Devin gave me a Thomas Sowell book for my birthday which I just finished reading. It is the second work of his I have read, and I really enjoyed it. I am almost finished reading "The Road to Serfdom" by Friedrich Hayek, who is much more methodical in making his arguments, but of course Hayek's writings were not produced with the general public in mind, where Sowell's editorials are definitely geared for wider readership.
One of Sowell's most potent points is that very little critical analysis and debate takes place in politics and higher education does not prepare people for such critical analysis. Once we attach ourselves to a view, we tend to hold it dear and not entertain other viewpoints.
I am pretty set in my conservative (19th century "liberal") ways and everything I have read lately tends to echo my own feelings. It is probably time to consider another viewpoint. Doing so may strengthen my convictions, but is bound to help me understand how others think, and I am always interested to learn about that. I appreciate Hayek's consistent refusal to ascribe bad motives to those of his acquaintances who believed differently. Sowell's impatience may have cooled a little with age, but I think he still has a rough time thinking well of otherwise intelligent people who continue to harbor what he views as destructive ideas.
Any suggestions as to what I should read next?
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4 comments:
Absolutely: For a New Liberty by Murray N. Rothbard. 'Twill open your eyes.
Thanks, Nic. I'll check it out. I believe I have a heavy-duty libertarian streak. I read Ron Paul's "A Manifesto" over a year ago, and enjoyed it. But I am no purist, so maybe this will help me understand the more concentrated strains of the libertarian viewpoint.
I also enjoy movies. Creighton, would you recommend An Inconvenient Truth? Ironically I read Glenn Beck's An Inconvenient Book without ever seeing the Al Gore movie. Has anyone seen the "Superman" movie about education?
I thought the movie was interesting, but pathetic scientifically speaking. There are some no-no's when talking about research and establishing causal relationships and Al Gore ignores all of those. He exaggerates findings, embelishes studies, and kind of throws studies in the mix to try and validate what he's saying. If you check the website and look under his works cited, it's really pathetic. He cites a newspaper article, "nature", and several other non-credible sources. It's no more credible, in my eyes, than the film Armageddon.
Now that being said, I think some research that has been done is credible enough to be concerned about what is happening with climate change, but we certainly can't state what is absolute truth and what the cause is. Unfortunately that's just the way science goes.
Also on an unrelated note, I got tired of voting for so many republicans today because no one else was running against them, that I wrote your name in Chris for Cache County attorney.
Here's my recommendation for a different perspective:
A Failure of Capitalism: The Crisis of 08 and the Descent into Depression, by the Hon. Richard A. Posner, Chief Circuit Judge on the 7th Cir. Ct. of Appeals.
I haven't read the book yet, but would like to if I had some more time. What is interesting is that Posner has been the most recognizable and outspoken leader of the relatively conservative/libertarian law and economics movement for decades. The title of the book suggests an about-face. If nothing else, it probably took a lot of intellectual courage and honesty for a man of Posner's reputation to write a book like this with such a bold title. It would be interesting to see what changed his mind.
Apparently, you can get a used hard cover copy on Amazon for 4 bucks plus shipping.
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