tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post6440186550178046122..comments2024-02-29T03:34:23.190-05:00Comments on Who Were the Sea Peoples?: Take that, Samson Corwell!gcallahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10065877215969589482noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post-21060871929378249102014-02-18T18:11:28.746-05:002014-02-18T18:11:28.746-05:00It gets worse:
•Read this.
•"If Singapore is ...It gets worse:<br />•Read <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=geiCymK1IWIC&pg=PA29&lpg=PA29&dq=Lee+Kuan+Yew+community+individual&source=bl&ots=zzuPDQ7wD5&sig=MTy4Ym_z5N9FlxB4aAd0Lw23zs4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=sOMDU4b8LdWpsQSk-oHYBQ&ved=0CIMBEOgBMAo#v=onepage&q=Lee%20Kuan%20Yew%20community%20individual&f=false" rel="nofollow">this</a>.<br />•"If Singapore is a nanny state, then I am proud to have fostered one." — Lee Kuan YewSamson Corwellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10148822362930969284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post-41523263468117039022014-02-18T15:12:28.945-05:002014-02-18T15:12:28.945-05:00The point was that many of the things done by his ...The point was that many of the things done by his government in 40+ years of being near or at the top of the ruling party would be <i>called</i> socialism by american conservatives and libertarians, many of whom seem to admire him and Singapore.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post-6658308354232729172014-02-17T22:49:24.077-05:002014-02-17T22:49:24.077-05:00If Singapore was a disaster area, it would be cons...<i>If Singapore was a disaster area, it would be considered socialist by US conservatives and libertarians.</i><br /><br />Also, if it doesn't revolve around workers, then it isn't socialist.Samson Corwellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10148822362930969284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post-65959593026692373562014-02-17T14:05:03.370-05:002014-02-17T14:05:03.370-05:00I like to use alternative labels since I hate the ...I like to use alternative labels since I hate the terms "socialist" and "free market". Some others I got:<br />•North Korea is a quasi-feudal monarchical stratocracy.<br />•Russia is a mafia state.<br />•China is a Confucian mercantilist technocracy.Samson Corwellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10148822362930969284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post-51601264205168221702014-02-17T13:32:31.938-05:002014-02-17T13:32:31.938-05:00"In fact, I feel it might be accurate to call..."In fact, I feel it might be accurate to call it a corporatocracy."<br /><br />That sounds accurate.gcallahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10065877215969589482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post-34853922451781552972014-02-17T13:31:46.838-05:002014-02-17T13:31:46.838-05:00But on the US political spectrum, he'd fall so...<i>But on the US political spectrum, he'd fall somewhere to the left of Vermin Supreme.</i><br /><br />I'm not sure he's necessarily "left-wing". Singapore doesn't give me the "vibe" I associate with the word "socialist". It might be more accurate to say that Singapore is run like a business. In fact, I feel it might be accurate to call it a corporatocracy.Samson Corwellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10148822362930969284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post-31435147353118342452014-02-15T14:52:17.881-05:002014-02-15T14:52:17.881-05:00If Singapore was a disaster area, it would be cons...If Singapore was a disaster area, it would be considered socialist by US conservatives and libertarians.<br /><br /><i>"The economy of Singapore is dominated by government-linked corporations that produce as much as 60% of the country's GDP.[22] These government-linked companies are owned by a government holding agency, Temasek Holdings." </i><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government-owned_corporation#Singapore<br />Government owns the commanding heights of the economy (or something like it).<br /><br /><i>By the 1980s, someone asked Lee why his Minister of Justice was paid the unheard-of sum of US $350,000 a year.</i> Highly paid government bureacracy.<br /><br /><i>"high-rise apartment-house populations each replicate the city-state’s ethnic demographics... they grow up knowing members of every group. Thus stereotyping and bigotry are diminished." </i><br />Forced ethnic and religious integration in public housing.<br /><br /><i>"Similarly, aspects of free speech are curtailed selectively: in 2007 three violently racist bloggers were convicted of sedition.</i><br />Sedition. Let that sink in for a minute. In Singapore, you can't be a racist and a patriot.<br /><br /><i>...requires all male Singaporean citizens and non-first-generation permanent residents who have reached the age of 18 to enroll for national service. They serve a 22- or 24-month period ...either in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), Singapore Police Force (SPF), or the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).<br />When a conscript completes his full-time service, he is considered to be "operationally ready", and is thereafter ...the equivalent of other countries' reservists.</i><br />Universal peacetime conscription.<br /><br /><i>Lee Kuan Yew...is peering ahead again into this city-state's future, this time with plans to seal it off with dikes against the rising tides of global warming.</i> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/29/world/asia/29iht-lee.1.7301669.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0<br />He believes in global warming, but doesn't think the free market will fix it.<br /><br />I think the author might be right about Lee Kuan Yew being the greatest conservative statesman of the 20th century; he may be the best example in history of a benevolent dictator. But on the US political spectrum, he'd fall somewhere to the left of Vermin Supreme. <br /><br />You hear a lot of conservatives and libertarians praise Yew and Singapore but there's some kind of cognitive dissonance that prevents them from considering these deviations from laissez faire seriously.<br /><br />Off topic: <br />Gene, can you send a draft of your 'Urban Rationalism' paper to me at argosyjones@hotmail.com? I'd like to read it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post-59267261910167602202014-02-15T00:18:20.291-05:002014-02-15T00:18:20.291-05:00Oh, don't worry. I'm not one of those &quo...Oh, don't worry. I'm not one of those "trufree market" types. In general, I actually try to avoid using the term. It's actually getting hard to know what the word even means anymore.Samson Corwellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10148822362930969284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post-36140666614794249702014-02-15T00:09:38.742-05:002014-02-15T00:09:38.742-05:00Well, he says "free market" is the "...Well, he says "free market" is the "default": he never claims Singapore is the mythical "trufree market."gcallahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10065877215969589482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post-28045002254393260922014-02-14T23:53:02.611-05:002014-02-14T23:53:02.611-05:00I admit, I had misunderstood you. But, I did not s...I admit, I had misunderstood you. But, I did not say that <i>you</i> held it up as a model. Anyway, it's complicated. As for the author of the article, well, I can only bang my head on my desk. He calls it free market when 80% of the population live in public housing!<br /><br />On a side note, I wonder if nationalization is necessarily socialist, since the author referred to Britain as socialist at one point in its history.Samson Corwellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10148822362930969284noreply@blogger.com