Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
"Libertarians might be wrong about what helps and what hurts. Maybe we’re mistaken in our policy prescriptions. But those mistakes, if they exist, aren’t because we 'care' less than liberals"
"As world population peaks and begins to decline later in this century, the strongly religious will stand against the tide. In so doing, they will remake societies and wash away many of our certainties about secularization"
Capitalism may not be perfect, but that's no reason to abandon it. Here's one major flaw that can be fixed: "The world’s productivity revolution is outpacing the political will of rich societies to fairly distribute its benefits"
"When you look at history and when you look at empirical evidence it is clear that the key to prosperity is in institutions, not in culture nor in geography." And that bad institutions were put in place not by mistake, but by design
"For the rich the spirit of cooperation on which democracy depends is only an option, not a necessity. When the rich engage in politics they are not under the same constraints as the rest of us to find a mutually agreeable solution"
"Faced with hard choices, how do we know what is the right thing to do? Is there a theory of justice that can help political judgment?" Azmanova discusses her practical approach to this problem of political philosophy
Review of Jonathan Haidt's "Righteous Mind". Haidt is right to say that there is no universal morality, only values shared by given groups of people. He is wrong to see utilitarianism as the best morality for law and government
Should countries apologise for historic crimes? Consider national identity: Is a country the same one that committed the crime? And collective responsibility: Can an entire population be held accountable for a country's actions?
In 1791, a mass insurrection broke out among Haiti's slaves. Today it is almost forgotten, and yet it shaped history almost as deeply as the two 18th century revolutions with which we are far more familiar – those of 1776 and 1789
Some people (usually of high educational attainment and income) argue that political decisions are too important to be left to the uneducated, manipulable masses. Yet evidence does not suggest the masses are irrational
Review of "Why Nations Fail" by Acemoglu and Robinson. Successful nations are ones in which everyone has a chance to share in prosperity and power. Failed nation are ones in which rulers grab power and wealth for themselves
Jonathan Haidt's "Righteous Mind" argues that conservatives are winning the culture wars because they have a better grasp of human nature than liberals do. Life isn't only about fairness. It's also about authority and loyalty
Wikimedia Commons. The Golden Age by Lucas Cranach the Elder
Anonymous Former Intelligence Officer, on negotiation
"Know what you want - and remember that whatever your bottom line is, there's always another line below that"
