Yes, Virginia, There Is a Leviathan (and it is starting to eat itself).

Not so long ago, I predicted that “Leviathan Will Eat Itself”. The inorexable logic behind this claim is now forcing itself into the news.

For the past decade, one of the big economic buzzwords has been “globalisation” and its critical role in tearing down trade barriers around the world. But the seemingly unstoppable rise of China and India as challengers to the domination of the United States and Europe has started a debate on whether globalisation has gone too far. In particular, the current economic superpowers are worried about control of oil and other resources being sapped by China’s demand.

Careful readers will have noticed that the picture is not of Leviathan but of another (possibly related) reptile, less famous (so far) but more self-referential.

DISCLAIMER
This post is in no way intended as an expression of the sovereign Individual asserting its “rights” against the Community.

Posted by Søren Renner on Monday, July 23, 2007 at 10:42 AM in
Comments (3) | Tell a friend

Comments:

Posted by James Bowery on July 23, 2007, 12:05 PM | #

Also perhaps known as the world girdling serpent in Norse mythology.

For those of us accustomed to your oblique sense of humor, Soren, it may help us for you to elaborate on the distinction you see between “Leviathan” and “Community”.

Posted by Søren Renner on July 23, 2007, 12:11 PM | #

Why, James, if any of us are so accustomed it is welcome news indeed! However, explication is the enemy of obliquity; thus, one has no choice but to decline to elaborate, unless this is the very elaboration you had in mind, in which case one is very glad to have been of service.

Posted by Guessedworker on July 24, 2007, 04:45 PM | #

Sorenus Prolixius (father of Soren Obliquitus), from the first link):-

The truth that is now forbidden and will become dominant is this: that it does not matter whether there are inherent contradictions in the System that would cause it to collapse, or to be vulnerable to defeat and supercession, in a world in which the System could continue indefinitely to grow; the reason that it does not matter is that indefinitely continued growth is not possible in a finite world. This fact follows directly from the observation that the economy is embedded in the physical world, the properties of the exponential, and the laws of thermodynamics; it is familiar enough to thinking persons. What is forbidden is to make the natural inferences from the fact of the inevitability of collapse. The reason it is forbidden is that the conclusions are impious and heretical.

Mark Thirlwell, quoted in the second link:-

“The idea that trade is always win-win, that someone always gets something out of it - where those things are challenged, an obvious place to challenge those is something like a non-renewable resource. If I consume a barrel of oil, that’s one barrel less for you.

“... So certainly, globalisation sceptics, people who are worried about the rise of these new powers say, energy security [and] resource competition, is something where we’ve again created these powerful new competitors, so we’re now engaged in a race for oil around the world.

My questions:-

1) Isn’t resource competition normallyma spur to innovation, thus avoiding collapse, and isn’t the West historically proven in that regard?

2) What happened to Prolixitus?

Next entry: The Bear’s Lair: The decline of Western incomes

Previous entry: “Imagined Communities”: An Imaginary Critique of Nationalism

Existential Issues

White Genocide Project

Of note

General News

Science News

Science Categories

All Categories

The Writers

Each author's name links to a list of all articles posted by the writer; the hashes link to authors' homepages.

Links

Endorsement not implied.

Controlled Opposition

Crime

General

Immigration

Islam

Jews

Nationalist Political Parties

Science

Whites in Africa