Re-posted from January, 2006
Kling at TCS considers a new book by Caplan which addresses world views:
Caplan, in a book that eventually is to be published by Princeton University Press, argues that most people do not work very hard to arrive at worldviews that are logically consistent and factually supported, because the reward for rational beliefs is too small. He writes: "we should expect people to...believe whatever makes them feel best. After all, it's free. The fanatical protectionist who votes to close the borders risks virtually nothing, because the same policy wins no matter how he votes."
Of course, I may be as guilty as anyone of believing whatever makes me feel best. But I believe that I have put considerable effort into examining and correcting my worldview. I am no longer a liberal (in the contemporary sense of the term), because my calendar did not get stuck on 1968.
Kling proceeds to discuss a series of political views, assumptions and biases which were prevalent thirty-five years ago, but which persist in many quarters, despite the facts which have emerged over these years. It's a theme to which we often refer on Maggie's Farm, whether the subject is war, race, economics, freedom, education and academia, etc. Some of us must be of Kling's generation, and, like neo-neocon, went through it but grew past it by responding to overwhelming facts. The comfortable brain is a stubborn thing. The piece is here.
(Image is the famous 1967 Pentagon Flower Child taken by the wonderful photographer Marc Riboud.)
