Saturday, October 31, 2009

Capitalism cliches

"Bolstering these cases with brief studies on Egypt and Pakistan, Nasr suggests that where capitalism flourishes, so, too, do tolerance and moderation." I mean, notions like that need to be substantiated and not repeated like cliches. It can be easily argued that the advent of capitalism in Egypt was accompanied with more intolerance and fanaticism. Under the socialist regime of Nasser, Muslim-Christian clashes were unheard of. Equally, Saudi Arabia is a capitalist country, and unless I am missing something there is no evidence of either moderation or tolerance, unless both are defined as the tendency to make peace and alliances with Israel. Also, don't forget that Pinochet's Chile was the epitome of the Chicago model of ultra-capitalism. And don't forget Lebanon up to 1975: a model of Western capitalism hailed right and left. (thanks Ziyaad)