I'm still a fan of the war in Iraq, because it's the only way of getting terror to be just a nuisance instead of a hindrance to everyday life. I think, though, that the efforts toward 'electionizing' the country are a mistake, other than perhaps as an attempt to change perceptions that could ultimately evolve into a changed reality.
A premise that many people share is that the fundamental advantage of democracy is that it provides access to the wisdom of crowds on important issues. Unfortunately, anyone who follows the stock market knows that crowds aren't quite as sagacious as might otherwise be hoped. (We could probably make the same point about Red Sox fans, but the timing seems off. Cubs fans? Hockey fans?)
The way I see it, the great civilizing force in the West is free enterprise, which provides an outlet for the aggressive drives that are an intrinsic component of humanity. The fact that the world benefits from the Invisible Hand (because, for example, when otherwise redundant software engineers are freed up to create greater projects for humanity after their relatively dull jobs are shipped off to Bangalore, society obtains the products of these greater projects, besides cheaper software) is not just convenient from a materialistic point of view, it provides people with stuff to do and channels for self-expression that make detonator belts seem quite unattractive.
{That last sentence, by the way, would only register as half of a clause in The Subjection of Women.}
Until there's a beneficial outlet for the frustrated aggression that's been simmering for 35 years, elections will go badly. Not necessarily in January 2005, because there are apparently still all kinds of optimism floating around the Greater Babylonian Metropolis. But in January 2009, if the material world's benefits and costs (which I'm suggesting are themselves actually benefits) remain out of reach, and living sort of sucks anyway, then dying dangerously and destructively becomes increasingly attractive. If we're at that point (and I don't actually even think we're there in Palestine yet, never mind Iraq) and there are elections, then all we've done is legitimize the next fanatic, rather than making things safer.
I think elections are part of that system - competing for votes is as benign a channel as competing for the affections of Trekkie babes at the latest convention - but most people aren't going to be politicians, and other avenues need to be opened as well.
Just stuff to think about. And I was having such a good day, too.
- Moishe Potemkin
Posted by MoisheP at December 25, 2004 11:54 PM