My list of interesting thinkers and people that have
something to say of last week was incomplete. There are a few others that I
think warrant attention and are worth your while. Again, I rank them in no particular order,
but include them for their clear-eyed and/or novel thinking or writing.
Deirdre McCloskey
McCloskey is an unusual talent. She was transgender before it was chic, a
brilliant University of Chicago trained economist and historian. She is a highly skilled writer and her tome
Bourgeois Equality, while long, is an indispensable read for anyone that wishes
to understand the evolution of capitalism in a historical context. I had the pleasure of having lunch with
McCloskey last summer at the Printers Row Lit Fest and it was a real treat to
interact with a brilliant mind that has a handle on so many disciplines.
What makes her special:
An ability to merge the quantitative with the historical along with
excellent literary skills. Who else
could write an economic history book and bring up Willa Cather and Fyodor
Dostoyevsky? She also is able to make a
compelling argument as to why capitalism is more compassionate than the
alternatives and why it is consistent with her Christian faith.
Quotes:
“My Marxist friends, they walk by the evidence, the evidence
of reason, the historical evidence, the economic evidence.”
“Righteous, if inexpensive, indignation inspired by
survivor’s guilt about alleged ”victims” of something called “capitalism” and
envious anger at the silly consumption by the rich, does not invariably yield
betterment for the poor."
"Betterments require disobedience, creative destruction, an
overturning or remaking or redirecting of what already exists, Steve Jobs and
Bill Gates challenging Big Blue, autos replacing horses—not a bigger
centralized computer or a faster horse.”
Deficiencies.
I don’t know that I would call them deficiencies, inasmuch
as I see them as things that McCloskey has had to overcome. Gender reassignment, especially at the time
she did it, would have been a difficult thing, and it apparently alienated her
family. She also stutters and that would
have been a difficult hurdle to overcome for a person that made a living in
part by lecturing.
Pat Condell
Pat Condell is a brilliant comedian that fearlessly defends
the West and its culture with his YouTube videos. Sharp, witty and biting, Condell, like Jordan
Peterson skewers the postmodernists, the EU and the culture of grievance
mongering. Lambasting political
correctness, globalism and multiculturalism, he takes the gloves off in his defense
of Western values. His passionate
advocacy for free speech and America’s 1st Amendment leaves me embarrassed
that there are no Americans that can support our own Constitutional protections
so eloquently (His solilioquy The Anti-American Dream https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Uz19w7tf1U)
is among his best.
What makes him special.
His wit, courage, and bluntness puts him head and shoulders above any
other cheerleader for Western values.
Quotes:
“Freedom of thought, freedom of speech, freedom of
identity. This is my Holy Trinity, each
one an intrinsic aspect of my god: Freedom, the Holiest of Holies.”
“Suspicion of, or dislike of Islam is not a phobia. It’s an honest, healthy reaction to the
evidence that has been provided.”
Deficiencies.
Condell, I think, sometimes goes overboard with Islam and
does not distinguish between Islamism and Islam. But, in his defense, he is contemptuous of
all religion and has often poked at Christianity, too. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk4AJ1BgQX8)
Raghuram Rajan
I like Rajan mostly because of his even-handedness. He is fiercely nonpartisan and if you listen
to him, it would be impossible to know where his vote would be cast. No mere academician, Rajan has a truly global
view and has real policymaking experience. He worked at the IMF and his most recent post was as head of the Reserve
Bank of India. His book on the Great
Recession, Fault Lines was among the best of its kind. Rather than finger point, Rajan took the view
that the crash was caused by systemic problems, that all actors were, in fact,
acting rationally. I have just begun to
read his current book on the crisis of community, The Third Pillar: How Markets
and the State Leave the Community Behind.
What makes him special.
Rajan tries very hard to be a neutral observer without an agenda to push. When asked about the rise of Trumpian
populism, he responds by saying that there is plenty of populism on the left as
well. His diagnoses are very accurate
and incisive.
Quotes:
“In India, we say one thing, and we do something else.”
“The more that everyone has access to the same educational
opportunities, the more society will tend to accept some receiving
disproportionate rewards. After all, they themselves had a chance to be winners.”
Deficiencies.
Like his colleague, Randy Krozner, who I also like and
respect very much, Rajan can be a little dull.
He is a good, but not great writer, and a good, but not great
speaker. And because he is so
technically proficient, this can translate into a little dullness if you are
not an aficionado for wonky policy stuff.
o, that’s my list of interesting voices. There were others that could have made
it. Peter Theil, for instance. But
McCloskey, Condell and Rajan are a good start.
Rajan’s new book is out now and I eagerly await McCloskey’s new book, is
due out October 15, Why Liberalism Works. Condell posts periodically on YouTube and his
own site patcondell.net.
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