The wonders of cognitive dissonance

Read an article in the Economist today about a little bookstore in China. The bookstore has established a significant following for its excellent collection of communist literature. The store's built a popular website, and even has a well-attended speaker series.

And it's private. And profitable. And quite good at marketing. So while they rail against the evils of capitalism and free markets, it is China's market liberalization that has allowed the store to even exist. The article mentioned that they've even had an impact on how public officials refer to things because of the store's growing influence.

If the ideas they promote were full put back into practice in China, it'd be the state telling the store what to do, what to sell, where to be located. There'd likely be no speaker series and surely no website.

It's stories like this that remind me of the power of the market. The invisible hand always moves, even for those who try to bite it.