Google, China and the cult of Mammon

So Google has joined the ranks of companies helping the ChiComs keep their subjects in the dark. So much for "do no evil." They've even pulled their do no evil statement from the Web. Their rationale? That this was the only way to do business in the emerging market, and that maybe they could do some good there if only they can manage to have a presence.

Both these defenses are complete and utter bovine excrement.

Let's look at the first one. Call this the "it's just business" defense, or the Godfather defense. The implication is: we care about right and wrong, really we do, but only if it doesn't interfere with making money. Now there's nothing wrong with money per se. Money is good. Everyone should be concerned with making money. The difference between a practical person and a soulless, greedy bastard is this: whether right and wrong are the top priority, or whether money and power trump morality. I say right and wrong must come first, or else all civil society comes apart. People who think anything else comes first are behind all of what is wrong with the world. They are the enemies of humanity. They are evil. They deserve no consideration whatever.

Okay, how about that second line? Call this "gotta be in the game to win." No, you don't gotta be in the game to win. If the game is rigged - and this one certainly is - your best bet is to change the rules of the game. You can't do that from within the game. (Of course, if you're really on the other team...)

It's been about 16 years since Tienanmen Square. All that time we keep hearing talk about how the way to democratize China is to bring it into the world economic community. Economic prosperity will lead to democracy... somehow. When? What's the timetable? Oh, never mind the timetable. I know demanding a timetable can be unfair sometimes. Let me ask another question: where are the unmistakable signs of progress? The only time China ever lets any dissidents out of jail is when the United States leans on them. As soon as the pressure is off, they put `em right back in the gulag again. The only sign I see of emerging democracy is reports of widespread riots, many in the rural areas where the prosperity *hasn't* happened.

This economic investment is *not* helping to free the Chinese. It's helping to keep them repressed. Never mind the theory. I'm concerned about the facts.

So, then. We've revealed the enemy, by blowing away the smokescreen of lies and doubletalk. The enemy is not an organization or ideology. It is Mammon, the god of Just Business. Both Communists and capitalist worship this idol. Some people own money and power. Nothing wring with that as such. But sometimes money and power own people. This is Mammon. Mammon reduces humans to commodities, and society to the equivalent of war. It despises freedom, equal opportunity, competition, truth and basic decency. It must be slain.

Mammon rules in lower Manhattan, in Hollywood and in Redmond, Washington. It rules in Communist China. It rules in Iran, and Saudi Arabia. It rules in sub-Saharan Africa and South America. (No, Mammon does not bring about wealth as such - merely its concentration in the hands of a few.)

Mammon's worshipers shift their ideological rhetoric to suit the needs of the moment. They can pass themselves off as being of the right or the left or even the center, because they truly believe in nothing but Mammon. In practise, they tend to be pro big government *and* pro big business. What they really are is pro bigness. The closest thing they have to a sincere political ideology is Leftism, precisely because Leftism is utterly bereft of positive values.

Liberty under law is the friend of humanity. But Mammon is hostile both to liberty and to law.

So, how do we defeat Mammon? First, defense. We must champion all that Mammon hates. Liberty under law. Free speech. Individual rights. Individual responsibility. Common sense. Common decency. Free enterprise, by which I mean competition to provide value to consumers, and the sort of innovation that comes only from small enterprises. All these we must advocate, and loudly. We who enjoy freedom of speech, let us make the most of it.

Second, offense. Communist China is *not* a legitimate government. There is no real law there, only power and money. They are using the computers we invented, bought with money we invested, to spam us and to hack us, but this is as nothing compared to what they do to their own subjects. A state of war is the absence of a state of law. And that's exactly what we have here. So no compunctions about being nice or law abiding. These ideas simply don't apply to the situation. I'm not saying we should be utterly amoral in our actions. The end does not justify the means for us, as it did for Lenin. But results justify both ends and means. Let us act in such a way as to bring about a positive net result.

Also, I don't advocate vigilante attacks against corporations in the free world who are collaborating with the enemy. There's law here, even if it isn't always just, and we could get into both legal trouble and P.R. difficulties. But on a global scale, there is no real law. There is no real international law, because there is no international Sheriff or deputies. Bush is trying, but he's too narrowly focused on the Islamist threat right now. So we need international vigilantes.

All of us who care about humanity must attack regimes such as Communist China by any means we can devise. Our first target should be their censorship mechanisms. They can survive for a while without foreign investment or foregin technology, but they can't last a week without censorship. Forget boycotting Google, Cisco and Microsoft. This would be a fine gesture, but it's not nearly enough by itself. Maybe Congress will do something about these traitors, and maybe not. But there are always more Mammon wosrshippers eager to be of service for the right price. What I'm calling for is this: every one of us with computer skills ought to look for ways to defeat censorship in China and elsewhere, via technical means.

There is no international law, but there is an international Internet. Naturally, the Internet is a lawless place. Anyone, who's been spammed or subject to a hack attack from overseas and tried to get satisfaction, knows there are no cops to call who can do anything. We're all pretty much on our own online. The Internet is a key battleground. Why cede it to the enemy by our own inaction?

I'll go into more detail about this in a later post. But for now, please digest this idea: hack China!


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