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The latest bad idea from UNESCO is a proposal for a new convention to protect "cultural diversity." The convention combines economic protectionism with cultural philistinism--a neat trick. The protectionism comes in an assertion that "cultural activities, goods and services have both an economic and a cultural nature" and so cannot be treated "as solely having commercial value." The upshot is that, freed from trade obligations, countries would be at liberty to define almost anything they liked as a "cultural good" and protect it from competition. (One suspects that American films, music, ...