Connectivity and Tyranny
The conventional wisdom handed down to us by our betters in Washington and New York (Thomas Friedman, Thomas PM Barnett, the Atlantic Monthly pundits, et al) states that the internet and "connectivity" will do for those living in tyranny what typically required bullets, blood and guts. We hear empty-headed slogans like "bomb them with iPods" and "the will be no more room for nationalism as there is no room for smallpox" thanks to the transformative power of the internet to affect democratic change.
In reality, of course, these slogans themselves are propaganda statements given to us by men who lack the stomach to deal with the hard realities and who feel guilty about their relative wealth and (fast disappearing) freedom in the West. In 20 years, we will have wondered how we even believed what these people were saying in the first place.
I've noticed that Russians like Panarin and Morozov are amongst the few nowadays who are capable of pointing out naked emperors to those of us living in the West. This probably has much to do with the fact that they've already lived what we are about to experience.
Here, Evgeny Morozov demonstrates how rogue nation-states and regimes can just as easily use new media to control and propagandize as revolutionaries can use it to overturn them.
I am struck by how these global utopianists are willing to overlook so much of human history to make the claims they are making. The same people existed after World War I as well. We (in the West) have had relative peace since World War II. But do "connectivity" and "globalism" mean that man's warlike nature has been at last subdued to the point where huge wars are no longer possible? I'm pretty skeptical.
PRCalDude
Here's an example of what I'm talking about.
Africa is experiencing huge change. Only about 100m in 1850, Africa is now 1B and will reach 2B by 2050 (or two Africans for every European). And yet the demographic reductions are real too: in 1990 the total fertility rate is over six. By 2030 it should be three. By 2050, when humanity tops off as a species, it'll be 2.5. So Africa is not all that different when growth really comes. But the key is to take advantage of that demographic divided (big middle, relatively small cohorts of kids and elderly) when it comes, because it does not last long. Indeed, China's will disappear more quickly than it arrived. Why Malthus can still be right in Africa: birth rates are still too high (so more contraception please); agriculture vastly underperforms (all those small plots); and then there's climate change a' coming. The second big problem is the lack of adults relative to kids. Estimates are that there are 50m orphans in Africa, and that the number will rise to 100m over time. Africa has the highest rate of child disablement in the world--up to 20%. This is why China will fade as the source of transnational adoptions and why the next wave will be all about Africa. Some day soon enough our family will join the burgeoning numbers of American families that include children from both China and Africa. The third big problem is the continuing burden of disease (Sachs' focus). Then there's the lack of government institutions, which just tells me that we--and China--will be in the nation-building business in Africa for decades. So what makes Malthus finally wrong in Africa like he's been proven wrong everywhere else by now? Globalization comes to town.
Everyone relax! Globalization is coming to town to fix the Malthusian trap created by the Africans, their low productivity, their high birth rates, their high HIV and malaria rates, and their artificial population boom caused by Western aid to the tune of billions of dollars, tons of medicine, and an army of guilty SWPLs perpetually obsessed with fixing it. I guess we'll stop hearing stories like this - globalization is coming!
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Reader Comments (2)
Manipulation is always the same... just different faces painted on the masks of guilt.
Whether it be a spouse, an church, or a government agency, or even a devious political movement.
... change the story, change the history, and one can change the focus of who is painted guilty... and thereby manipulate that guilt.