Quick Roundup 44

A Deal Too Late?

Last year, I blogged about an agreement between Israel and the United States whereby the former would stop selling American-made weaponry and technology to China. Sounds like we might have been a little late.

China has developed its own version of the Patriot anti-missile system, according to a Chinese-owned Hong Kong newspaper.

The ground-to-air guided missile system is part of China's air shield that is similar to U.S. Patriot missiles, the March 29 Wen Wei Po reported.

China covertly obtained Patriot anti-missile system technology from Israel during the 1990s, according to U.S. officials.

Strong as Steele

Democrats in Maryland are chagrined that their internal polling data show a black Republican, Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele, in a strong position to defeat his Democrat opponent in that state's U.S. Senate race this year.

An internal document prepared by a top Democratic strategist warns that a majority of African American [sic] voters in Maryland are open to supporting Republican Senate candidate Michael S. Steele and advises the party not to wait to "knock Steele down."

The 37-page report says a sizable segment of likely black voters -- as much as 44 percent -- would readily abandon their historic Democratic allegiances "after hearing Steele's messaging."

I don't know much about Steele, but this article about him at NRO calls him a "rock-ribbed conservative" just before making much of his extreme anti-abortion views, and although he voted for Reagan, this position page paints him as a far less of a fiscal conservative than I'd like. (Check out his record on environmentalist measures, for example.)

The good news is that there may be a prominent elected black Republican soon in Maryland. The bad news is that this might reflect less of an ideological shift among black voters (who tend to be conservative on social issues) and more of one in the Republican Party. Still, this is an interesting development and demonstrates that the Democrats remain in heap big trouble.

Job Security is Counterintuitive

This essay on the latest round of rioting in France is pretty good and makes the case for job insecurity being the best form of job security.

France is just one of many countries on the continent that give many employees something like lifelong tenure. "In France," explains The Associated Press, "workers who land a coveted permanent contract can plan to stay at their jobs until retirement. To fire most employees, companies not only have to give at least three months' notice, pay fines to the state and up to three years of severance -- they also have to convince a judge that the dismissal is justified, something they don't always manage to do."

The obvious result is that many employees can't be separated from their jobs without dynamite and a crowbar. But there are some not-so-obvious results as well. One is that companies have to keep workers who aren't needed anymore, making it tough for those companies to compete with more streamlined competitors abroad.

The other is that managers regard new hires the way most of us regard telemarketers -- as something to be avoided, not welcomed. Hire the wrong people, and you may be stuck with them forever, if not longer. When in doubt, it's wise to keep payrolls to an absolute minimum. [bold added]

Another essay I found via Arts and Letters Daily, discusses the rioting from more of a cultural perspective.

Dinosaur Sighting

On the one hand, there's not much to be surprised about by this essay -- since the best Democrats can seem to come up with after their 2004 post-election "soul searching" seems to be "shout louder". On the other hand, the essay is remarkable for urging the left to loudly proclaim what everyone else already knows about it: That it's socialist.

It is amazing to me that anyone could write such an article given the mounds of evidence provided by the Cold War and such idyllic places as North Korea that socialism does not work. And yet -- here it is. Here is a sample from an essay so out of touch with reality that even its web publication date of April 1 provides no comfort. Even satire has to have limits to be effective!

Successful ideological and political campaigns close up the space in which imagination might conceive of a world different from the status quo. Alternatives become "unthinkable." In contrast, for two generations, between 1917 and 1989, the prospect of social change and political action worldwide were nurtured by the competition between two different world-embracing economic systems. Ugly as it was in so many ways, the Soviet Union not only spurred imitators but stimulated and sometimes supported resistance movements and, more relevant to us, along with the presence of vigorous socialist movements and ideas it encouraged thinking and acting toward alternatives that would be neither capitalist nor Communist. The 1930s through the '70s saw important and still relevant efforts at social change led by anarchists (Spain), social democrats (Scandinavia), non-Stalinist Communists (Yugoslavia, Italy), coalitions of socialists and Communists (Chile), and coalitions of leftists and less ideological forces of national liberation (Nicaragua, South Africa). Until the end of the cold war, alternatives to capitalism and Communism seemed both thinkable and possible. [bold added; Well worth the planned starvation of millions, eh! --ed]

As laughable or pitiable as this essay is, it should be taken as a warning: Ideas move history through the people who hold them. No amount of evidence against bad ideas will sway some people. And, more importantly, the misrepresentations of both capitalism and socialism in this essay show that the need for an intellectual defense of the former and debunking of the latter will never disappear.

Australia's Traitor

This essay at Capitalism Magazine about "Jihad Jack", Australia's version of John Walker Lindh, nails it after noting that both traitors started out as nihilistic, directionless youths only to transform into Islamic totalitarians.

It is only on the surface, however, that the dogmatist is opposed to the subjectivist; at root, the two share a fundamental similarity. In denying that there are any objective standards by which to choose how to think or act, the subjectivist makes clear that his choices are ruled by blind feelings. This is precisely also the basic policy of the religious dogmatist.

There are an infinite number of opposing religious sects. How does the religionist decide which faith to embrace, which revelations to follow and which authority to obey? Does he scientifically gather the evidence, carefully weigh it, and then adopt the conclusion to which reason and logic point? Obviously not. He feels it. He feels that Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, astrology or whatever, is the right faith for him.

This indirectly echoes a point made by Lisa VanDamme in her essay on hierarchical knowledge in The Objective Standard. When discussing science education, she describes a boy who'd memorized all the biochemical steps in the synthesis of protein, but who had to punt when asked, "What is a protein?" Her point was that without having properly learned scientific concepts from perceptual data and lower-level concepts, students like these were basically being asked to accept science on faith.

In that sense, our schools are educating students no better than madrassas all over the Moslem world. And when students do not learn the proper method of thinking, on what basis will they make important decisions? Facts and logic are unavailable to them, so they use -- their feelings. Can we really be surprised when children who learn the same method of cognition arrive at the same result?

With reason, one has a method for detecting and correcting error. Without it, one does not. While Western civilization is, at the moment, more advanced than the Islamic world, we will not stay there for long if we fail to pass on the methodology of reason to future generations.

Blogroll Addition

I have added Mike's interesting and informative blog, Passing Thoughts, to my blogroll. Look for announcements of events and other items of interest to Objectivists, smackdowns, and penetrating analysis.

-- CAV