The fallacy of composition is the proposition that the causal relations that hold at the individual level also hold at a collective or aggregate social level. Allow me to play with this fallacy, for nothing helps one to comprehend the problems of the many than to see the problems of the few.
Credit card bills for the holiday shopping season will be sent in the mail soon. Many will suffer through a deficit of funds in their bank account and will have to slash their spending of to get through the month: fewer trips to the mall; fewer chocolate donuts with a hot cup of coffee. Something similar has come to pass in foreign aid allocation. Too many western countries are grinding through the recessionary fiscal year with severe budget deficits, coupled with costly economic stimulus packages that are sinking their budgets deeper into the red. Bilateral and multilateral foreign aid agencies are grasping for whatever funding rich countries are begrudgingly allocating; the lion’s share it seems is going to defense and infrastructure aid. Food security, some government advisors seem to think, does not secure borders. So guns get sent off to poor countries like Bangladesh while already churned butter is left to rot by the bucketsful.
Thus, it is with more than a little morbid resignation, that I post this excellent piece that was broadcast by Al Jazeera some time ago:
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