Moviejournal: the dictator
The dictator's a slightly shorter than expected depiction of an quite avant garde oil-rich dictator in a ficticious kingdom next to sudan. ( a quick lookup on google map reveals Eritrea ?!) However by any dictatorial standard, the central character seems a dim-witted fella. his comical appetite for simple and agricultural pleasure seems inconceivable of producing a functional dictatorship regime that could withstand frequent and successful effort to topple him. In that sense he is sort of a casanova style dictatorship - a guy that is happy go lucky and, interestingly, become kind of a legend.
Yet this is not what's bugging me to write this blog. The dictator made a smart ass and sly crack at America the "real" dictatorship of the world, citing such controversial issues such as the widening gap between the 99% and the top 1%, the phone hack scandal and rupert murdoch, the unilateral military aggression, and what i think is quite hilarious, Dick Cheney the american dictator.
While Sacha's undercover blow to america's perceived dictatorial approach to foreign policy and domestic economic matters deserve praise for drawing people's attention to such social issues, the true difference between a functional democracy and an oppressive regime could not be greater. Taleb deftly described this as the black swan of egypt, which i think simply means a functional and open democracy just operates at a significantly better equilibrium of fluctuation/murkiness/balance/whatever you call a to-and-fro that occur in open and democratic society.
Recent history has repeatedly shown the advantage of democratic society as told by Nial Ferguson as killer apps. My interpretation of the ups and downs of western democracy is that surely we can not expect society to grow at straight line speed. indeed that would become central planning 5 year plan type of nonsense! open and democratic society would invariably open to new voices and new ventures and are susceptible to accidental discoveries in science and commerce, indeed that is what is discovered lately by gaussian copula induced CDS stype insurance which fueled the latest bust. I trust Helicopter ben or his predecessor Greenspan both harbour no ill will towards the american economy, i would rather believe the contrary. They are also discoverying the dynamics of an ever evolving economy together with us, albeit with a much more learned astuteness.
The high stake hope, then, is that western democracy doesn't break before it finds a new way out. whether the mass can be trusted to vote in an intelligent executive branch or legislative branch is still beyond my understanding.
Yet this is not what's bugging me to write this blog. The dictator made a smart ass and sly crack at America the "real" dictatorship of the world, citing such controversial issues such as the widening gap between the 99% and the top 1%, the phone hack scandal and rupert murdoch, the unilateral military aggression, and what i think is quite hilarious, Dick Cheney the american dictator.
While Sacha's undercover blow to america's perceived dictatorial approach to foreign policy and domestic economic matters deserve praise for drawing people's attention to such social issues, the true difference between a functional democracy and an oppressive regime could not be greater. Taleb deftly described this as the black swan of egypt, which i think simply means a functional and open democracy just operates at a significantly better equilibrium of fluctuation/murkiness/balance/whatever you call a to-and-fro that occur in open and democratic society.
Recent history has repeatedly shown the advantage of democratic society as told by Nial Ferguson as killer apps. My interpretation of the ups and downs of western democracy is that surely we can not expect society to grow at straight line speed. indeed that would become central planning 5 year plan type of nonsense! open and democratic society would invariably open to new voices and new ventures and are susceptible to accidental discoveries in science and commerce, indeed that is what is discovered lately by gaussian copula induced CDS stype insurance which fueled the latest bust. I trust Helicopter ben or his predecessor Greenspan both harbour no ill will towards the american economy, i would rather believe the contrary. They are also discoverying the dynamics of an ever evolving economy together with us, albeit with a much more learned astuteness.
The high stake hope, then, is that western democracy doesn't break before it finds a new way out. whether the mass can be trusted to vote in an intelligent executive branch or legislative branch is still beyond my understanding.
posted by Rich8rd | 5:59 AM
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