One
week ago, the world was shocked by the news of terrorist attacks in Paris. Relatively few took notice of similar attacks
in Syria, Iraq, and Beirut. Such attacks
have become, sadly de-riguer in the Middle East. But we Americans respond more readily to attacks
in Europe because, frankly, they are seen as more “like us.”
Most
knew, even before it was officially announced, that Islamic extremists were
behind the attacks in Paris. As the
details about the terrorists began to emerge, it became clear that most had
become radicalized while residents of the Molenbeek neighborhood of Brussels,
Belgium – France’s next door neighbor.
More about Belgium in a moment.
Here
in America, there is constant talk of reducing the size of Local, State, and
especially Federal governments – most of it coming from self-acknowledged
members of the “tea party”. Much of this
is presented under the guise of efficiency and getting the most bang out of
every taxpayer dollar – certainly laudable goals. But what the tea-partiers really want is weak
government, because of their 18th Century view that the best
government is that which governs least – a view which, at best, must be taken
with many grains of salt. Franklin
Roosevelt turned the idea on its head when he pointed out that the conservative
mantra really meant “that government is best which is most indifferent to mankind”. The tea party views government of all kinds
as part of the “beast.” Hence their
phrase “starve the beast.”
Contrary
to popular belief, the march toward deregulation did not begin with President
Reagan, but with President Carter, who signed legislation deregulating theairline industry. How has that worked
out for airlines and airports in the United States? One need only travel through London’sHeathrow and fly on British Airways and then compare Chicago’s O’Hare airportand service on any domestic carrier for an answer. The deregulation of the financial sector – in
particular the repeal of Glass-Steagall, constituted the primary cause of theMortgage Meltdown of 2007 and Great Recession that followed.
But
the biggest danger of weak government is not that the trains might not run on
time, or even terrorism. It is the
inevitable backlash when weak government fails.
History is replete with examples of how weak, ineffective government led
to disaster, and, ultimately, tyranny.
In
the 1920s, Germany’s Weimar government was so ineffective it couldn’t control
the value of its currency, resulting in hyper-inflation. I vividly recall how my piano teacher
recounted how his teacher, Artur
Schnabel, would only accept cash-payment after performances in Germany during
this period. If he’d accepted a check,
he would have had to wait until the banks were open the next day to cash it –
by which point the value his payment would be halved. So, Schnabel took the cash and spent most of
it immediately. It was the economic
situation in Germany, which made America’s Great Depression look like a country
picnic, that led to the German public giving the Nazi party a ruling majority
in 1933.
More
recently, following the Soviet Union’s collapse in late 1991, a power vacuum
left Boris Yeltsin’s Russian government unable to enforce its own laws -
resulting in a combination of oligarchs holding the real power, and a massive crime wave ranging from financial fraud, to drug trafficking, to child
pornography. And, of course, the
government was unable to deal with food shortages or even provide most basic
services. Small wonder, then, that
Vladimir Putin has been able to hold onto power since 1999 by promising “a
dictatorship of the law”, which was seen as a balm to many Russians whose new
freedoms merely constituted a lack of law & order. While Putin is no Hitler, it’s also clear
that he’s an oppressive tyrant, easily willing to “eliminate” pesky journalists
and others who question his power.
Which
brings us back to Molenbeek. Reports
indicate that the Belgian government knew that Molenbeek was becoming a hotbed
of Islamic radicalism, but was unwilling or unable to do anything about
it. Whether by design, neglect, or
intention, weak government was a contributing factor in the attacks in Paris. While the primary cause was Islamic
extremism, we should bear last week’s events in mind when we hear politicians and protesters propose the
neutering of the government which is charged with, among other things,
protecting us.
