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Name: Sir Andrew
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Economics and Terrorism

Posted by Sir Andrew on Friday, March 21, 2008 1:22:16 PM
There's a hidden treasure in Economics that I never learned about in my high-school economics class whose name is Friedrich List. I first came across Friedrich List's work in Pat Buchanan's Day of Reckoning, and since then I have been reading List's full work, The National System of Political Economy. This book is a treasure trove of American ideals, which remain true up to this day. Now, you're probably wondering what this has to do with terrorism. First, let me quote from his book-
"In a condition of merely agricultural industry, caprice and slavery, superstition and ignorance, want of means of culture, of trade, and of transport, poverty and political weakness exist. In the merely agricultural State only the least portion of the mental and bodily powers existing in the nation is awakened and developed, and only the least part of the powers and resources placed by nature at its disposal can be made use of, while little or no capital can be accumulated. Let us compare Poland with England: both nations at one time were in the same stage of culture; and now what a difference. Manufactories and manufactures are the mothers and children of municipal liberty, of intelligence, of the arts and sciences, of internal and external commerce, of navigation and improvements in transport, of civilisation and political power. They are the chief means of liberating agriculture from its chains..."
Now what does this mean? Friedrich List says here that manufacturing has a civilizing effect on societies. Agrarian societies, which do not foster intellectual growth, do not see any evolution in their humanity, whilst manufacturing societies have a window opened inside their minds.

Let's take a look at a piece of American History that we are all familiar with- the Civil War. If you were to sit inside a highschool American history class today, you would learn that one of the reasons the North won was because of their great manufacturing capabilities as opposed to the South. But let's take this idea a step further. Why did the North oppose slavery in the first place?
With Friedrich List's idea, the answer to that question becomes clear- the North had been intellectually stimulated and its morals now told them that slavery was wrong.

So how does this apply to terrorism today? The answer isn't that different than our American History lesson earlier. The fundamentalism of Islam today is the result of their agrarian societies. However, one fluke that makes them much more dangerous is their wealth in one natural resource- oil. Instead of working to build their own manufacturing power, they simply use the revenue from oil sales to gain access to modern conveniences. Instead of possessing only low-grade technology that would suit their society, they possess all the modern advances that we manufacturing powers enjoy- computers, TVs, internet, as well as high-tech weaponry. When an agrarian mind is met with manufactured technology, violence is the inevitable result because their minds cannot properly handle the technology. This is why Muslims who are of the manufactured mind, i.e. "moderate muslims" do not have the same problems as their agrian counterparts.

Would anyone like to challenge my theory?
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Creation

Posted by Sir Andrew on Friday, March 21, 2008 1:06:37 PM
I recently received a copy of Townhall magazine, and I must say, I am impressed. I've been looking for a conservative magazine that wasn't dry, and after passing up National Review and NewsMax, I've decided to stick with The American Conservative and Townhall.

This isn't my primary blog, but it will have posts carried over from my other blog.

Anyways, today I'm going to be painting trim, so you can look forward to a post later in the day.

Tags: Creation  
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