Art imitates life

The ever-fabulous Dr. Boli offers a fable about Myanmar.

Comments

I see that the boy is Burma but who are the parents? The U.N.? International aid agencies? The collection of other concerned countries?

It was cute but I don't think a methaphor comparing soveriegn nations to children foolishly defying their parents is terribly helpful, no matter how foolish the actions of the nation may be.

Perhaps a better allegory might be a little boy burning down a section of the playground with other children trying to help him stop it...

Posted by Bob | May 16, 2008 3:48 PM

Burma. It's about Burma. There aren't any Myanmarese or Myanmartians.

Posted by RW Rogers | May 16, 2008 4:15 PM

The parental analogy is uncomfortably colonial.

Posted by Toxic | May 16, 2008 6:32 PM

This is a disturbing attempt at a metaphor.

Isn't the libertarian viewpoint that nations are like people? If so, aren't they all co-equal adults, not children and parents?

And anyway, is this supposed to be a lesson to teach us (as parents) to knock down the door an save the room? Humanitarian invasions seem to be fraught with at least the same level of peril as national security invasions. So I'm not sure how this should be viewed coming from someone who now believes the Iraq invasion was folly.

Posted by Nessuno | May 16, 2008 7:53 PM

"Perhaps a better allegory might be a little boy burning down a section of the playground with other children trying to help him stop it..."

Not really. A better allegory would be a teacher burning down his classroom, with all of his students in it, because he didn't want the other teachers to see that he'd been using matches to burn some of his students.

Posted by Ann | May 16, 2008 11:59 PM

Ann - Yours is much better; I like it.

Posted by Bob | May 17, 2008 9:43 AM

Isn't the libertarian viewpoint that nations are like people?

The doctrinaire libertarian viewpoint tends to sputter and stall when 100,000 are dying of disease and starvation following a natural disaster, and the decision to not allow outside aid workers in isn't, in any sense, their own.

Second nominating Ann's version as more apt.

Posted by Justin JJ | May 17, 2008 10:34 AM

Of course, all such metaphors tend to be a bit weak when they imply that kicking in the door is a solution. Forcibly delivering aid requires an order of magnitude more logistics than getting the local government to agree to help. Air dropping supplies all over leads to food riots. Effectively, an Afghanistan sized invasion is required to deliver supplies and maintain order and security for the aid workers. Organizing that takes weeks at best if everyone immediately agrees.

Posted by Justin JJ | May 17, 2008 10:39 AM

We might also note that there's a difference between playing w/ matches & being hit w/ a natural disaster. And that once the boy has admitted that he needs the fire extinguisher he can stop worrying that he'll in trouble for playing w/ matches, as it would be obvious to everyone that he has.

(Not in anyway a defense of Burman/Myanmaran generals, just an offense against this "fable.")

Posted by Malignant Bouffant | May 17, 2008 7:24 PM

Here's another parable:

Once there was a doctor who worked in a hospital. He noticed that a lot of sick people were coming in when it was far too late to save them. If only they had been able to receive medical treatment sooner.

So he founded a medical SWAT team that took to roving the streets of the city. They would raid fast-food joints, rounding up people in the early stages of diabetes. They would burst into apartments and destroy cartons of cigarettes. They posted guards in supermarkets, intercepting the morbidly obese as they attempted to make their way to the junk-food aisles.

And they did save a number of people from early deaths. But the people of the city really grew to resent and even hate this medical SWAT team. And lots of other people still died, because it turns out you can't save everyone.

And all the doctor's colleagues, while applauding his noble goals, couldn't help telling him that this is why we have hospitals rather than medical SWAT teams. We're not gods, and we're not even really heroes. We're just doctors. We save who we can save, and help those who ask for help, but it's the height of hubris to believe we can save everyone, and it's beyond hubris to believe that we should even try.

--

On Burma: Give what aid is accepted, take in any refugees who manage to escape, but let's drop any talk of humanitarian invasion. The Burmese government bears the sin for what they're doing to their people. Our duty is to help where we can, not to forcibly take over the world, not even for the best of intentions.

Posted by Mr. Parable | May 18, 2008 12:42 PM