Over the next few weeks I am going to highlight some current
thinkers and writers that have something important to say. This is not to suggest that I am, in each
case, an acolyte, but they are interesting people with an unique point of view,
which necessarily means that each is a bit controversial in his or her own
right. But it’s good to remember that
you can buy their ideas a la carte; you don’t necessarily have to buy the whole
package. Also beware that I do have a
bias in favor of people that I have actually met and interacted with.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Nassim Taleb gained prominence with his work The Black Swan,
which has been called the most influential book since WWII by the Sunday
Times. Taleb is a Lebanese immigrant and
former trader that is now a mathematician and essayist. In addition to The Black Swam, Antifragile
was an excellent book..
Quotes:
“True equality is equality in probability.”
“People whose survival depends on qualitative ‘job
assessments’ by someone of higher rank in an organization cannot be trusted for
critical decisions.”
What makes him special:
Taleb is very skilled at mixing quantitative concepts and anecdotes and
making risk and probability accessible to non-quant jocks.
Deficiencies. Taleb
can be extremely arrogant and dismissive.
He claimed that Nobel Laureate Richard Thaler was “very ignorant of
probability” and labelled him a “creepy interventionist.” While I disagree with Thaler on some things,
and got into a Twitter exchange with him over the 2nd Amendment, I
do not like the name calling.
Daniel Pipes
Daniel Pipes, the son of Reagan advisor Richard Pipes is a
Middle East expert that came to prominence after 9/11, after warning the world
for years about militant Islam. Pipes
runs The Middle East Forum, an “activist think tank” in Philadelphia. Pipes is one of my intellectual mentors and I
had him when I was an undergraduate in his first year of teaching, when he
co-taught a class with the great William H. McNeill. This does not mean I always agree with him,
however. I was, for instance, supportive
of Netanyahu’s decision not to permit Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar entrance
Israel to use his country to advance the BDS movement.
What makes him special: Pipes has deep historical knowledge
of the Middle East and has the courage to call out the darker side of Islam,
call for Israeli victory in the Middle East and has been supportive of the
nations of Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland (those nations he calls
“Civilizationists”) in their rejection of Islamic immigration.
Quotes:
“Ultimately, there is no compromise. Westerners will either retain their
civilization, including the right to insult or blaspheme or not.”
“Diplomacy in general does not resolve conflicts. Wars end not due to a peace process, but due
to one side giving up.”
Deficiencies. This is
easy. Pipes is too soft spoken. He is so soft spoken that even when you are
in a small room with him in a small group, you have to strain to hear him. His ideas are worth a megaphone, and they
sometimes get lost because of his shy demeanor and quiet voice.
Camille Paglia
Camille Paglia was mentored by the great Harold Bloom and it
shows in her writing. Paglia has great
range in the topics that she can write about authoritatively. She is at her best as an art and film critic,
and her recent book, appropriately entitled Provocations was a delicious
potpourri of essays. Paglia defies
categorization, is a self-styled feminist, calls herself transgender but is
wholly supportive of capitalism. Her
positions (anti- third wave feminism) earned herself a petition from the uber
progressive students at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia to have her
removed from the faculty (the school’s administration stood behind her). The controversy was recently written about in
the Wall Street Journal (https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-feminist-capitalist-professor-under-fire-11567201511).
What makes her special. Paglia has an incredibly wide range-- culture, art, politics, and more. Paglia has one of those wonderful minds that
cause you to think differently with every essay she writes.
Quotes:
“Leaving sex to the feminists is like letting your dog
vacation at the taxidermist.”
“Pursuit and seduction are the essence of sexuality. It’s part of the sizzle.”
“I say the law should be blind to race, gender and sexual
orientation, just as it claims to be blind to wealth and power. There should be no protected groups of any
kind, except for children, the severely disabled and the elderly whose physical
frailty demands society’s care.”
Deficiencies. Like Pipes, Paglia is a better writer than a speaker. She speaks with a very quick cadence and sometimes
staccato voice. Again, like Pipes, she
is worth the effort to listen to, and some of her podcasts and YouTube videos
are real treats. Paglia’s resistance to
categorization lends itself to contradictions—she claims to be a capitalist but
voted for Bernie Sanders.
Jordan Peterson
I wrote a post on Peterson after seeing him live last May (http://commonsense-mark.blogspot.com/2018/05/jordan-peterson.html)
and believe that Peterson can be one of the most influential writers and
thinkers of the West. His fierce attacks on post-modernism and political
correctness are intellectually courageous.
His passion for his core message is evident– finding meaning in life
through taking on responsibility – and is a message that needs to be heard by
young people. He is Jungian and pulls
symbols from religious texts, film, fairy tales and literature. My personal favorite lecture on his view of
oppression is available on YouTube ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XvI6Y5Yq8o)
and I have seen it multiple times. If he
has staying power, Peterson can be a powerful figure in our culture.
What makes him special. Peterson is an engaging speaker, quick on his feet, and, like Paglia, has a tremendous breadth of knowledge. His experience as a clinical psychologist sets him apart as he has experienced the real world and is no mere academic. He has been unafraid to take on the citadels of government and academia.
Quotes:
“It’s in responsibility that most people find the meaning
that sustains them through life. It’s
not in happiness. It’s not in impulsive
pleasure.”
“I don’t tell people, ‘You’re okay the way you are.’ The right story is, ‘You’re way less than you
could be.’
Deficiencies. Peterson sometimes engages with people that are not
intellectual peers and/or have checkered reputations like Milo YIannopolis and
Ben Shapiro. Engagement with them does
not enhance his reputation. He also said
that Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh should have resigned as soon as he was
confirmed, which would have been an awful mistake. So Peterson is not immune from occasional lapses
in judgment.
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