Thursday, October 29, 2009
Ayn Rand's Originality
One of the things I find most interesting in Professor Kobylka's Cycles of American Political Thought is his discussion of Social Darwinism in the late 19th century. Much of Ayn Rand's philosophy seems to come right out of William Graham Sumner's writings.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Ayn Rand's Imagination
I am currently reading Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right by Jennifer Burns. In an interesting juxtaposition, I am also currently listening to Cycles of American Political Thought from the GREAT COURSES series taught by Professor Joseph F. Kobylka of Southern Methodist University. It is my opinion that the misanthropic Rand was clueless about American history.
Al Franken Spanks Hudson Institute on Medical Bankruptcies
I understand that Minnesotans were reluctant to elect another entertainer after their experience with Jesse Ventura, but I think they can be happy with their junior senator.
New Blog Title
I have never been particularly happy with my blog's title. It was inspired by a conservative Christian blog that I used to follow called "Culture Campaign" that disabled its comment function because the bloggers got tired of responding to me, however I have always wanted something different.
My new title is based on an exchange found in the play Inherit the Wind which is in fact taken from the transcript of the original Scopes Monkey Trial where Clarence Darrow was questioning William Jennings Bryan.
My new title is based on an exchange found in the play Inherit the Wind which is in fact taken from the transcript of the original Scopes Monkey Trial where Clarence Darrow was questioning William Jennings Bryan.
Matthew Harrison Brady: I do not think about things I do not think about.
Henry Drummond: Do you ever think about things that you do think about?
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
I Don't Get the Religious Right's Take on Free Markets
My evangelical Christian sparring partner ChrisB tells me his one of his reasons for preferring free markets to regulation: is “the belief that the people in government are no less wicked than those in business and usually not as bright.”
As an aside, I find it ironic that anyone who would vote for George Bush and Sarah Palin would be criticizing the lack of bright people in government. When you vote for people who are convinced that government cannot do anything right, you shouldn’t be surprised when it doesn’t.
As far as comparative morality goes, I agree that people in government and people in business have an equal capacity for wickedness. I just have a very difficult time seeing how that fact provides any justification for arbitrarily choosing to allow the latter group to pursue its interests unchecked. The Constitution was designed to provide checks and balances so that man’s propensity to pursue self-aggrandizement at the expense of the common good could be curbed and channeled. However, the only check on the wickedness of businessmen is the government.
I couldn’t help reflecting on ChrisB’s comment as I was reading a post on Barry Ridholtz’s blog titled Why Financial Reform Died: “Banks Run Congress.” Despite the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, it is looking increasingly less likely that there will be any meaningful reform legislation. This is due entirely to the fact that the free market ideology that has held sway over the last thirty years has allowed the wicked business people that the religious right so willingly accommodates to acquire complete control of the wicked government people of whom the religious right is so terrified.
As an aside, I find it ironic that anyone who would vote for George Bush and Sarah Palin would be criticizing the lack of bright people in government. When you vote for people who are convinced that government cannot do anything right, you shouldn’t be surprised when it doesn’t.
As far as comparative morality goes, I agree that people in government and people in business have an equal capacity for wickedness. I just have a very difficult time seeing how that fact provides any justification for arbitrarily choosing to allow the latter group to pursue its interests unchecked. The Constitution was designed to provide checks and balances so that man’s propensity to pursue self-aggrandizement at the expense of the common good could be curbed and channeled. However, the only check on the wickedness of businessmen is the government.
I couldn’t help reflecting on ChrisB’s comment as I was reading a post on Barry Ridholtz’s blog titled Why Financial Reform Died: “Banks Run Congress.” Despite the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, it is looking increasingly less likely that there will be any meaningful reform legislation. This is due entirely to the fact that the free market ideology that has held sway over the last thirty years has allowed the wicked business people that the religious right so willingly accommodates to acquire complete control of the wicked government people of whom the religious right is so terrified.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Why I Love the Kindle
The best thing about the Kindle is the ability to download book samples. Usually you get the introduction and part of the first chapter.
Before I went away for the weekend, I downloaded samples of everything that looked interesting from Amazon's recommendations as well as from recent book reviews I have read. Unfortunately I wound up with a number of books that I want to read and it was very difficult deciding between Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free by Charles P. Pierce, The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War by Andrew J. Bacevich, Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back by Frank Schaeffer, or After the Fall: The Inexcusable Failure of American Finance by Kevin Phillips.
I finally went with Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party by
Max Blumenthal
Before I went away for the weekend, I downloaded samples of everything that looked interesting from Amazon's recommendations as well as from recent book reviews I have read. Unfortunately I wound up with a number of books that I want to read and it was very difficult deciding between Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free by Charles P. Pierce, The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War by Andrew J. Bacevich, Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back by Frank Schaeffer, or After the Fall: The Inexcusable Failure of American Finance by Kevin Phillips.
I finally went with Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party by
Max Blumenthal
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