What Would Orwell Think?

Reading Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia." Per Google Maps, Barcelona plaza he mentions as site of street battle is now home to an Apple store.

When I saw this tweet a few mornings ago, two things went through my mind:

1. I have to read Orwell's essays.
2. That sounds like Steven Pinker's point from The Better Angels of Our Nature about there not being any wars between countries that have at least one McDonald's.

The fact there's an Apple store in Barcelona indicates two things:

• That it's safe enough to protect the company's property with rule of law.
• That there are people who can afford Apple's products.

Once a company invests in a place, though, it becomes a further force in making sure those criteria remain in place -- especially the rule of law.

That may or may not be a perfect system (as Matt Bruenug has discussed in his series of posts about property equaling implied violence), but it seems better to me than the alternative.

All of that gives me hope that the Obama administration's economic sanctions against prominent Russians may help to prevent an outright war between Russia and the Ukraine.

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Orwell tweet by Jason Noble (@jasonnobleDMR).