After the Revolution

After the Revolution

3/11/2011 | Email Pat Buchanan Columnist’s Archive

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“Democracy … arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects,” said Aristotle.

But if the Philosopher disliked the form of government that arose out of the fallacy of human equality, the Founding Fathers detested it.

“A democracy is nothing more than mob rule,” said Thomas Jefferson, “where 51 percent of the people may take away the rights of the other 49.” James Madison agreed, “Democracy is the most vile form of government.” Their Federalist rivals concurred.

“Democracy,” said John Adams, “never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.”

“You people, sir, is a great beast,” Alexander Hamilton is said to have remarked. If he did not, it was not far from his view.

Said John Winthrop, the Pilgrim father whose vision of a “city on a hall” so inspired Ronald Reagan, “A democracy is … accounted the meanest and worst form of government.”

But did not the fathers create modernity’s first democracy?

No. They created “a republic, if you can keep it,” as Ben Franklin said, when asked in Philadelphia what kind of government they had given us. A constitutional republic, to protect and defend God-given rights that antedated the establishment of that government.

We used to know that. Growing up, we daily pledged allegiance “to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands,” not some democracy. As Walter Williams writes, Julia Ward Howe did not write the “Battle Hymn of the Democracy.”

Today, we are taught to worship what our fathers abhorred to such an extent that politicians and ideologues believe America was put on Earth to advance a worldwide revolution to ensure that all nations are democratic.

Only then, said George W. Bush, can America be secure.

The National Endowment for Democracy was established for this quintessentially neoconservative end and meddles endlessly in the internal affairs of nations in a fashion Americans would never tolerate.

The democratists are now celebrating the revolutions across the Islamic world in the same spirit, if in less exalted language, as William Wordsworth celebrated the French Revolution, “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive/But to be young was very heaven!”

After 1789 ushered in Robespierre and Saint-Just, the Terror, the dictatorship and the Napoleonic wars, enthusiasm cooled. But with the Lenin-Trotsky revolution of 1917, Mao’s revolution of 1949, and Castro’s revolution of 1959, the exhilaration returned, only to see the bright hopes dashed again in blood and terror.

Last month, the Egyptian revolution enraptured us, with “pro-democracy” demonstrators effecting, through the agency of the Egyptian army, the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, a friend and ally for three decades.

In the exhilaration of their democratic triumph, some of the boys in Tahrir Square celebrated with serial sexual assaults on American journalist Lara Logan. A week after the triumph, returned Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi addressed a crowd estimated at 1 million in Tahrir Square.

In January 2009, Qaradawi had declared that “throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the (Jews) people who would punish them for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by Hitler. … Allah willing, the next time will be in the hand of the believers.”

“Qaradawi is very much in the mainstream of Egyptian society,” wrote the Christian Science Monitor.

In 2004, this centrist was apparently offered the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Today, we read that, liberated from Mubarak, Muslims set fire to a Christian church in Sol, south of Cairo, then attacked it with hammers.

When enraged Christians set up roadblocks in Cairo demanding the government rebuild the church, they were set upon by Muslims as soldiers stood by. Thirteen people, most of them Coptic Christians, were shot to death on Tuesday, and more than a hundred were wounded in the worst religious violence in years.

Revolutions liberate people from tyranny, but also free them up to indulge old hates, settle old scores and give vent to their passions.

What are the passions that will be unleashed by the revolution that has the Arab nation of 300 million aflame?

Surely, one is for greater freedom, good jobs and prosperity, such as the West and East Asia have been able to produce for their people.

Yet if even European nations like Greece, Ireland and Spain, which used to deliver this, no longer seem able to do so, how will these Arab nations, which have never produced freedom, prosperity or progress on a large scale, succeed in the short time they will have?

Answer: They will not. The great Arab revolution will likely fail.

And when it does, those other passions coursing through the region will rise to dominance. And what are they but ethnonationalism, tribalism and Islamic fundamentalism?

What will eventually unite this turbulent region — when its peoples fail to achieve what they are yearning for — is who and what they are all against.

Ask not for whom the bell tolls.

World’s Most Expensive Cities

Which cities have the most expensive cost of living?

Mercer Human Resources Consulting, a world-wide firm with offices in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia has sufficient respect that its evaluations are reported in major newspapers and magazines. The company has developed a Worldwide Cost of Living survey. The results were reported in the Toronto Star today. The entire listing is not posted to the web but can be purchased for $600USD.

Following is an abridged summary that was posted on the Mercer web site.

Luandain, Angola is the world’s most expensive city for expatriates; Karachi is the cheapest

Top 10 ranked cities are dominated by Africa, Europe and Asia

London drops 1 place to rank 18; Singapore and São Paolo join the top 10 list

New York is the most expensive in the United States followed by Los Angeles.

Los Angeles, the second most expensive U.S. city, fell 22 places to 77th place.

The survey covers 214 cities across five continents and measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. It is the world’s most comprehensive cost of living survey and is designed to help multinational companies and governments determine compensation allowances for their expatriate employees.New York is used as the base city and all cities are compared against New York. Currency movements are measured against the US dollar. The cost of housing – often the biggest expense for expatriates – plays an important part in determining where cities are ranked.

New entries in the top 10 list of the costliest cities in the world are Singapore(8), up from 11, and São Paolo (10), which has jumped 11 places since the 2010 ranking.Karachi(214) is ranked as the world’s least expensive city, and the survey found that Luanda, in top place, is more than three times as costly as Karachi. Recent world events, including natural disasters and political upheavals, have impacted the rankings for many regions through currency fluctuations, cost inflation for goods and services and volatility in accommodation prices.

Down one place from last year, London(18) is the UK’s most expensive city, followed by Aberdeen(144), Glasgow(148) and Birmingham(150), Belfast(178) is ranked as the UK’s least expensive city.

The survey covers 214 cities across five continents and measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. It is the world’s most comprehensive cost of living survey and is designed to help multinational companies and governments determine compensation allowances for their expatriate employees. New Yorkis used as the base city and all cities are compared against New York. Currency movements are measured against the US dollar. The cost of housing – often the biggest expense for expatriates – plays an important part in determining where cities are ranked.

At rank 32, New York is the most expensive city in the United States.Los Angeles(77) and Chicago(108) have dropped significantly in the rankings (22 and 17 places respectively) as price increases on goods and services have been moderate compared to New York. Washington, however, also at ranking 108, has climbed three places, as rental accommodation prices have increased significantly.

Portland(186) and Winston-Salem(197) are the least expensive cities in the United States. Up 17 places, Toronto(59) has overtaken Vancouver(65) to become the most expensive Canadian city in the ranking, followed by Montreal(79) and Calgary(96). Ranking 114, Ottawa is the least expensive city in Canada.

Rankings

March 2011	March 2010	City	Country
1	1	LUANDA	ANGOLA
2	2	TOKYO	JAPAN
3	3	N’DJAMENA	CHAD
4	4	MOSCOW	RUSSIA
5	5	GENEVA	SWITZERLAND
6	6	OSAKA	JAPAN
7	8	ZURICH	SWITZERLAND
8	11	SINGAPORE	SINGAPORE
9	8	HONG KONG	HONG KONG
10	21	SÂO PAULO	BRAZIL
11	19	NAGOYA	JAPAN
12	7	LIBREVILLE	GABON
12	29	RIO DE JANEIRO	BRAZIL
14	24	SYDNEY	AUSTRALIA
15	11	OSLO	NORWAY
16	22	BERN	SWITZERLAND
17	10	COPENHAGEN	DENMARK
18	17	LONDON	UNITED KINGDOM
19	14	SEOUL	SOUTH KOREA
20	16	BEIJING	CHINA
21	25	SHANGHAI	CHINA
21	33	MELBOURNE	AUSTRALIA
23	23	NIAMEY	NIGER
24	19	TEL AVIV	ISRAEL
25	13	VICTORIA	SEYCHELLES
25	15	MILAN	ITALY
27	17	PARIS	FRANCE
28	67	OUAGADOUGOU	BURKINA FASO
29	30	ST. PETERSBURG	RUSSIA
30	60	PERTH	AUSTRALIA
31	55	BRISBANE	AUSTRALIA
32	27	NEW YORK CITY,NY	UNITED STATES
33	70	BRASILIA	BRAZIL
34	26	ROME	ITALY
34	74	CANBERRA	AUSTRALIA
36	28	VIENNA	AUSTRIA
37	38	NOUMÉA	NEW CALEDONIA
38	38	GUANGZHOU	CHINA
39	62	DJIBOUTI	DJIBOUTI
39	76	STOCKHOLM	SWEDEN
41	62	LAGOS	NIGERIA
42	31	HELSINKI	FINLAND
43	42	SHENZHEN	CHINA
44	32	DAKAR	SENEGAL
44	141	KHARTOUM	SUDAN
46	90	ADELAIDE	AUSTRALIA
47	47	PRAGUE	CZECH REPUBLIC
48	36	BAKU	AZERBAIJAN
49	33	BANGUI	CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
50	35	AMSTERDAM	NETHERLANDS

First to Worst

Smug Californians thought they were so smart when they passed Proposition 13 (officially named the People’s Initiative to Limit Property Taxation) by 65%. The law set the initial property tax at 1.25% of the purchase price and restricts annual increases of assessed value of real property to an inflation factor, not to exceed 2% per year. I was one of those who voted for the law.

“We’ve chosen mediocre public service, and more private money. We’ve decided not to tax ourselves as much. We’ve basically turned our back on schools. It’s a choice we made within our state.” John Mockler, First to Worst

We were warned that there would be a price to pay for the imposition of the regulaton but we ignored the politicians.

This year many of us supported the anticipated 1% reduction in sales tax and a reduction in auto licensing fees.

Now we have to face the consequences of our choices. State parks are being closed, the highways are falling apart, and the schools lack funds to employ all the needed teachers. The final blow is our famed higher education system is now too expensive for the middle class. Even community college are asking students to pay $26.00 per unit in Los Angeles.

I earned by four year college degree by attending a junior college for two years at a cost of $6.50 per semester and two years at a state university at $42 a semester. The books cost more than the enrollment fees. I graduated in 1962.

In 1960, UCLA tuition fees were practically non-existent. However, by 1985 they had reached $722. Today University of California 2011-12, systemwide tuition and fees for California residents will be $11,124.

All students enrolling at California State University pay the systemwide State University Fee which is currently $4230 per academic year for undergraduate students enrolling in more than 6 units per term.

The consequence of our selfish decision to control property taxes is the 11.9% unemployment rate, the growing number of poorly educated citizens that lack the skills to compete in a more technologically demanding society, the deteriorating highway system, the closing of state parks, etc.

By the way California is not alone. Massachusetts, Oregon, Colorado and Florida all went on to copy key provisions of the Proposition 13, while voters in 18 other states passed nearly 40 statewide tax-limiting measures.

It should come as no surprise that Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report, which compares the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds in 70 countries around the world, ranked the United States 14th out of 34 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries for reading skills, 17th for science and a below-average 25th for mathematics.