Techno-Confucian Mandate of Heaven

From Bruce Sterling's blog. Appeared in the Straits Times today:

Now that I'm out of Singapore, I reckon it's safe to allege that Singapore has
tidy, authoritarian, city-state machine politics. Presumably, I won't get sued
for libel for saying this. I mean, it's the truth.

Singapore is a very foreign place. Being a Texan, I try not to judge people's political behavior by any abstract standards. For me, it's all about the neighbors -- and Singapore's neighbors are Kuala Lumpur and Djakarta.

I don't see a lot of oppressed
Singaporean dissidents rushing off to the relative freedom of Kuala Lumpur and
Djakarta. On the contrary, people in Malaysia and Indonesia are amazed by any
polity that doesn't run on bribes.

For me, the unsettling aspect of
Singapore isn't their repression, which is subtle and always nicely-dressed in
legalisms. No, the weird part is the public exhortations, the regime's Taoist PR
campaign. They've got some kind of genuine Techno-Confucian Mandate of Heaven
thing going on. It's being carried out by really bright, eager, workaholic city
apparatchiks who are keenly rehearsed.

Once you've got the population
ship-shape through relentless moral pressure and the efficient delivery of
social goods, they really don't require a lot of caning and drug executions; on
the contrary, even though they're not all spontaneous and touchy-feely, they're
proud of themselves. They're not real thrilled at waving party flags and
national banners -- they'd obviously rather go shopping -- but, well, they put
up with the official triumphalism. They seem to take some comfort in knowing
that some exquisitely educated Lion City mandarin is firmly in charge of coining
slogans.

You know what? If Singapore had just been hit by a giant typhoon,
the regime wouldn't be snivelling and making excuses about the hunger and
looting. Eco-catastrophe and martial law would surely put the Singapore
power-elite really on top of their game. They wouldn't spin their "clean-up
effort". They would assign resources, put trained people on the job and actually
clean up. Because they are not just a spin machine. They possess
competence.

Competence doesn't seem like a big deal until you are forced to
realize that your own government has none.

Another read:
Disneyland with the Death Penalty
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.04/gibson_pr.html