OK, Gord.
One of the prominent themes of 1984 is that the people are unable to
recognize reality. So I always get testy when people compare our
global civilization with the tyranny of 1984, since it seems to me a
symptom of what the book was warning about. If we can't tell whether
we are living in tyranny or not we've already lost.
So I get worried when people think we are tyrannized, since it shows
that they are unable to distinguish between freedom and slavery. And
we know where that leads...
Now, about Korea. Of course these are not really cultural differences.
Here we have side by side two Korean governments. One is a
totalitarian dictatorship straight out of Orwell. The other is a
messy, imperfect but open member of global society. Both from the same
people, the same cultural roots.
The point I'm trying to make is that the rule of law/constitutional
government, capitalism/decentralized economics, and
democracy/government accountability are NOT just cultural artifacts
that we can pick and choose from like dress or cuisine or whether we
watch baseball or football. These are the essentials of freedom. If
you can think of a better way to organize ourselves, I'd like to hear
it. The reason that I'm wedded to these principles is that every free
country has them, and every unfree country lacks them. These are
empirical rules, not theoretical rules. It may seem as if there are
better ways to do things, and I'm sure there are. But what are those
ways? And how can we determine this without throwing out what we know
works in favor of something else?
After living through the 20th century, I would hope that we can finally
put the idea of Utopia behind us. The idea that we can design a
perfect society, if only people will follow the correct rules. So I
see utopian thinking actively dangerous and misguided. All these grand
plans for humanity have been failed spectacularly, and we're left with
what we have. And what we have right now is pretty damn good, compared
to what 99% of human history has been like.
=====
Darryl
Think Galactically -- Act Terrestrially
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