Outsmarting Yourself

In the days leading up to the Iraqi elections, everywhere I seemed to turn there was someone telling me what a farce these elections were, how no one was going to turn out, how excluded the Sunnis were going to be, and how this was such a distraction from the things that really mattered in Iraq, like security. Oddly enough, most of these arguments came from self-described liberals, despite the fact that if I remove all references to time and place, the thoughts outlined above would be considered decidedly unliberal.

Now that the elections have occurred, many people are racing out to declare it a failure or at best a mixed blessing. I find this upsetting, because it just goes to show that there are no depths that partisan brainwashing can’t reach. This event is one of historic significance, and yet some people still wring their hands about an unbalanced assembly or the resumption of violence.

Of course, most of these people are very intelligent individuals whom I respect a great deal, which exacerbates my disappointment. It’s almost as if too much knowledge and too much reflection can be a bad thing. And it doesn’t just end with the war in Iraq. Issues like Social Security reform are hot topics. And depending on who’s vision of the future (future growth, future demographics, etc) you believe, you can come up with wildly different ideas about what should be done.

And that, my friends, brings me to the point of principles. Principles, while simplistic, offer us some guidlines on how to live and behave, in an uncertain world. One principle is the priciple of democracy. Another principle is the principle of property rights. I would suggest that we be far less willing to compromise our principles in the light of unfavorable conditions or unpopular decisions.