John Robb reviews Philip Bobbitt's [Terror And Consent] ISBN:1400042437 - Unfortunately, the book is a complex and legalistic edifice based on several flawed assumptions... I also have a problem with the Market State and [Market World] construct. First, it's vague. Second, it is potentially ruinous. While choices may be available, it says nothing of your ability (your means) to exercise those choices. Who cares if the supermarket offers unlimited choice if you can't afford anything but the generics? It's very likely a market-state would reduce human worth to a mere economic value at the cost of the bonds that hold us together as a community (Social Capital). Perversely, this would serve to create the very violent groups that use terrorism to advance their own economic/social level, since no other values have any power to mitigate/dissuade an impulse to violence. In short, Bobbitt's market-state, a society legitimized by "choice" alone, is insufficiently credible as something we should a) help emerge and b) defend. Hmm, not sure I buy that anti-MarKet bit...

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