by Steven Greenhut, Cause, November 29, 2024.
Excerpt:
The progressive motion is greatest recognized for meddling in every part and attempting to ban and cajole us. As an alternative of sticking with the concept of freedom, nevertheless, the MAGA motion has determined to echo its enemies, rally folks round their cultural tribe and take part all of the enjoyable of regulating, mocking, and hectoring the American folks.
The result’s a unending grudge match, with no matter facet is victorious utilizing the authorities to stay it to the opposite facet. There are exceptions, resembling Trump’s promise to slash federal businesses (one thing we’ve heard many instances earlier than however by no means quantities to something), however general it is a disturbing improvement.
DRH remark: Depend me out of the grudge match. I proceed to speak to, and be pleasant with, each side (as if there are solely 2 sides), in the event that they’re keen to speak.
by Veronique de Rugy, Cause, November 29, 2024.
Excerpt:
For the previous few many years, Congress has remodeled its constitutional “energy of the purse” from a software of accountable governance into an instrument of fiscal destructiveness. Probably the most seen signal is a nationwide debt that simply crossed the $36 trillion threshold, barely three months after reaching $35 trillion. That is nuts. This 12 months’s funds deficit is $1.9 trillion and can be $2.8 trillion in 10 years. As an alternative of training cautious budgeting and oversight, Congress repeatedly depends on large omnibus spending payments, usually handed in haste with out correct evaluate.
DRH word:
I significantly preferred Vero’s opening passage:
America’s greatness lies not in perfection however in her relentless pursuit of it. For practically 250 years, this nation has strived to completely notice the revolutionary beliefs specified by its founding paperwork. Whereas we now have usually fallen quick, our capability for self-reflection and renewal conjures up hope and spurs enchancment.
Why? Two phrases. Phrases that I usually say don’t belong in a dialogue of presidency however I believe belong right here: the phrases “we” and “our.” Veronique, who moved right here from France, clearly thinks of herself as an American. I, who moved right here from Canada, consider myself as an American. So the “we” and “our” have particular that means for me.
By Matt Zwolinski, Cause, January 2025.
The e-book’s core concept, to place a classy argument reasonably crudely, is that the philosophers have screwed us all up. Philosophers, Hasnas argues, are inclined to put far an excessive amount of inventory within the building of logically constant techniques of thought, continuing from premise to conclusion in a neat, orderly sequence. Logic units the usual, and if the world fails to stay as much as that normal, effectively, that’s the world’s drawback, not ours.
For Hasnas, in contrast, desirous about politics begins not with an ethical principle however with the precise conflicts folks face once they go in regards to the tough enterprise of dwelling in a neighborhood collectively. Justice will not be one thing first discerned by philosophical motive after which utilized (by lesser minds) to settle specific disputes. Justice develops out of these disputes as an emergent phenomenon, usually in methods which might be neither foreseen nor meant by the folks immediately concerned.
The check of a principle of justice, on this strategy, will not be logical consistency or completeness. To ask this of justice is to ask an excessive amount of—and to ask greater than is required. We don’t want an hermetic principle; we merely want guidelines that convey a dispute to an finish and permit folks to get on dwelling collectively in peace.
by Geoffrey Miller, The Nerve, November 20, 2024.
Excerpt:
Take China, for instance. The Western stereotype is that China is the land of totalitarian thoughts management, so its universities should be wastelands of mental conformity in comparison with American universities, proper? In my expertise, the alternative is true.
Often I train psychology at a big American state college. However through the peak of the Covid pandemic (2021-2022), I ended up educating three on-line lessons for Chinese language College of Hong Kong – Shenzhen (CUHK-SZ). It is a new, selective, English-language college in Shenzhen, a affluent little city of 18 million those who grew to become the tech middle of China.
I encountered a outstanding stage of educational freedom and tolerance.
True, there are some political taboos in Chinese language universities. Every division has a Chinese language Communist Social gathering (CCP) political officer monitoring course content material for any overt criticism of the CCP or President Xi Jinping, or for selling unacceptable views about Tibet, Taiwan, or Tiananmen Sq.. All people is aware of what these particular taboos are and the few traces to not cross.
However past that, I encountered a outstanding stage of educational freedom and tolerance. I actually tried to push the bounds, to see how the Chinese language college students and directors would reply. Other than my on-line lectures, we had vigorous dialogue boards each week the place college students advocated for his or her views, critiqued the lectures and assigned readings, debated one another, and shared hyperlinks to articles, movies, memes, and information gadgets.
DRH remark: I don’t presume, however I do surprise if Professor Miller would have the identical diploma of educational freedom if he have been bodily educating in China.
