Ignorance

It's becoming harder and harder for me to read anything written by people that do not understand morality, economics, or evolutionary psychology (the topics of this blog). I mean, once you understand those things, reading things by people who don't is like watching a movie by someone who knows how to make good movies, but has no idea about basic maths, and insists on having his characters explain to you that 2 plus 2 equals 5. I mean, if you don't know something, just write about something else. As Rothbard would put it,

It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a 'dismal science.' But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.

So some recent disappointments :

• Moorcock on equilibrium between good and evil (The Runestaff)
• Wilde on punishment (De Profundis)
• Rand on sex (interview)
• the reactionary Zemmour on roughly half of what he says (Le premier sexe)
• Graham on food (You Weren't Meant to Have a Boss)

2008-03-24