BRIEFLY NOTED: 2021-10-30 Sa
Things that went whizzing by I want to remember:
First:
Science fiction. But the science is history. That is, as Paul Krugman observes, what made Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series so striking and thought-provoking:
Paul Krugman: Introduction to “Foundation”: ‘how do the ‘Foundation’ novels look to me now that I have, as my immigrant grandmother used to say, grown to mature adultery? Better than ever…. The ‘Foundation’ novels are about society, not gadgets…. The absence of conventional cliffhangers doesn’t mean an absence of unconventional cliffhangers…. Here’s the trick: after the fact, it becomes clear that bravery and cunning had nothing to do with it, because the Foundation was fated to win thanks to the laws of psychohistory…. The warlord’s weapons were no match for the Foundation’s economic clout. And so on. This unique plot structure creates an ironic resonance between the ‘Foundation’ novels and… prophetic fantasy… a tale of prophecy fulfilled… a very bourgeois version of prophecy…. The ‘Foundation’ novels are… about the true final frontier—understanding ourselves, and the societies we make…. What do I think of Asimov’s belief that we… can develop a social science?… I’ve been struck… by just how much power good economics has to make correct predictions that are very much at odds with popular prejudices and ‘common sense’…. It’s a long way from getting the medium-term path of interest rates and inflation more or less right to predicting the overall course of civilization…. Asimov’s psychohistory evidently integrates economics with political science and sociology, which are much harder sub- jects than economics—economics is, after all, largely about greed, while other social sciences have to deal with more complex emotions…. The ‘Foundation’ novels… remain, uniquely, a thrilling tale about how self-knowledge—an understanding of how our own society work—can change history for the better… every bit as inspirational now as they were when I first read them, three-quarters of my life ago…
One Video:
Michelle Holder & Lisa Cook: Child Care & the Economy: ‘A clip from… In Conversation at Equitable Growth 2021: Evidence for a Stronger Economic Future… <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1nIS_mwy20>:
Very Briefly Noted:
Erik Anderson: California Condors Reproduce Without a Male. A First: ‘Routine genetic testing revealed that two unrelated condors only had one parent. Their eggs were not fertilized by male sperm…. The females did not need a male condor to produce a viable offspring…. “It hit us in the face,” said Oliver Ryder, a geneticist with the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. “We weren’t looking for it. We didn’t expect it.”… The California condor is the largest flying bird in the world with wingspans that can reach nine feet… <https://www.kpbs.org/news/local/2021/10/28/california-condors-reproduce-without-male-first>
Graham Greene: The Quiet American <https://archive.org/details/quietamerican00gree_2/page/n3/mode/2up>
The Economist: How Did India Beat Covid–19?: ‘The virus exhausted itself after tearing through the vast population… <https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2021/10/29/how-did-india-beat-covid-19>
Paragraphs:
Bobby Jindal & Alex Castellanos: Immigration Without Assimilation Is Just Invasion: ‘Should we allow anyone, from anywhere, to come here at any time? Amid the political establishment’s promotion of all immigration as virtuous and their relentless attacks on all things traditional or patriotic, we can demand something better: An immigration system that is good for America and requires that the immigrants we admit want to be Americans…. We’re getting pretty good at the “open to all” component. Most would agree diversity, equality, and an open society are pretty darn “American.” However, we have nearly erased “one shared American culture” from our equation—and when there is nothing to which we all belong, diversity becomes division. Openness, without a uniting culture, becomes chaos…. The American left… insist[s] no one is better than anyone, that failure should be rewarded with self-esteem instead of shame, and there is no delight beyond the pleasures of the present…. We must require newcomers to adopt English as our common language and embrace an ethos of self-sufficiency. We must require a commitment to the rule of law, protection of minority rights, equality in opportunity and before the law, not outcomes, and individual autonomy, not an unlimited government…
LINK: <https://thefederalist.com/2021/06/04/immigration-without-assimilation-is-just-invasion/>
Samuel Hammond: The Free-Market Welfare State: Preserving Dynamism in a Volatile World: ’I argue that the contemporary rise of anti-market populism in America should be taken as an indictment of our inadequate social-insurance system, and a refutation of the prevailing “small government” view that regulation and social spending are equally corrosive to economic freedom. The universal welfare state, far from being at odds with innovation and economic freedom, may end up being their ultimate guarantor…. “The perennial gale of creative destruction…” wrote the economist Joseph Schumpeter, “…is the essential fact of capitalism.” For new industries to rise and flourish, old industries must fail. Yet creative destruction is a process that is rarely—if ever—politically neutral…. Schumpeter believed that capitalism would become the ultimate victim of its own success, inspiring reactionary and populist movements against its destructive side that would inadvertently strangle any potential for future creativity…. The countries that have eluded Schumpeter’s dreary prediction have done so by combining free-markets with robust systems of universal social insurance…
Davis Kedrosky: Peat’s Cradle: ‘It’s hard to imagine an Industrial Revolution without coal…. But as late as 1650, Britain was neither the world’s richest nor most energy-intensive economy. That honor fell to the Netherlands…. Peat forms when plant matter, usually in marshy areas, fails to fully decay because of a lack of oxygen. It’s sort of an intermediate stage on the road to coal formation, and is really only semi-renewable—it takes 1000 years to form one meter, provided that you leave it undisturbed. The energy density of peat is equivalent to that of wood—15–17 MJ per kg—though lower than coal (24 MJ/kg) or charcoal (29 MJ/kg). And the Dutch, thanks to their geography, had plenty of the stuff…
LINK:
Jeet Heer: The Federalist Society’s Silent Brush Off: ‘The Federalist Society has a longstanding relationship with Eastman and indeed still maintains a webpage for him as a distinguished member. They haven’t quite severed ties with Eastman but clearly don’t want him to be their public face. The relationship between the Federalist Society and Eastman parallels how establishment Republicans like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell treated Donald Trump after the January 6 riot. McConnell refused to support the impeachment and sanctioning of Trump and just wished the former president, as well as the embarrassment Trump has brought to the Republican party, would simply go away. The political calculation is that it is too damaging to either embrace Trump (and thus alienate many moderate voters) or to condemn him (thus alienating the right-wing base). Similarly, if the Federalist Society were to make explicit that Eastman is no longer welcome, they would alienate many of their own members and donors (who might, in fact, agree with Eastman). If they continued to host events with Eastman, the Federalist Society would lose their status as a respectable mainstream institution that can be trusted to provide advice to the Republican party. Like McConnell, the Federalist Society has worked out a dodge, a way to whistle past the graveyard of a failed insurrection in the hopes that no ghosts will be revived. They show signs of embarrassment but not of shame or repentance…
LINK:
> Bobby Jindal & Alex Castellanos
"Under no circumstances can there be meaningful change, and by meaningful change I mean anything that even suggests I don't get to keep the loot".
The Human Trick is ganging up on problems; not only is this an emotive appeal for the status quo, it's for a status quo of helplessness. We've all got problems that absolutely require both not keeping the loot -- there is no route to a decarbonized future that doesn't involve reducing the global financial system to a condition of obedience -- and a whole lot of ganging up on problems.
"Self-sufficiency" is code for "suffer and die".