Re: Don't worry about WWIII (just everything else), Insight Jan. 5

Olivia Ward’s predictions about war fail to mention the threat of an attack on Iran. She consoles us with the notion that colonialism and the Cold War were the greatest threats to international co-operation and since they’re “done” we no longer need fear. But the biggest driver of the international conflict since the ’90s has been oil.

Any oil-producing country that begins to sell petroleum in a currency other than U.S. dollars can expect to be invaded. Iraq, Libya, Syria, and soon Iran fall into these categories. If Russia and China decide they do not want to watch the global power balance shift back toward the West, we may be closer to World War III than your headline cares to admit.

Her economic analysis is even more obtuse. Again we return to the pretend battle between “austerity” and “growth.” The actual debate is between borrowing less or more, because either way governments will continue to borrow and print money. Neither course of action is sustainable, but no other course is being considered because our political process has been captured by private bankers and self-interested politicians.

With no viable solutions on the table, the world economy is destined for prolonged, agonizing stagnation followed by a massive collapse of Western economies. If journalists continue to bury their heads in the sand as our “leaders” do, who will warn us of the coming storm?

On the environment Ward points blame where it obviously belongs, since no one can deny the politicians have completely failed us on this file. Yet her solution misses the clear, logical conclusion that this understanding should lead us to. If our leaders have failed to do a thing about climate change, why on earth are we waiting for them to solve these problems for us?

Going forward look for concerted action on carbon pricing and preventative measures by private market actors such as energy companies, environmentalists, and smaller political units than federal governments. The state will continue to make a mess of things, eventually leaving us in a worse position than we were previously.

For an examination of democracy we hear from Francis Fukuyama, who famously predicted the end of the nation-state just as it began to reassert itself. With keen insight into the obvious, he informs us that growth in wealth disparity is a threat to democracy. It does not occur to the Fukuyamas of the world that democracy has led to the wealth disparity in the first place.

Violent, tyrannical systems of oppression like democracy are what keep well-to-do academics like Fukuyama employed, so he’s happy to defend it. The globalization that he previously praised so effusively has led to the wealth disparity he now derides, but that’s no matter since he’s an “uberpundit” and must be listened to despite his repeated failure to provide useful analysis.

Burma’s turn to the democratic mode of oppression is of course praised, although it is noted that democracy’s tyranny of the majority reigns there. The countries of the Arab Spring have mostly lost ground in the fight for freedom, but the details of Western meddling and failures in this area are glossed over. It is noted that numerous countries are on a “democratic downslope,” but of course Canada’s deplorable regression in this area is ignored.

Ward’s warnings about electronic surveillance are timely and important, but she fails to direct your readers to their true enemy. She pretends we are safe with this technology in state hands and that the problem is that the private market may take it over. But the threat to our safety and security is from the state itself. The only way private market participants can harm us using this information is if they exploit some other government regulation to shut out competition, distort the market, or otherwise engage in force or fraud. The state is the violent, coercive threat to our privacy and safety, not the private market.

Ward’s discussion of transnational crime shows her deference to the state again. She glibly notes the size and breadth of the problem, but fails to mention that the main cause is outdated policy and governmental obstructionism.

The biggest industry in global crime is the drug trade, which is mostly kept going by Western governments’ insistence on continuing the inane “War on Drugs.” This despite the pleas of numerous countries suffering the ill-effects of these policies, in ways those in the Global North cannot understand (see Mexico).

She mentions that we may see more Canadian Mafia stories in the near future, but it is the drug trade that has allowed the Quebec mob to grow even bigger than their New York counterparts.

Ancient Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu said, “The greater the number of laws and enactments, the more thieves and robbers there will be.”Such a notion is lost on the state, for to a man with only a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.