Steven Greenhut reasonNovember 29, 2024.
extract:
The progressive movement is best known for meddling in everything and trying to ban and appease us. But instead of adhering to the ideology of freedom, the MAGA movement decided to echo its enemies, rally people around their cultural tribes, and join in on all the fun of regulating, ridiculing, and ridiculing the American people.
The result is an endless grudge match, with either side coming out victorious. government I’m going to stick it on the other side. There are exceptions, such as Trump’s promise to cut federal agencies (something we’ve heard many times before but mean nothing), but overall, this is a confusing development.
DRH Comment: Leave me out of the grudge match. I continue to talk and be friendly with both sides if they are willing to talk.
Veronique de Rugy, reasonNovember 29, 2024.
extract:
Over the past few decades, Congress has transformed the constitutional “power of the purse” from a tool of responsible governance into an instrument of financial destruction. The most striking sign is that the national debt has surpassed $36 trillion, just three months after reaching $35 trillion. This is crazy. This year’s budget deficit is $1.9 trillion, and within 10 years it will be $2.8 trillion. Instead of exercising careful budgeting and oversight, Congress repeatedly relies on large spending bills, often rushed through without proper review.
DRH Note:
I especially liked the opening verse of Vero.
The greatness of America lies not in perfection, but in the relentless pursuit of perfection. For nearly 250 years, this country has sought to fully realize the revolutionary ideals set forth in its founding documents. Although we often fall short, our capacity for self-reflection and renewal inspires hope and fosters progress.
why? Two words. A word I often say doesn’t belong in discussions about government, but I think it belongs here. The words “we” and “our”. Veronique, who moved here from France, clearly considers herself an American. I moved here from Canada and consider myself an American. So “we” and “our” have a special meaning to me.
Matt Zwolinski reasonJanuary 2025.
To put a complex argument a bit crudely, the central idea of the book is that philosophers have ruined us all. Hasnas argues that philosophers tend to place too much emphasis on building logically coherent systems of thought, progressing neatly and orderly from premise to conclusion. Logic sets the standards, and if the world doesn’t live up to those standards, that’s the world’s problem, not ours.
In contrast, for Hasnas, thinking about politics begins not with moral theory, but with the actual conflicts that people face as they go through the difficult task of living together in community. Justice is not something that is first identified by philosophical reason and then applied (by lower minds) to resolve a particular dispute. Justice develops through these conflicts as an emergent phenomenon, often in ways that were not foreseen or intended by those directly involved.
In this approach, the test of a theory of justice is not logical consistency or completeness. To demand justice is to ask for too much, to ask for more than is necessary. We don’t need a perfect theory. We just need rules that end conflict and allow people to live together in peace.
Geoffrey Miller, nervesNovember 20, 2024.
extract:
Take China, for example. The Western stereotype is that because China is a country of totalitarian mind control, its universities must be wastelands of intellectual conformity compared to American universities. In my experience, the opposite is true.
Normally, I teach psychology at a large state university in the United States. However, during the height of the coronavirus pandemic (2021-2022), I ended up teaching three online classes at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CUHK-SZ). This is a new selective English university in Shenzhen, a prosperous small town of 18 million people that has become China’s technology capital.
I experienced an incredible level of academic freedom and tolerance.
In fact, there is a political taboo in Chinese universities. Each department has a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) political officer who monitors course content that promotes public criticism of the Chinese Communist Party or President Xi Jinping or unacceptable views on Tibet, Taiwan, or Tiananmen Square. Everyone knows what certain taboos are and what are some lines that should not be crossed.
But beyond that, I was exposed to an incredible level of academic freedom and tolerance. I really tried to push the envelope to see how Chinese students and administrators would react. In addition to our online lectures, we have weekly lively discussion forums where students defend their views, critique lectures, assign reading assignments, debate with each other, and share links to articles, videos, memes, and news items.
DRH Comment: Although it seems unlikely, I wonder whether Professor Miller would enjoy the same level of academic freedom if he actually taught in China.
