Tyler Cowen on Hong Kong, and the recent protests:

‘Still, actual life in Hong Kong seemed to be pretty free, especially compared to the available alternatives, which included the totalitarian state that was Mao’s China. Yet as the British lease on Hong Kong approached expiration, an even deeper problem with a non-democratic Hong Kong became evident: Because there was no legitimate alternative sovereign to protest, the British simply handed the territory over to China.’

Via Mick Hartley: An interview with Susie Linfield, author of The Lions’ Den. Zionism and the Left from Hannah Arendt to Noam Chomsky:

‘The double grief is, first, the unreflective and ugly anti-Israelism or anti-Zionism of the Left now, its obsessive, laser-like denunciation of everything about Israel, including even its progressive policy on gay people, which is denounced as ‘pinkwashing’ the occupation. Israel is now written about in the way North Korea is written about: as a kind of prime evil.’

Towards a more sustainable skepticism:

Become a member of a protected identity group, whether you’ve chosen to or not, uniting against an injustice or perceived injustice———>have the protected identity group become a member of a broader political coalition of other protected identity groups, coordinated around the competition to defeat moral/political/ideological enemies and bring about justice/liberation———>join a broader coalition of secular humanists but also anti-humanists, scientists/pro-science rationalists but also anti-science irrationalists/Romantic primitives, neo-liberal idealists but also anti-capitalist utopian socialists, live-and-let-live-liberals but also violent authoritarian/totalitarian ideologues——–>Peace/Democracy/Human Rights/A Better World await.

I don’t think it’s an iron law, but it’s likely a truism:  Evenutally the logic will be used against you.  Within such a Manichean worldview (good and evil, oppressed vs oppressor) some injustices might get better, some worse, but not without the dangers so well documented.

A lot of the problems are baked in the cake, so to speak.

Kind of a shame, really.

If one theory offers you a vision of the entire world, you’ll undoubtedly take it on board, internalize and synthesize it, and probably forget you did so-Some are better designed than others: Martha Nussbaum In Dissent–Violence On The Left: Nandigram And The Communists Of West Bengal

Repost-From Michael Totten At World Affairs: “Noam Chomsky: The Last Totalitarian”

Come on a trip to a royal court, weary traveler, where your presence amongst other noble gentleman has been so kindly requested: