It’s one thing to make an argument that more individuals would get greater returns doing X than Y, or that common ideas about economic or cultural value are off base. These are great discussions. But when they move from individuals to aggregates, and especially when they move from exploration or persuasion to policy, they descend into stupidity. Or more precisely, what Hayek called the Fatal Conceit.
Tag: persuasion
Are You Being Played?
I suspect Scott Adams has been playing his listeners. I’ve suspected this for months, but have only discussed this with one person. Until now. I’ll go ahead and tell you now what I think has been going on. I believe he is using the technique of “pacing and leading” to get his “conservative” listeners to change their minds on “climate change” (and a few other topics as well).
The Most Controversial Belief
The most controversial belief of libertarians (and partisan Libertarians) is the belief that you’re generally both more entitled and more qualified to run your life than someone else is. Who considers that belief controversial? “Mainstream” politicians and their supporters.
We Need a Substitute for the Word ‘Support’
When people say they support something, it usually means they want governments to make laws that will advance that thing. Legislation is not like business, or family, or society. Those institutions require persuasion and value creation to get the thing you support to win. Legislation is a different beast. The single feature that distinguishes governments from every other institution is that they initiate violence to back everything they do.
Owning the Past
My excellent fellow writer and contributor here at EVC, Kent McManigal wrote a piece recently in which he pointed out that racism is not a permanent affliction. It is only enduring when the holder of racist views continues to stoke that fire.
Why Steve Jobs, not Bill Gates, Was the True Education Visionary
When it comes to education reform, there are generally two camps: those who want to improve the existing mass compulsory schooling system through tweaking and tuning and those who want to build something entirely new and different. Not surprisingly, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was in the “think different” camp, advocating for school choice and vouchers, while Microsoft’s Bill Gates backed the Common Core State Standards and other incremental reforms within the conventional mass schooling model.
Appeasing Robin Hanson’s Critics
Appeasement is greatly underrated. As I’ve explained before: Didn’t the Munich Agreement prove for all time that appeasement doesn’t work? Hardly. Despite its well-hyped failures, appeasement is an incredibly effective social strategy for dealing with the unreasonable and the unjust… also known as 90% of mankind. Whenever someone makes bizarre demands upon me, my default is not…
On Politics V
Politics is the use of violence in society. Which is a bigger evil?: 1) the vices you may oppose, such as drug use, alcohol use, sex work, praying to the wrong god, sketchy business practices, et cetera, or 2) threatening violence and imprisonment against those who engage in whatever it is you consider vice?
Trump’s Foreign Policy War on Americans
Forgive me for repeating myself: Trump is a caricature of a conventional American politician — which is why the political establishment despises him so. He lacks the diplomatic costume that makes brutality acceptable or at least enables people to live comfortably with their heads in the sand.
Anarchism and Kavanaugh
Regarding Brett Kavanaugh, I’ve been wondering how I can blame the state for what we’ve endured these past weeks. I can safely say that without the state, we would have been spared the Kavanaugh episode.