Markets are a reflection of the zeitgeist. The zeitgeist can't help but drive politics and policy. Sometimes, if something looks familiar, it's because it is. In the past, our fear of the outer world has led to a wider and more war-like engagement with it. The Iraq war was a little bit pre-emptive, you might even say premature (and others will say immature), but no one can deny that the outer world is building up into greater challenges to our interests. Whether we (all of humanity) are given the time to address them as peacefully and let the tensions work out through market competition, or whether pressure will build swiftly enough to drive calls for war and violent competition, is largely out of our control.

If the global movie-going zeitgeist is such that outsiders appear terrifying and incomprehensibly violent, I wonder if this is a predictor for what that market will soon require of its politicians?

[via Hip Liz]