In which I defend economists against Alasdair MacIntyre, for we are the quintessential expression of his bête noire the manager; yet I think a John Maynard Keynes is vastly to be preferred to...
Students aren't reading 90% of the list. Not even Ivy undergrads. They have other classes and social lives. Books the present revolutionary truths are difficult and terrible reading for all but the devoted specialist because the author had to precisely nail down 100 points for their contemporary critics. I'm all for classical ideas, but what's going to sink into the brain of an undergrad?
Interesting, I hadn't noticed the anti-reformist common ground between Christian and Marxist millennial. But of course, the good is the enemy of the perfect. The poor *must* always be among us until the coming of the kingdom of heaven / pure communism. But it seems oddly "faith not works" to be coming from Catholicism.
"Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in: Naked, and you covered me: sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came to me….…’” That is a very powerful statement that what is sought after is successful managerialism—a successful managerialism with a preferential option for the poor: one that feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, heals the sick, welcomes the immigrant, and visits the imprisoned. Right ritual, right moral orientation, right faith seem to be nowhere—at least in this part of Matthew."
This debate also brings out my worst fears of what people think economists do, say, analyze and advocate -- very often, as it turns out, without knowing it.
Students aren't reading 90% of the list. Not even Ivy undergrads. They have other classes and social lives. Books the present revolutionary truths are difficult and terrible reading for all but the devoted specialist because the author had to precisely nail down 100 points for their contemporary critics. I'm all for classical ideas, but what's going to sink into the brain of an undergrad?
Interesting, I hadn't noticed the anti-reformist common ground between Christian and Marxist millennial. But of course, the good is the enemy of the perfect. The poor *must* always be among us until the coming of the kingdom of heaven / pure communism. But it seems oddly "faith not works" to be coming from Catholicism.
That just about sums it up:
"Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in: Naked, and you covered me: sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came to me….…’” That is a very powerful statement that what is sought after is successful managerialism—a successful managerialism with a preferential option for the poor: one that feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, heals the sick, welcomes the immigrant, and visits the imprisoned. Right ritual, right moral orientation, right faith seem to be nowhere—at least in this part of Matthew."
This debate also brings out my worst fears of what people think economists do, say, analyze and advocate -- very often, as it turns out, without knowing it.