LaLaLaI'mNotListening

If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it. - Joseph Goebbels

When I was in high school, I had a teacher who thought Chairman Mao was just about the greatest man who had ever lived. He made a special point to deny that the Great Leap Forward resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of people. He also fervently denied that the Cultural Reformation had ever taken place (quite oddly given the fact that Mao never made an attempt to hide it). Years later when I attended my 10^th year reunion, I made a point of bringing several pictures that I myself had taken of some of the damage wrought on China during Mao's reign. My former teacher responded by informing me that the photos were fake and I was a victim of delusion.

Today there exists a large part of the American people who, like my old teacher, refuse to accept that what they “know to be true” just possibly is not as true as they imagine. No matter what evidence is presented to the contrary, it is as if they have stuck their fingers in their ears and are running around like Miracle Max in The Princess Bride. “LalalaI'mnotlisteningnobody'shomelalala.”

The latest example of this is the attempt to censure the President over the NSA wiretapping program. The text of the censure resolution uses the phrase “illegal domestic wiretapping of Americans.” The fact is that there has never been an examination by any court as to the legality of the program. Further, all federal law dealing with intelligence gathering (indeed in FISA itself) “domestic” refers to actions taking place entirely within the US. Specifically excluded are intercepts of communications that either originate or terminate in the US, but not both. And only people with known or suspected ties to al Qaida are involved. By the way, Clinton used CIA satellites to monitor a domestic extremist group in the months following the attack in Oklahoma City which is an explicit violation of federal law prohibiting the CIA from operating on US soil. LalalaI'mnotlistening.

Nancy Pelosi continues to garner media coverage here in California with repeated references to the “Republican culture of corruption.” Never mind that many Democrats have also received money from Abramoff and his clients. Never mind that Pelosi and her husband were under investigation for allegedly hiring illegal aliens to tend to their orchard and failing to pay proper payroll taxes. Never mind that Pelosi was under separate investigation for awarding a $600K consulting contract to the company owned by hubby. Oh, and Michael Moore owns Halliburton stock. LalalaI'mnotlistening.

Within the last week, Spike Lee repeated false accusations that the levies in New Orleans were deliberately blown up by Bush in order to kill blacks. He even defended his right to include that “fact” in a documentary he is currently producing simply because many blacks believe it to be true. Never mind that an investigation into the allegations has proved beyond all doubt that the claim is false. Despite pictures showing 200 school buses parked idly in a flooded parking lot, despite videotape evidence that both the mayor of New Orleans and Governor of Louisiana were briefed on the potential disaster and still choose not to order an evacuation, and despite the fact that it is now known that the stories of rampant crime in the Superdome were made up, apparently it is OK to perpetuate these lies because some people believe them to be true. LalalaI'mnotlistening.

Seeing a golden opportunity for more power, the race baiters have used this incident to demand more money for the “oppressed” black community. Both Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan are angling to be in charge of disbursing the billions of dollars in reconstruction funds because “the racist white government does not care about you.” Never mind that both of these men are multi-millionaires. Never mind that the average per-capita income of blacks in America exceeds that of blacks in any other country in the world. Never mind that the black middle-class in America, if it were a state unto itself, would be the 5^th largest economy in the world. Never mind that the descendants of western Caribbean slaves on average have higher incomes than descendants of African immigrants who never were slaves. This is not about helping some disadvantaged community; it is about power plain and simple. LalalaI'mnotlistening.

When the federal budget draft was released last month, the Democrats immediately rolled out the tired and thoroughly discredited claim that the Bush tax cuts are only for the benefit of his wealthy cronies. Never mind that the sage of Wall Street, Alan Greenspan, acknowledged that the tax cuts were directly responsible for ending the recession and restoring a healthy growth in the economy. Never mind that the tax cuts were directly responsible for the creation of hundreds of thousands of new jobs. Never mind that the wealthy people who are supposed to be the sole beneficiaries of the Bush tax cuts now pay a greater percentage of the federal budget than at any other time in American history. And don't you dare mention that every single time tax rates went down revenues went up, while every single time tax rates went up revenues went down. LalalaI'mnotlistening.

There have been numerous anti-Capitalist rallies both in the US and the world in recent months. At any of these, pro-Marxist platitudes are wafted almost as liberally as the cannabis smoke. The 20^th century was a complete repudiation of the Marxist idea. Stalin was forced to execute or to starve 30 million people to maintain control. (Lalalaneverhappened). Estimates of Mao's depredations run anywhere from 20-100 million. (Lalalanobody'shome). The killing fields of the Khmer Rouge are (not) filled with the bones of 2.5 million more. Nowhere has Marxism delivered the promise of the Socialist Utopia. LalalaI'mnotlistening.

Of course, this “culture of denial” is at its height when it comes to Iraq. It seems that not a day goes by when there is not a story in the press about how Bush “lied” about WMD. There is never a mention about the fact that Clinton, Gore, and Kerry all said throughout the 1990's that Saddam had WMD and intended to use them. Never mind that very credible evidence exists to indicate that there were indeed WMD, which were either destroyed or moved to Syria mere weeks before the invasion. Daily we here about how Iraq is “on the verge of civil war!!!” even though not a single source used in the story has ever set foot there. Why bother to interview a soldier when the view is so much better from our ivory towers? The press gleefully prints “newly discovered” photos from Abu Ghraib and condemns as barbaric the actions that took place there, but refuses to call it an act of terrorism when a Muslim student runs over fellow students in the name of Islam. LalalaI'mnotlistening.

It's not rocket science. When you have been telling the lies for so long that you start to believe them, it is easy to dismiss all that does not match your world view. It also makes it impossible for you to see the train barreling down the track that is about to b**ch-slap you into reality. LalalaI'mnotlistening.

The Sleeping Dragon is Stirring

Senior Beijing officials now face the dilemma of all reforming authoritarians: economic success endangers their continued control. - Gordon G. Chang

I first went to China in 1997 for several weeks and fell in love with the country. Although China had been attracting tourists for about 15 years by then, the industry was still clearly in its infancy. Westerners were still somewhat of a curiosity in the sub-urban areas, yet many people spoke rudimentary English. Everywhere I went I found friendly people who routinely would invite me to participate in their activities, whether it was Tai Chi at dawn or practicing the er hu [traditional Chinese 2-stringed instrument] at an after-school program. Many eagerly sought us out just to use the few English words they knew – most humorously in Gui Lin, where “just looking” was believed to be a response to “hello.”

These were ordinary Chinese citizens who were genuinely curious about the world outside of China. But perhaps the most remarkable thing, no matter where in China I went, Capitalism was flourishing. In every store, shop, or street-cart that was not owned by the government, the owners were quick to negotiate and try to entice you away from their competitor next door. As soon as they perceived you were interested in some item, all vendors in the immediate vicinity would grab their version of the ware and start a bidding war to get you to buy. Virtually every owner not only accepted, but in fact preferred American dollars (most often at the street value of 10-1, about 25% better than the official exchange rate).

That is the reality of China. The pace of economic reform is staggering. When rules on direct investment in the mainland were relaxed in 2003, companies flocked to rural China to build their factories. Tens if not hundreds of thousands of jobs were created (and contrary to the liberal myth, were not created at the expense of American jobs) in the “Special Economic Zone” around Hong Kong and Shanghai. Free trade is the rule, not the exception and the Central Committee has no interest in stopping it.

In the mid-1980s as the Soviet Union started to fall apart, Mikhail Gorbachev tried something quite radical for a totalitarian regime. He gave his people some freedoms. The populace was so disenchanted with the system that he sought to distract them from the problems by granting what he thought were relatively minor concessions. What harm could come from that? As the Soviet Union imploded around him, Gorbachev learned a valuable lesson – once the people taste a little freedom, they want more.

Perhaps intentionally or perhaps by calculation, the Chinese Central Committee has so far avoided the same fate by relaxing its control of the economy but not of the social and political lives of the citizens. However, economic freedom is no less desired than political freedom, and even now there are a few tiny fractures starting to grow unnoticed.

As more and more Chinese are exposed to Westerners through the intermediary of the factories, as more are able to access uncensored information through the use of Internet annonymizing services such as TOR, and as more take advantage of the free market system, China is slowly but steadily reforming. The China of today is very different from my first visit almost 10 years ago, and the future is almost unimaginable.

In 2008, when the world's attention is focused on this beautiful country for the Olympics, the tide of democracy is likely to be unstoppable. Countless infrastructure and technology projects need to be completed, and the infusion of capital will drive further economic reforms as the need to invest it starts to increase. Every passing day sees more of the old-guard Communists dieing and increased decentralization.

Even if they wanted to do so, the Central Committee could do nothing to stop the locals from a growing sense of what it means to be part of an ownership society. As Gorbachev learned, seemingly innocuous concessions can have drastic consequences to the one-party system. Regardless of what they might be taught in school, the Chinese seem to have almost a genetic memory of the relationship with America in the 1800s, and that more than free trade, is what scares the Central Committee. Democracy can come to China within the decade if Congress adopts a policy of encouragement. It's best not to provoke a sleeping dragon.

Education And Rational Discourse

Information is the currency of a democracy. - Thomas Jefferson

Take any societal ill you choose, unleash the power of the human mind through education and rational discourse, and more often than not, a proper solution will be found. Rarely, if ever, will that solution include the creation of or increase in government regulation. History has proved that lesson time and time again.

Nowhere is this disconnect between what history teaches and what reality entails greater than in the ideological battle that is part of the very real Global War on Terror. Perhaps what the apologists for terrorists, most notably Hollywood and their sycophants on the left, have forgotten is that their opinions were forged in the fires of western education. Each one of us is free to research, debate, and accept or reject opinions of others precisely because we live in a free society.

As the cartoon jihad continues, we find the apologists defending the response on the basis that the cartoons offended the Muslims. To the liberal mindset, the reaction was our fault for not respecting their feelings. That the response was disproportionate and extremely violent is immaterial to this line of thinking. The fact that the demonstrations were so widespread proves, to the apologists anyway, that respecting feelings is the noblest principle.

This mentality blinds us to some true facts about the world of radical Islam. One of those facts is that only certain people are allowed to get an education, and it is the leaders (i.e., government) who gets to decide upon whom to bestow this right. Another simple fact is that under radical Islam all women are absolutely forbidden to receive an education. Thus, it is clear that only a very small part of the population would have the ability and the opportunity to be exposed to opposing viewpoints. It goes further, however, in that the very educational system itself is governed by the Koran. It should be obvious from this that the level of the response was artificially increased by the manipulation of an uneducated populace.

No one has ever contended that every Muslim believes in the radical interpretations of the jihadiis. Yet even within moderate communities there have been efforts to move from pseudo-democracy to true sharia law. Thus, even in so-called “progressive” places like India, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, women have virtually no rights. They cannot go to school. They cannot go outside without a male escort. They cannot choose their own friends. They cannot vote. If I am not mistaken, the only places where Muslim women have even basic freedoms are Israel(!), India, and now Afghanistan and Iraq. With little access to non-government controlled information, even those who are lucky enough to attend school never hear opposing viewpoints.

We know from our own experiences in the west that it is very easy to control a population when only some of them are educated. Consider this example - for over a thousand years, humans believed that the Earth was the center of the universe. With no way to test this for themselves and no alternatives, people were easily led into this erroneous belief. Due to education, scientific inquiry, and the free exchange of ideas, it became increasingly clear that this was not the case. In order to preserve the world view, the Catholic Church used its power to force people to accept this wrong idea because they felt the alternative was in opposition to the religion. Those who dared to defy the Church teachings were excommunicated or executed. Of important note in this is that it was the free-thinkers and scientists who suffered these fates, not the uneducated masses. Is it any wonder then that the response to the cartoons was so easily manipulated by the leaders of radical Islam?

The parallels to what is happing in the world today are staggering. Any Muslim who dares speak out in favor of free speech is immediately lambasted by the radical Islamic world. One Muslim editor of a newspaper in France was fired for having dared to publish the cartoons. Many other Muslims have been threatened with physical harm for expressing an opinion considered by the radicals to be contrary to their religion.

The strictest interpretation of the Koran would dictate that no image of anything is permissible, yet the Arab press daily is full of anti-American and anti-Semitic cartoons that are much more derogatory than the images of Mohamed. The Muslim masses do not question this apparent contradiction because this is the only world view they know, and to question is to face possible death. This is not proof that respecting feelings is the most important goal of society – it is proof that the uneducated masses are slaves to their radical leaders.

Arthur Schopenhauer once said, “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.” We are in phase two now. The theocracies in the Middle East first tried to keep their people from learning about western ideas. They did this by controlling all sources of information and by blaming western society for every problem in the lives of their citizens. The light of Democracy has a way of quickly spreading. Recognizing that a small candle is now burning in the very heart of the Muslim world, the theocrats were forced to propagandize the GWOT as a war on Islam itself. The predictable result was violence.

It's not rocket science. Radical Islam can only exist as long as some countries can keep their citizens under control with a Middle Ages mindset. Denying them basic human rights and fomenting anger against the West are the tools of choice. Only through free education can the battle for the hearts and minds be won. And only through democracy can the educational system be reformed.