By the way, Jonah, what does Thomas Friedman have to say about what’s surely the most obvious example of the enlightened autocracy’s “Bam! Just like that“ one-size-fits-all far-sighted centralized planning? I refer to the Politburo’s one-child policy as a result of which (as I’ve said for years):

(a) China will get old before it gets rich;

and (b) it already has the most gender-distorted population cohort in history — and, as a rule, tens of millions of surplus young men with no gals to hand is not a recipe for social stability unless you’re planning on becoming the first gay superpower since Sparta.

But hey, even if the smart set’s “Bam! Just like that” winds up just like something entirely different, it’s still better than all that messy individual liberty, right?