More Chickens Coming Home

As anyone who has not been in a persistent vegetative state knows, Senator Obama's one time pastor, Reverend Wright, stated infamously that the attacks of 9/11 were simply America's foreign policy chickens coming home to rest. On that the Reverend was more wrong than right.

Only an agenda driven mind would draw a straight line connecting the dots of US actions during World War II, the Cold War and the Persian Gulf War of 1991 with the WTC and Pentagon jihadists. (OOPS! Sorry! Bad History Geek! That term can't be used anymore according to sensitivity folks at the National Counterterrorism Center, Homeland Security and State Department)

Still the concept of home roosting chickens is useful. Bad policy will ultimately lead to bad results. Or, at best, poorly thought through policy will come back to bite us in the patootie. The law of unintended consequences guarantees that.

Consider globalization of markets.

Consider democratization.

Over the past quarter century or so, under administrations of both parties the US has huffed, puffed and proclaimed that the combination of economic globalization and national democratization would bring a plethora of peace, love and flower power to the world. We have used all the instruments of national power, both hard and soft, to bring the blessings of stock markets, shopping malls and ballot boxes to the benighted of the Earth.

We have crowed on an annual basis that democracy was on the march everywhere from Albania to Zimbabwe. With the exception of a handful of truly icky-poo places like North Korea, Cuba and Syria, the voices of the people were being heard.

Yeah. Right.

During the same period we have heard so many loudly sung hymns of praise to free enterprise and open markets that it seemed the heavens were opening for the Second Coming of Adam Smith. From Washington and Wall Street the tune never changed--A Mighty Fortress Is the Market.

Yeah. Right.

It's not that the Geekmo is opposed to either democracy or free enterprise. They're both OK. In their place and under adult supervision.

So, why the rant, Geek?

Simple. The chickens are coming home to roost.

Consider three terms. Ethnonationalism. Economically dominant minorities. Politically dominant majorities.

Say what?

These concepts do not come easily to the American mind in the late 20th or early 21st Centuries. They are, quite literally, foreign to us. They are not foreign, however, to folks in the Mideast or Africa. Neither are they far from the minds of people in Indonesia, the Philippines, Venezuela, Ecuador, or Bolivia.

These terms have real world power. They were behind the elections of Vladimir Putin, Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales. They haunt the narrow streets of Sadir City. They lurk in the shadows of Pakistan's frontier areas.

They even coexist with the Quran at camps from Algeria to the Philippines. They nestle, suitably coded, cheek to cheek with tips on how to grow anthrax or make an IED on websites.

Ethnic identity is a wonderfully slippery beast. A shape shifter of great fluidity. At once it is seemingly objective--the color of skin, the native language, the religious beliefs and perfectly subjective--how do I define myself? In it nature and artifact combine seamlessly.

Ethnic identity is a perfect tool for the manipulation of people.

The other two terms are self-evident in their meaning. In some countries such as the Philippines or Indonesia, a small, very small, minority of people belonging to an ethnically definable group dominate the economy, own most of the wealth, control most of the means of finance, production and distribution. At the regional level the same dynamic might be seen: think Israel in relation to the rest of the Mideast.

On the global level the West or even the US alone can be defined as the economically dominant minority. (Get a grip on that one and tuck it away for future reference. The Geek will be getting back to it, if not today then in the not-too-distant future.)

Politically dominant majority needs no elaboration. It need only be highlighted that the notion of majority rulership only matters in a democracy. The democracy doesn't have to be real. Appearance is enough. The motions of elections complete with speeches, votes being cast and counted is sufficient. (All the more so if Jimmy Carter is standing by to smile benignly on the charade.)

For twenty years the Geek has scratched his head wondering why the US pursued the goals of globalization AND democratization.

He had no trouble with the first. Globalization has been (at least until quite recently) good for the US. Perhaps second only to the PRC the US has benefited from the global movement of goods and capital. The influx of both goodies and money provided Americans with much to buy and the borrowed money with which to by it.

The second, democratization, really boggled the Geek. At first he hoped that seemingly rational political leaders were simply shoveling feel good platitudes to the multitude. You know, the good old domestic consumption for political gain gambit.

Wasn't so. We (or at least a passel of politicos, pundits and professors) were serious as a heart attack.

The Geek hears the rustle of wings in the distance. Chickens. One of them is named Bolivia.