Bolivia and the evolving technology of love

The always-brilliant Wretchard the Cat at Belmont Club has some very important commentary on the election in Bolivia that applies to the world at large: 

Politics in the Third World has long been principally a synonym for plunder. The sole variation from this boring theme lay in finding new and innovative alibis under which to commit the intended looting. Throughout the 1990s traditional elites operated under the banner of the free trade, economic liberalization and privatization -- while doing nothing like that. Each time, the local elites were at pains to emphasize their theft was at the behest; indeed the compulsion of international lending institutions. Though economics in the Third World very often consisted of banditry planned locally; it was always attributed internationally, preferably to Washington; and for decades no one was overly concerned at this sickening charade because these dens of corruption were distant from the centers of world power. Until September 11.

While radical Islam is the best known form of chaos from the Third World it was merely the worst -- but not the only -- form of dysfunction. There were many other countries where things simply didn't work, and where their overlords made a career of covering their crimes by claiming subservience to an 'international' program, as simple misdirection. The post-colonial world fell to pieces in a million ways; united only in a single, agreed-upon scapegoat: the USA. Chavez can be depended on to destroy his own country; as did Castro and as probably, will Evo Morales. Yet in the end, they too, will attribute their failings to America. What's needed is some way to make each nation consciously responsible for its own destiny. Whether in Iraq or elsewhere, that's the only way to go.

What he says plays right into my personal belief that entrepreneurialism is the social "technology" that will eventually replace the political systems currently operating so-very-nominally in the Third World. And that the most important "post-political" action we can take is any action that abets the distributed, economic engine with direct (as opposed to governed) capital. Ultimately, this is the way to "usurp" unstable and potentially dangerous governments worldwide, and is the only way to eventually ensure the obsolescence of warfare. 

Yes, I'm a sucker for shameless optimism, especially when it comes to the "future." Which is why I love this passage I read today in Joel Garreau's Radical Evolution, quoting Ray Kurzweil:

What we see in evolution is increasingly accelerating intelligence, beauty. We find evolving organisms, like humans, that are capable of higher emotions, like love....Even 200 years ago, 98 or 99 percent of human beings lived lives of utter desperation. Extreme poverty. Extreme labor. Spending all their time to prepare the evening meal. Extremely disaster-prone. No social safety nets. Now at least an increasing portion of human civilization is free of that level of desperation. So our ability to appreciate arts and music and to have stable relationships is increasing. That was relatively difficult to do even 200 years ago, let alone thousands of years ago.

So, maybe my vision of a post-political era in which we are "governed" by our embedded commitments within elaborately reticular "love" relationships, in the form of a network of equitable exchanges of monetary and non-monetary "goods" isn't so far fetched....  Well, it is Ray Kurzweil, so I guess it's still far-fetched.  But the close-fetched doesn't really interest me.  Which reminds me of yet another quote in Garreau's delicious, lovely book, this one from Alan Kay: "The best way to predict the future is to invent it yourself."