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Book Review: “A Conflict of Visions”

I’m giving my highest recommendation to A Conflict of Visions by Thomas Sowell. Easily in the top 10 books I’ve ever read.

Sowell’s thesis is that most political and economic disagreements are not about facts and theories. Those sort of disagreements might be settled. Instead, our conflict are mostly about our visions of how the world works. Those visions are barely compatible.

The problem when our thinking is governed by our visions of how the world works is that those visions don’t have to encompass the possibility that the other visions might be correct. This is much deeper than talking past one another: Sowell’s contention is that, for the most part, we be unable to even hear what others are saying.

At its core, the two visions that Sowell sees are roughly one in which motivations matter more than consequences, and a second in which consequences matter more than motivations. In short, the means justifies the end, and the end justifies the means.

Broadly, Sowell associates the former with contemporary liberalism, and the latter with classical liberalism.

I’ll be following with a quote a day for the next several weeks.

Technorati Tags: sowell,conflict,visions,review,quote

Remembering Jeff Zaslow

The Wall Street Journal is hosting a site of the best columns of the late Jeff Zaslow.

There are about 60 columns going back almost 30 years.

And you know what … he was good enough that I remember just about all of them.

Do yourself a favor and read one a day …

Technorati Tags: jeffrey,zaslow,columns

Moral Acourage

I’ve coined a new word there: acourage — to be free of courage.

My colleague Dave Christensen studies moral courage: in short, how do people get the guts to be outraged and do something about it.

At the other end of the spectrum, David Brooks discusses the modern phenomenon of the absence of moral courage.

First, students often seem unaware of what morality is:

When asked to describe a moral dilemma they had faced, two-thirds of the young people either couldn’t answer the question or described problems that are not moral at all, like whether they could afford to rent a certain apartment or whether they had enough quarters to feed the meter at a parking spot.

To this they add insularity:

Many were quick to talk about their moral feelings but hesitant to link these feelings to any broader thinking about a shared moral framework or obligation. As one put it, “I mean, I guess what makes something right is how I feel about it. But different people feel different ways, so I couldn’t speak on behalf of anyone else as to what’s right and wrong.”

You have to wonder why people have been trained not to act:

Again, this doesn’t mean that America’s young people are immoral. Far from it. But, Smith and company emphasize, they have not been given the resources — by schools, institutions and families — to cultivate their moral intuitions, to think more broadly about moral obligations, to check behaviors that may be degrading. In this way, the study says more about adult America than youthful America.

There’s even a name for our substitution of committee indecision for individual moral corage:

… Sturdy virtues are being diluted into shallow values. Alasdair MacIntyre has written about emotivism, the idea that it’s impossible to secure moral agreement in our culture because all judgments are based on how we feel at the moment. [emphasis added]

I’m not sure what to make of all this.

But, I am discovering personally, that the most resonant event of my life increasingly appears to be when I parked my car across two lanes of oncoming highway traffic to create an island of safety so I could help an old woman who had fallen crossing the street — somehow, my first 33 years had prepared me for that moment, and I’ve been thinking about it for almost 15 years since. What is it about my life that made that decision possible?

Technorati Tags: moral,acourage,courage,emotivism

Another Positive Post About Mormons and Baptism for the Dead

John G. Turner is a graduate of Notre Dame and holds a divinity degree from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

He’s also a non-Mormon expert on Mormons, and here’s what he has to say about the latest controversy:

… In this instance of proxy baptism, though, the level of outrage simply does not match the purported offense.

The Mormon desire to bring Jews, Protestants, Muslims, Catholics and others into their heaven is merely quirky and quixotic—not "scandalous," as Mr. Wiesel says. When Mormons are immersed in water in an attempt to offer salvation to our deceased ancestors, they do no harm to the living or the dead.

I’m still scandalized about baptizing people who died because they were born Jewish; since there’s fairly strong evidence that, for some, being a Jew is a matter of genetics above and beyond faith. But as to the rest, I promise not to be scandalized.

Technorati Tags: mormon,lds,baptism,dead,quirky,quixotic,wiesel,anne,frank

Did MF Global Commit Crimes?

The answer right now is that no one has a f***ing clue. We’re going into our 6th month of that assessment.

That’s not a sign of honest mistakes in the foundering of MF Global:

… An accounting error, according to Phupinder Gill, president of futures-exchange operator CME Group, would normally be "solved in 10 minutes or less." During a recent visit to the Journal, Mr. Gill and CME Executive Chairman Terrence Duffy were careful not to accuse anyone of a crime, but they made clear that many futures market participants believe that's exactly what happened at MF Global.

Mr. Duffy and his colleagues are not disinterested observers. Their futures exchange has suffered reputational damage from the failure of one of its prominent members to provide the most basic customer protection. What is not in dispute is that MF Global broke the rules of the exchange and of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) when MF failed to maintain client funds in segregated accounts. …

Fortunately for investors, it almost never has. "Not for one second" were customer accounts unprotected when the investment bank Drexel Burnham failed in 1990, says Mr. Gill. When Lehman Brothers went bust in 2008, customer funds were also segregated. Mr. Duffy says that one needs to go back to 1936 to find a violation of segregated accounts similar to the MF Global debacle. [emphasis added]

Ya’ know … as a parent, there comes a point where a kid has stalled to long on producing a viable story for it to be accepted as truth.

Technorati Tags: mf global

Obama Foreign Policy Snark

Bret Stephens isn’t happy with what passes for the Obama administration’s policy on Syria:

… The position of the Russians is at least intellectually defensible. Say what you will about Moscow's despotic allies, mercenary interests and autocratic principles, Vladimir Putin has been consistent in sticking up for all three. That's more than can be said for a U.S. administration that urges democracy, nonviolence and human rights for Syria—and pays nothing but lip service to each.

…

There is a good case to be made that we should apply sufficient military pressure on Assad to help tip the scales in favor of the opposition, as we did in Libya. There's also a plausible case to be made that the last thing the U.S. needs is another military entanglement on behalf of a cause we barely know for the sake of a goal we can only hazily define.

But there is no case for lecturing Russia on its own long-standing record of engaging its faithful clients in Syria, much less for invoking the suffering of a people she has no serious intention of saving. Even chutzpah has its limits, Hillary.

Technorati Tags: bret,stephens,hilary,clinton,obama,syria,russia

How Much Is a Tolkien First Edition?

The vXboy asked “How much would it cost to buy a copy of The Lord of the Rings from when it was made?”

After many seconds (minutes actually) of searching, I found this.

A faux set, comprised of two second and one first impression from the first printing, in “fine” condition, can be had for $11,249.95.

Technorati Tags: tolkien,lord,rings,first,edition

Order and Disorder Quote

The story of economics is that most order is not ordered.

A magician got this over a century ago:

Order is never observed; it is disorder that attracts attention because it is awkward and intrusive.

Via Lifehacker.

Technorati Tags: order,disorder,quote

My Family Has Gotten So Many Laughs Out of This Site

Pronunciation Manual is a YouTube channel site offering incorrect pronunciations. Here’s our favorite:

I had a very pretentious professor who used to talk about wine in class, and name drop AOCs, when we were living off graduate student stipends. I wish I’d had the sense to say this back then:

Via Kottke.

Technorati Tags: pronunciation,manual,synecdoche,chateauneuf-du-pape

My Turn to Both Tick Off My Mormon Friends, and Give Them Something Positive to Mull Over

Nasty stuff at the top, good stuff at the bottom.

Mormons are in hot water again for the baptism by proxy of dead Jews; in particular Anne Frank.

The official position of the LDS church is that this is a no-no, and it has apologized. Again.

Sorry folks, this isn’t good enough. If it was, this wouldn’t keep happening.

The LDS church is very vertically integrated on decisions that are important to it.

Then there is baptism by proxy. This is mostly handled at the local level: baptism by proxy is an important rite for young men, and an important sacrament for families, that is performed at temples that are local to members with a recommend. When Anne Frank (or someone else) is baptized, it is a local decision.

This is why it was a done deal, again, before it hit the airwaves.

The official position is that this is wrong, and shouldn’t happen.

News Flash: it will happen, is happening, and it did happen. Again.

Let me make a suggestion as to how to get this to go away: excommunication of bishops and stake presidents that allow it to happen on their watch.

This is how the central authority of the church gets the attention of the rank and file. And you know what? It works. All Mormons know this.

And, to non-Mormons out there trying to understand this, lists for baptism by proxy are submitted to local bishops and approved by them. Discipline of local members is handled by local bishops, who occasionally have to kick things up to the stake president level. There is a very clear message between the lines here: bishops and stake presidents are not taking the public position of the LDS church seriously on this issue.

Now for the good part.

The world, and Jews in particular, get that individual Mormons can do a great deal of good in the world. And here’s the details of how one helped Jews when they needed it.

CTR: emulate Senator King.

Technorati Tags: anne,frank,elie,wiesel,baptism,proxy,mormon,lds,excommunication