purpose.  A place in history, a part of the Jihad.  In this sense, it's a lot like Marxism was, back when it had serious adherents; it's a mass movement, like Eric Hoffer talks about.  What Hayek called the liberal order (e.g., working minimal government, liberal democracy, rule of law) can't offer any of that.   It offers safe streets and working sewers and peace and prosperity, but you have to come up with your own purpose.  

The irony is that the neocons seemed to be trying to build up a kind of mass movement mentality in the US, which clearly has caught George Bush and his top advisors--this wonderful notion that we're going to go out and civilize these heathens, bring them democracy and free markets, and then they'll stop wanting to be part of crazy mass movements that tell them to strap dynamite to themselves and blow up bus stops full of people.   This seems doomed to fail.  A lot of people in the Middle East clearly want what we're selling, but it doesn't take many suicide bombers to make that sort of thing break down.  

--John