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Strass-Kahn, Justice & Greece One of my favourite journalists, Anatole Kaletsky, has written an amusing article today arguing that the probability of Strauss-Kahn being framed is higher than the probability of Strauss-Kahn being psychotic. If he is right he will have pulled another prophesy out of the hat, two articles in a row. There was a big EU meeting last weekend about Greece, and we were all on tenterhooks wondering what was going to happen. Kaletsky was the only journalist who predicted Greece would not be allowed to default, the FT slaves of vested interests and liberal ideology were almost hysterically routing for default, along with their hedge fund customers. Then, on Monday, the EU announced that the Greeks would not be allowed to default, instead they would have to knuckle down. Everyone was shocked by the new realism and toughness coming out of the ECB, but as Kalestsky pointed out default wasn't going to be cake walk either. So Kalestsky the prophet cleaned up, and his competition have egg on their faces. Over at the FT today Martin Wolf is putting a brave face on his failure. He has written an article calling Strauss-Kahn a brilliant and talented man who, if the allegations are true, must have simultaneously been a lunatic. Then Wolf bemoans the political decision to stop the Greeks defaulting, and says "In its wisdom, the Eurozone has decided that the losses of private sector creditors should be socialised and the ultimate burden fall on the taxpayers of deficit countries." I find this pretty amusing, because it was precisely people like Strauss-Kahn and Wolf who were too afraid of radical Bank nationalizations in the first place (not me). Now Wolf wants to fix the mistake by transferring the Greek banking losses to German and Chinese taxpayers in a default. "No, find the money internally" says the ECB. Anyway, countries can sustain vast borrowing if their outlook is rosy, but if their long term outlook changes they are in trouble no matter how frugal they have been in the past - witness Spain. Today Greece is basically a well off country with a long term outlook problem. Historically the picture is very different, Greece used to be a much poorer country with an even bigger long term outlook problem. Since joining the Euro Greece has been transformed, it's in the best shape of its life these days. Unfortunately this is still not enough, Greece is still short of what is needed to survive this new tough world. So how on earth is Greece going to reform? People are worried, but I think the Gods are shining down upon us, Greece gives us a chance to get some experience before we deal with failing gorillas such as Italy & California. So what's the great big problem we have to solve thrown down to us by the God of necessity: Should the Germans bail out the sinking Greek ship, or should the crew inside the sinking Greek ship bail themselves out? It's a classic passive-active duality in policymaking. Because the lives of the Greeks are not in any immediate danger either way, it's about Forms not facts, its solution requires philosophical skill. How would Plato try to answer the question? He would talk about "justice". He would talk about the Greek people and how virtuous they have been, and how can they can become more virtuous. What does that mean? Behind Greece's dishonest reporting of economic statistics and widespread tax evasion are psychological flaws out of which injustices flow. It's the same idea as criminals, but just a group of them instead of a single one. So justice is to fix those flaws, to cure the criminal, commonly using an evolutionary process known as "an eye for eye, a tooth for tooth". By making the criminal feel the consequences of what he does, he evolves to be a better man. It also deters other people, if you let crime pay the world will fall apart. But if you read people like Wolf "justice" is the one word you never hear, to hear that word you need to read the tabloids. The elite are stuck in a mechanical layer which stops with their liberal principles, they never talk about psychological analysis, nor imagine economics and human personality as connected. This is why the elite didn't punish the banks in the first place, it would have been better to ask a Priest for advice, because a simple moral compass would have done a far better job. I think the failure to think about justice is the essence of liberal post modern Western decline. I say please trust me, Mr Wolf & co, this thing called justice really matters, Socrates wasn't a fool. All those stories of his about cobblers and blacksmiths and horses and dogs etc were about psychology. If you boil it all down Socrates had the same goal as Jesus, he tried to teach men how to be lead better lives. Then Mr Wolf & co tell me that whatever is, is a truth unto itself. This thing you call philosophy, this analysis of psychological fitness, they say, is the antithesis of post modern liberalism, and the only immortal Form we believe in is liberalism itself. Besides which, even if we did believe in psychological flaws, or something exotic like that, we certainly don't think the Greeks can be defined en masse, that would be politically incorrect. Judging groups is what populists do, you know those rough types who say absurd things such as multiculturalism is corrupting. So the elite just think of justice mechanically or emotionally as a law of retribution or something like that, instead of in the complex evolutionary / karmic / psychological / philosophical way I do. But they figure that their vague notion of justice doesn't apply at the nation state level because retribution can only be applied to individuals not groups. You can't put a whole nation in jail, silly Billy, so justice at the national level makes no sense. We gave up justice at that level along with war they say! You should think about it carefully, I say, if you're wrong God will force you into a war, or a sovereign crisis just like this one, or a crisis of cultural values, just to teach you to be more sophisticated about group personality. Are you mad they say? Even if we were wrong, and even if God existed, God is love not evolution you fool! On the subject of Western decline and elite moral blindness, there are countries where Presidents rape, it happens in Africa and I could imagine it happening in Israel, but the idea of the IMF President committing violent rape is so staggering it's like a waking dream. An IMF President is higher than an American President, he is an unelected expert chosen by a consensus amongst the worlds elite, he is pretty much the closest thing the Western world has to God. If you look back in history looking for times when the elite rape, you realise that what we are talking about is pre-Age of Enlightenment corruption, it's absolutely mind blowing. It's crazy little things like this that prophets pick up on when they draw conclusions about human nature on a sociological scale, and make all sorts of bizarre predictions about the future. They might claim to see into the heart of the Western elite, and claim DSK's violent rape is but a symptom of a widespread and terrible evil. But to claim the elite are actually evil is surely too much? You think that because the elite today don't enslave other nations they are better than the elite back in the 1500s. But to understand how evil a person is you have to look past when they say, you have to look deep inside them. Just as children believe things their parents taught them at the beginning of their life, so society can not be measured by looking at current opinion, but rather but looking at how people will change in the future. You see the child still believes in what his parents say because his opinion hasn't been tested by circumstances. No child talks about rape as good, but if he is sick enough inside he grows into rape as he leans about sex because he thinks his pleasure is more important than someone else's pain. Today people say war is an evil to be feared, but suppose America was faced by a choice between real poverty or taking the Middle East's oil, what do you think they would do? Now war is no longer to be feared, it is the selfish choice. Then the Americans would invent a reason to invade the Middle East of course, the only thing that would hold them back is the fear of it's consequences, not their sense of justice and injustice. Deep down the choice is psychological, on the surface they would justify their decision with a lot of hypocrisy. So you can't measure evil by what people say, evil only shows itself in the evolution of opinion brought about by the battle between the individual and the group. Think of evil not as action, but as a sort of energy like a battery. How does this evil come about? Our culture is perfidious, it turns average people into zombies, but it has a far worse impact on the elite. One of the characters who crops up in Plato's dialogues is Alcibiades. He was a real thoroughbred, marvellously intelligent, courageous, principled and he even had Socrates as a tutor. But politics turned him into a monster. It's not that old acorn "power corrupts", it's deeper than that. Popular cultural forces are in opposition to the idealism of wise leaders. So when a politician like Alcibiades was clapped and adored by the masses he couldn't prevent himself becoming their instrument, but to embrace what they wanted he had to switch off his higher self and head into the darkness. Once a person turns away from the light it's all downhill. He will tell you I am just being pragmatic, or this is the way the game works, but it is poison in his soul. Socrates says no-one can resist populist democracy, once that culture of professionalism is gone society just spirals down to disaster. This evil is particularly concentrated in politics and journalism. As Plato points out the most important rule in politics is to stay away from the crowds, Plato even goes as far as saying that only exiles living in solitude can achieve wisdom. Everybody in history knows this, in our modern madness we have created the most populist culture the world has even seen, and politicians and journalists put themselves in the heart of it, but not even a God could survive that environment, it is the slippery slope to hell. When you meet these people at first they seem perfectly normal, but if you test them by offering them a choice between truth and themselves, they always fail. So thinking in terms of energy rather than action, the elite today are perfectly corrupt, behind the surface they are terrifying ghouls. As the karma of the world speeds up that evil manifests in ever increasingly unjust decisions. Perhaps you think I am mad, that it is too much to believe the elite are actually evil. Is it enough for you just to think about elite incompetence? They are clearly destroying our world, why do you think that is? Think about the French intellectual as a model of what's wrong with elite Western thinking. The French seem to me to be passionate romantic idealists held in check by self-consciousness. They study mathematics for self improvement but it's not really their forte. A very spiritually developed Frenchman is an inspirational model of gracefulness and meaningfulness. Gone bad, however, the French become the precise opposite, they combine the overpowering arrogance and terrible small mindedness of Marie Antoinette. In private they have little self-discipline, allowing their passions to flow unchecked, and becoming a danger to the world. If one was looking for a definition of Western elite failure, the false confidence and small mindedness, or arrogance and smallness of vision, of the bad French intellectual seems to me like a great summary. By switching off the psychodynamic side of his mind in favour of his poor quality mathematics (algebra not statistics of course) he becomes like Rain Man reading Shakespeare, it means no more to him than a phone book. My guess is that Strauss-Kahn is guilty, but even if he is innocent, I think his reputation for high living and womanising provides a very important lesson. I used to pride myself on not being a populist, like a French Intellectual I proudly treated the personal indiscretions of leaders as personal matters. In fact I was a pretty famous for personal indiscretions myself a few years ago, and it's shocking to look back at that elite lifestyle now. Yet as I have studied Plato I have come to realize that wisdom and virtue are inseparable attributes, and I have developed a greater sense of the light and dark inside my soul. As you grow spiritually it becomes harder and harder to maintain balance, the darkness is so subtle, you need enormous self discipline to keep climbing. In our culture everyone dreams of living the high life, chasing women, indulging in alcohol etc. But as one get older it gets easier to put these indulgences behind one, and anyone who calls themselves elite but has not freed themselves from these things is a danger to the world.
So the populists were right
all along, we intellectuals failed the smell test yet again; politicians
and journalists should live exemplary lives.
Extramarital sex, drunkenness, ostentation etc are not acceptable in
these professions, and these people should be rigorously watched for any
signs of ordinary behaviour. The elite should live in clean poverty and
never come into contact with adoring supporters. Being elite is not an ordinary pleasure,
ordinary people wouldn't want it, it's a total dedication to
service for the great good. Politicians like Sarkozy, Berlusconi and Strauss-Kahn
are not elite, they are crass; they certainly do not deserve to lead men.
It's not that the elite are corrupt, rather that the elite don't exist.
In their place we have impostors who are ordinary people who have been
corrupted by imagining themselves as something they are not.
Remember the story at the opening of Plato's Republic. A young man
taking to a great old philosopher says: "You are so wise, but can you
still make love to women?". The great philosopher replies: "Of course not,
why do you think I am wise my young and hungry friend!". How
many politicians today say such things? For Berlusconi old age is just a nightmare of regrets, Viagra and hair
transplants. Poor Berlusconi, pity him! |