There are those out there, though, who like totalitarianism. They respect its efficiency, they like its power to impose their will over the rest of us. NYT columnist Thomas Friedman is one such person.
So what has the current winner done that the most recent winner hasn't? He actually stood up for something, that's what.Last year Thomas Friedman was writing that America needed to be more like China and adopt one-party democracy.
Two weeks ago he told us that America needs to be more like China and adopt green technologies.
So now can we expect a Thomas Friedman column telling America to adopt the policy of harrassing the families of Nobel Prize winning dissidents? I guess not, we don’t have Nobel Prize winning dissidents here; political opposition is legal here. Still do you think that we might see a Friedman column soon condemning China? Or is China’s enlightened leadership above criticism in Tom’s benighted opinion?
Hard to argue that totalitarian regimes are more efficient? It's a snap.
ReplyDeleteTotalitarian regimes make stupid decisions continuously which is why they, uniformly, fail. It's why socialism is an economic failure. The suppression of all that democratic "inefficiency" means decisions are made by people who fancy themselves intellectually impressive.
Some of them actually are intellectually impressive but without the curbing effect of democracy on their conceits whatever credible claim to intellectual weight leads them to assume superiority in all matters.