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Wili Wáchendon
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5 months ago
in Partisanship on Will Wilkinson
No doubt becoming Canadian will cement your leftward drift, Will.
4 years ago
in Magic Chaitball: Outlook Not So Good on Will Wilkinson
No wonder they're pissed. Their sole goal is electoral viability, and they can't even manage that! So 'winning the argument' becomes 'winning elections' and, where possible, 'preserving existing domestic entitlement programs'. Never mind how much they suck, because if we let the capitalist pigdogs destroy them, we'll have *nothing*.
Is it any wonder such a reactionary phenomenon is a little lacking in.. inspiration? If Republicans just talked family values, sustaining traditional institutions\hierarchies in the face of rapidly advancing plural heterogenous modernity, they'd have a similar dilemma.
What's to be done? Fully embrace economic (neo)liberalism, the bloodthirsty unbridled competition of the marketplace, without abandoning progressive ideals, or be doomed to intellectual vacuity, preserving the remnants of a golden age that-never-was! Champion a citizen's dividend to replace welfare payments, electoral reform, tax on land values, negative externalities and inheritance rather than productive activity of the average working stiff, unilaterally opening up western markets to the developing world, provide real opposition to ever-expanding IP law that is becoming more draconian, absurd, and harmful to the world's poorest every day, and rediscover the left's fondness for voluntary co-operation. Lookit: ideas!
Is it any wonder such a reactionary phenomenon is a little lacking in.. inspiration? If Republicans just talked family values, sustaining traditional institutions\hierarchies in the face of rapidly advancing plural heterogenous modernity, they'd have a similar dilemma.
What's to be done? Fully embrace economic (neo)liberalism, the bloodthirsty unbridled competition of the marketplace, without abandoning progressive ideals, or be doomed to intellectual vacuity, preserving the remnants of a golden age that-never-was! Champion a citizen's dividend to replace welfare payments, electoral reform, tax on land values, negative externalities and inheritance rather than productive activity of the average working stiff, unilaterally opening up western markets to the developing world, provide real opposition to ever-expanding IP law that is becoming more draconian, absurd, and harmful to the world's poorest every day, and rediscover the left's fondness for voluntary co-operation. Lookit: ideas!
4 years ago
in PosnerBlogging: Take One on Will Wilkinson
Matt:
"I'll grant that some devotional environments are explicitly designed to induce a sort of temporary euphoria, but those are the exceptions, and they don't account for the prevalence of religious identification"
Many do convert due to some kind of 'spiritual experience', though. John C. Wright a notable recent example http://mostlyfiction.com/authorqa/wright.htm
McClain:
Identifying atheism/agnosticism with teen rebellion is breathtakingly patronising. As it happens, I was raised atheist, and never identified as anything else, though it took a little longer for my worldview to become fully naturalistic. YMMV
"I'll grant that some devotional environments are explicitly designed to induce a sort of temporary euphoria, but those are the exceptions, and they don't account for the prevalence of religious identification"
Many do convert due to some kind of 'spiritual experience', though. John C. Wright a notable recent example http://mostlyfiction.com/authorqa/wright.htm
McClain:
Identifying atheism/agnosticism with teen rebellion is breathtakingly patronising. As it happens, I was raised atheist, and never identified as anything else, though it took a little longer for my worldview to become fully naturalistic. YMMV
4 years ago
in Rorty Phones It In on Will Wilkinson
Just because people make predictably bad choices in certain domains doesn't automatically mean the state will do a better job, or that state intervention will lead to better ends. Unintended consequences and all that. Without very strong proof that state intervention is superior, I tend to be a silly liberal and put trust in people to make their own choices, even when I know they'll make the wrong ones. I also think people should be allowed to gamble and take drugs, even though every sane person knows it's a bad idea to let people destroy their lives because this choice was available to them.
Also, does Cato's plan preclude some kind of minimal safety net to prevent people engaging in cannibalism? Ideally, of course, this could be done completely privately.
Also, does Cato's plan preclude some kind of minimal safety net to prevent people engaging in cannibalism? Ideally, of course, this could be done completely privately.
