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September 25, 2005
Book Review: World on Fire
Human nature being what it is, reviewers find it emotionally taxing to recommend a book, when they only partially agree with its central premise and regard its practical advice not merely as useless, but as counterproductive. Occasionally, however, a book's merits so outweigh its faults than an exception is in order. World on Fire is such a book.
In World on Fire : How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability, Yale Law Professor Amy Chua argues the triumph of the Western values of Democracy and Free Market Capitalism create inequality, resentment, ethnic hatred and violence. But before understanding Prof. Chua's argument we must understand her concept of Market Dominant Minorities.
Market Dominant Minorities are minority groups that achieve economic dominance over its neighbors. Some of them are the Ibo of Nigeria, the Lebanese, the Jews and the overseas Chinese. How do those minorities achieve market dominance is explored at length on the book, but it’s open to debate. What is very clear is that those minorities, being culturally and often racially different from the less successful majorities they live with, tend to engender resentment. (I have witnessed this ugly behavior, whose proper name is not 'resentment', but envy, directed against Jews and Chinese in two different countries, whose names I omit.)
Professor Chua argues the explosion of Free Market Capitalism increases resentment against Market Dominant Majorities, because more wealth creates more inequality. But that's not the whole problem. Just as inequality and resentment are increasing, the explosion of Democracy has given the resentful masses the power to strike back at the hated minorities. All sorts of unsavory ideologies benefit from the explosive mix.
That is, then, the book in a nutshell. I hope you read it, and find it as intellectually stimulating as I did.
Note: Last week's review of Red Horizons: Chronicles of a Communist Spy Chief can be found here.
Posted by Ruy Diaz at September 25, 2005 7:28 AM
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