The Virus has Killed the Liberal Order

I like Daniel Hannan’s analysis and his position on matters political. From 1999 to 2020 he was a Member of European Parliament (MEP) for South East England. Here’s a short opinion piece he published yesterday at the John Locke Institute website.

“Free trade, the greatest blessing a government can bestow on a people, is in almost every country unpopular”, wrote Lord Macaulay in 1824. Since then, average global incomes have risen, at a conservative estimate, by 3,000 per cent – having previously barely sloped upwards at all. Globalisation and open markets have been miraculous poverty-busters. Take any measure you like: literacy, longevity, infant mortality, female education, calorie intake, height. Continue reading “The Virus has Killed the Liberal Order”

Saraswati Puja

Today is Saraswati Puja. And also Kamadeva Puja, the deva I am named after. Kamadeva is also “Atanu” — meaning “one without a body.”

On this day, we Hindus worship Devi Saraswati. Bengalis traditionally place books and pens next to an image of Ma Saraswati. She is always associated with learning and music. She is depicted playing the veena and holding a book in her lower left hand. She has to be one of my favorite Devis because I like to learn and I like music intensely.

Bengalis believe that one can have either Ma Saraswati’s blessings or Ma Lakshmi’s blessings but not both. Meaning you can either be learned or you can be rich but not both. I accepted that uncritically when I was little but when I grew up I realized that that cannot be true. Without learning there cannot be creation of wealth, and without wealth there cannot be learning. Continue reading “Saraswati Puja”

Hayek on the Impossibility of Designing Society

This week in my online class “How the World Works – an Introduction,” I introduced a few basic economics concepts — starting with the easy to understand law of demand and supply. We call it a law but it is not the same sort of thing we call laws in the natural sciences. Social sciences are qualitatively different from the physical sciences like physics and zoology. Societies are not machines made of inert matter engineered by designers; societies are ecosystems of organisms that have minds which have volition and act purposefully to achieve their goals.

Social engineering — the deliberate transformation of an entire society according to some design — is doomed to failure because people are not inanimate objects that can be manipulated at will. The basic difficulty boils down to a lack of knowledge and the open-ended nature of the future. Nobody has the required knowledge of the present conditions of every person in society and the future state of the society. Continue reading “Hayek on the Impossibility of Designing Society”

Answers

I don’t know if I’m being smart with my occasional “Ask me anything” or not. Perhaps I should charge for answers. I could use an old price list from a couple of decades ago — adjusted for inflation. But for now, I’ll keep all answers free. You’ve got a deal because all my answers require thought and are guaranteed correct.

Alright, Mohan Boggara’s question was (paraphrased): given the acceleration of digital technologies and the Covid situation, what will the future of education be? Since digital technologies allow easy partnership between content creators and learners, and allow flexibility in time and space, will in-class education as we know it end? And what will be the future of schools and universities? Continue reading “Answers”

Ask me anything — the Logic edition

Is the following a valid logical argument?

1. Roses are flowers.
2. Some flowers fade rapidly.
3. Therefore, some roses fade rapidly.

Clearly it is logically invalid but it appears logical because it accords with our knowledge of the world — that some roses do fade rapidly.

The logical validity of a conclusion depends entirely on the premises, not on whether the world is some particular way. The statement “some roses fade rapidly” may be true in reality but it does not logically follow from the two premises, and therefore it is logically invalid. Continue reading “Ask me anything — the Logic edition”

Netaji Subhas Bose’s 125th Birth Anniversary

Sri Subhas Chandra Bose, popularly known as “Netaji”, was born 124 years ago in Cuttack, Orrisa on Jan 23rd in 1897[1]. Netaji is considered by a significant portion of Indians to have been instrumental — more than M. K. Gandhi MHRH — in getting the British to give up India. Be that as it may, it is undeniable that he was one of the greatest leaders of India in the last century.

His biography is quite well researched and generally known. There’s also an unfinished autobiography which covers the period from his birth to 1921 which Bose titled “An Indian Pilgrim.”[2]

But his disappearance and death is shrouded in mystery, conspiracy and intrigue. There’s a veritable cottage industry that thrives on the idea that he did not really die in a plane crash in Taiwan in 1945 but that he lived in India for decades as a recluse ascetic. Continue reading “Netaji Subhas Bose’s 125th Birth Anniversary”

Do this, President Trump

If President Donald J Trump has any sense, he would do this. Give a presidential pardon to Julian Assange on the final day of his presidency. Listen to Tucker Carlson make the case.

Source: Fox News.

Trump should also pardon Edward Snowden so that he can end his self-imposed exile in Russia. Will Trump do that? I don’t think so. He’s too stupid to do something that important.

Happy Birthday, Swami Vivekananda

“There is no God separate from you, no God higher than you, the real ‘you’. All the gods are little beings to you, all the ideas of God and Father in heaven are but your own reflection. God Himself is your image. ‘God created man after His own image.’ That is wrong. Man creates God after his own image. That is right. Throughout the universe we are creating gods after our own image. We create the god and fall down at his feet and worship him; and when this dream comes, we love it!”

― Swami Vivekananda, The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume 3

“Astrology and all these mystical things are generally signs of a weak mind; therefore as soon as they are becoming prominent in our minds, we should see a physician, take good food, and rest.”

Also see Happy Birthday, Swami Vivekananda. (Hauled from the archives exactly 10 years ago.)

 

Joe Biden is not a Retard

It’s hard to argue that people generally are not stupid. Just look at the Americans. They aren’t the worst of the lot but still they are bad.

The Dems and Repubs end up competing with each other on who can choose the worse presidential candidate. Four years ago the choice was between the evil witch Clinton and the stupid imbecile Trump — and the majority of the voters chose Clinton. By sheer luck, Clinton did not win the needed 270+ electoral college votes. So Americans got a break from suffering the consequences of their stupidity.

This time around Americans have not had that luck. Sleepy Joe did win, although with some ballot fraud, a great deal of help from Silicon Valley tech giants (Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and the corrupt main stream media that buried the Hunter Biden case.

Joe Biden is quite senile but he is not a retard. He knows — or his advisors do — that poverty cannot be cured by promising to distribute checks. But it is the right thing to do to get popular support. Continue reading “Joe Biden is not a Retard”

For Wrong People to do the Right Thing

“We will not solve our problem by electing the right people. We will only solve our problem by making it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing.” — Milton Friedman.

He was one of the greatest economists of the 20th century not just because of his academic contributions but also because he was tireless in his public outreach. Unlike his colleagues whom he greatly respected, such as Friedrich Hayek and James Buchanan (both amazing scholars) who did not address the general public, Friedman patiently explained economics to everyone who cared to ask him.

It is never too late to start learning from his books and lectures about how to think about public policy. Here’s an excerpt from one such Q&A session:
Continue reading “For Wrong People to do the Right Thing”