There’s an excellent piece here about psychology in politics. I’m still sticking to my opinion that many of the people who display this sort of behavior are generally more comfortable with the world if there’s a massive evil conspiracy — at least you have someone to blame, instead of facing the reality that life often sucks and does so for bizarre and occasionally no reason whatsoever. I’m considering poaching the ‘they’re out to get us, so we must be important’ part of this though.
Via Power Line, of course.
Archive for February 28th, 2005
Psychology And Politics
Monday, February 28th, 2005Lebanese Government Dissolved
Monday, February 28th, 2005Lebanon’s Government has dissolved itself following protests in Beirut and a pending vote of no-confidence in Parliament. The Prime Minister has expressed his willingness to yield to Lebanon’s overwhelming desire for true democracy. This turn of events has followed the example of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, and has so far been largely peaceful (except for the assassination of Hariri which kicked it off). Syria is beginning to yield to the pressure, and if current trends continue, Lebanon may soon be free of Syrian domination. The White House is naturally quite pleased with this turn of events. The trend of democratization in the Middle East is tangible now: the genie is out of the bottle, and for the moment there won’t be any way of stuffing it back in. Naturally, the totalitarian Islamic states are upset about this, but for once the overwhelming sense given by the media in America of the population of the Middle East is hope for the future.
The Music Industry
Monday, February 28th, 2005This is definitely symptomatic of the flawed perspective in the music industry right now. The desire to choke the market in an effort to wring as much money out of it as possible, without any concern whatsoever for supply and demand. I applaud the actions of the music labels who don’t want to increase prices — while they have flaws, they’re still at least attempting to be competitive. The ones who want to increase the price simply intend to treat the internet sales sector as an extension of their monopoly. Here’s a hint: if 50-some million Americans feel the need to pirate music online, your business model needs some work. Suing the public into compliance with a flawed business model is just not going to be effective. Internet sales have the potential to be a massive part of the music industry’s business, with very low overhead. Why can’t they simply behave like businesses and find a way to exploit it?
Dutch Emigration
Monday, February 28th, 2005Are we seeing the first of a new wave of European emigration? It’s possible. If the Netherlands doesn’t start working on restriction of immigration soon, they may be facing a mass exodus of their original citizens. Not that this is all the fault of the immigrants: many of them are undoubtedly decent people. However, extreme demographic change can cause social pressures, and (as the article points out) semi-socialist domestic policy doesn’t help matters much. I expect more Dutch will be moving to Australia and New Zealand, as many of them aren’t particularly fond of America’s foreign policies. That’s kind of amusing; Australia supports the US most of the time anyhow.