Trip report - Dubai

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on trusting "trust"

It seems to me like there are both fake and real approaches to modernism. But what in the heck do i mean by that?

Well, fake modernism is based on a premise of top-down control -- it is the subjection of the material trappings of a western modern economy to a "greater" primary loyalty. You may have your fancy buildings. You may have your stock markets, your trade zones, your liberal districts, your discrete trade in booze and pornography, even. Yet you have these things -- it is always to be understood -- at the indulgence of a larger power. You have these things, because they are tolerated, but not because they are beyond Control.

True modernism is almost the exact opposite, though the differences are more subtle than that suggests. In true modernism, you have your fancy buildings, stock markets, trade zones, liberal districts, booze, and porn -- because that is what hoi poloi does, left to its own devices. True modernism is not only beyond Control, it has a built-in social immune system against Control. A housewife can become a secretary, then manager, then executive, then chairman of the board -- then take one accidental step too far in the direction of Control and land flat on her butt. When we accept true modernism, and agree to live with its faults, it is out of trust. Not a trust in a medieval king. And certainly not a fear of a medieval mafia. True modernism is, ultimately based on a universal dedication to a universal trust in what we can, as a group of equals, do.

Words, words, words. Modernism -- dependence on electric grids and sewage systems and hospitals and schools and communications and transport -- these materials things are tritely described as vulnerable, to be sure. Any jackass in a cave, any clique of book-thumping clerics with sufficient followings, any idiot who trades up to possession of a few missiles -- left unchecked, such fools will take us all back to the stone ages and, in the ensuing chaos, among the garbage heap left, carve out their own pathetic little reincarnation of Control. (And such jerks can be found in all cultures. No culture has a monopoly on them, although they play a more important role in some places than others.)

And so what's to do?

For our purposes here, the central point is that true modernism is based on trust -- trust in what hoi poloi will do, given opportunity, a vague clue, and relief from medieval Control. It's a brave and unintuitive thing to stand up for freedom, starting from Control, yet -- it's he Right Thing and it's the only thing that ultimately wins. Or, at least, that doesn't wind up the loser.

Things one must not do as an informal diplomat: One must not tell off the elites of the country one is visiting for failing to spend lots of money on rebuilding Iraq. One must not tell off the elites of the country one is visiting for taking an idiotic and cowardly patronistic attitude towards labor. One must not suggest offering to spend billions for the economic rehabilitation of Palestine -- via the government of Israel. One must not suggest offering aid in Lebanon, contingent on the disarming of Hezbollah. One must not do anything to challenge the fear of those who assert Control.

It's too bad, really. Who can you trust?

-t

p.s.: reselling wifi is a neat idea. Berkeley is starting to wonder about universal access. Would you consider making a pitch to our city council?

Posted by: dasht   Posted on: 09/27/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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