the dissident frogman · time to take sides

So its seems that Google is looking for new ways to spend its money. While it is of little interest to both you and me — unless you plan to launch an "exceptional start-up" — the closing words of that BBC "article" got me raising a pair of eyebrows:

Mr Anton [a partner at UK-based venture capitalist Amadeus] said he was not concerned that this would happen with [Google's] latest venture.

"Entrepreneurism is the antithesis of monopoly. It is a case of a thousands flowers blooming. It is a good time to be investing and a good time to build companies," he said.

Nah, you're not dreaming. That Euro-venture capitalist just (mis)quoted Mao (the Chinese Communist mass murderer, not the inductive reasoning card game). Yeah, it's hilarious.

I once attended the wedding of a financial analyst only to find myself among a bunch of well-to-do traders in their early thirties, headed from fancy Parisian apartments in their Porsche roadsters, yet lauding the emasculated-sounding singer of Coldplay for his "involvement", swapping opinions on different brands of "fair" trade coffee, sipping relatively expensive wines while bashing "ultraliberalism"¹, and wondering what the heck I was doing here².

That's Europe's great tragedy: decades of Leftist public education totally infected all sectors of society — as a result, these guys who should naturally be the staunchest advocates of Capitalism end up "working the markets" from a Socialist-Communist cultural perspective, and (mis)quoting Mao without even noticing.

Then they wonder why it doesn't work, blame it on Capitalism and elect President Windbag Sarkozy to go to the G20, bash "Anglo-Saxon economies" and pull a drama queen number if he feels the rest of the world is not marching as enthusiastically towards cloaked Communism as the French, who are always right and how can you even think of doubting that you bougre de sale Capitalist Cowboy you?