Re: spreading democracy (was: Bush budget has 0 dollars for Afghanistan)

From: Michael M. Butler (mmb@spies.com)
Date: Tue Feb 18 2003 - 14:32:50 MST

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    Ramez Naam wrote:
    > We should be paying dictators to allow a
    > free press in their country.

    Friend mez, that's like paying a gila monster to not have toxic saliva.

       We should be building schools and
    > training teachers. We should be paying the poor of impoverished
    > countries to build infrastructure in those places, just as we did in
    > the US during the great depression.

    And that's labeled cultural imperialism, neocolonialism and oppression.

    > Those are the steps that will reduce global poverty, hopelessness, and
    > fanaticism.

    As the old gentleman farmer said in the joke, "Y' can't get theyah from heyah".

    I hear (I give it about 30% odds) that there are Masai kids watching MTV
    videos in grass shacks in Africa with satellite dishes. See my second
    comment.

    I share your opinion about the several sources of grievance. But the future's
    not being evenly distributed is even trickier than the solutions you propose
    can solve.

    E.g., the people most motivated to do good works in downtrodden places tend
    to be religieuses or other do-gooders with side effects. Just giving aid
    money or goods out has predictable consequences, too (theft by autocrats,
    warlords, etc.). And _everyone_ wants a quick fix for exactly the subset of
    "the" problem, pretty much everywhere, that _they_ care about--that's a
    tautology. Do this, but leave that alone or I'll hate you.

    And on top of that, the cultural effects of the deluge of media tend to run
    wild overall. I'm not in a position of advocating censorship, but the blender
    gets some realy strange bits whizzing around in it.

    Trickle-down plus spin-around are not doing it, I agree. Maybe I'm more
    bitter than I admit to myself.

    MMB



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