I randomly picked up a book the other day. Well not quite randomly, the title intrigued me. It was The Age of Fallibility: The Consequences of the War on Terror by George Soros. I'd never heard of the bloke. It turns out though that he's the 27th richest man in America.

What makes him and his book interesting (to me at least) is that he is a business mogul who has applied his mind, heart and personal fortune into establishing Open Societies. He also happens to be someone who has openly criticised the Bush Administration, the USA and the subsequent War on Terror. His argument is that the War on Terror is a false metaphor and that the States is fast becoming a "closed society" because of it.

I'm used to academics taking this line ... e.g. Prof Noam Chomsky (and getting chastised for openly speaking against US nationalism from within the States), not business men. I find myself strangely drawn to Soros. Not because he takes a line on the States that I enjoy hearing, but because in many ways he represents what is referred to in narrative therapy as an alternative voice - a perspective on a situation/problem that is incongruent with the dominant story around the issue. We do however enjoy subjugating these sorts of voices, and people who take such a stand (especially against the States) are sidelined. Petty folk (i.e. those without Chomsky's audience and Soros' fortune) get silenced.

Come to think of it, I can add Michael Moore to the the list of alternative voices mentioned above that have withstood the silencing process.

I'll post some videos of Soros - but I really do recommend reading his work for an alternative perspective.