This got me thinking, I wonder if the phenomenon of neo-conservativism isn't a secular manifestation of the same tendency to fundamentalism in reaction to post-modernity. In a world where issues are becoming more global and increasingly complicated, is it perhaps the same impulse that causes people to seek refuge in such simple, rigid dogmata as "America is always right" and "poor people are just lazy"?

This, she says, explains the tendency in the US of people to endorse things like the War on Drugs or other similar draconian measures (such as the harsh 3-strikes-you're-out laws which make no exceptions) that would never pass muster in other Western nations.

And what is the role of post-modernity in this? We talk a lot about how the television news sells fear, but the rise of the televisual medium is also what Baudrillard sees as the beginning of post-modernity. Perhaps the hyperreality of the news coverage is what creates such a potent feeling of dread.

The desire for self-determination can manifest itself in many different ways. Sometimes, it leads to a military buildup and a war of independance. Sometimes it means placing more faith into the afterlife, where one would be free from domination.

Some people turn to God, some turn away from God. Some turn to violence. Some to rigid moral codes; but the point is that they are all manifestations of the desire to escape the absurdity of everyday life, to either change something or to hope for something better later.

The problem is, this runs into opposition from the social and fiscal conservatives and if there's anything that we learned as kids, it's that double-teaming someone is a great way to make sure they never win.

Funny thing about that is economists seem to abhor monopoly in the economy, but demand it in the political arena. The mantra is that economic progress creates political stability, but economic progress cannot happen without some stability, so in the mean time, dictatorships and military juntas are just fine.

Who was that famous economist who said "In the long term, we are all dead."

So increasing democracy is actually politically destablizing, and not really in the interests of a "free" economy at all. Fiscal conservatives are all for interventionism, particularly when it comes to enforcing individual property rights on natural resources, and protecting them from more "efficient" (read: cheap goods) economies like Japan, Indonesia or Mexico.

Fascism is an excellent incentive to foreign investment, pity about those who are subject to it, but of course, if they just pulled themselves up by their bootstraps...