Links to Consider, 8/6

Rita Range on Neuroaffirmation; Moses Sternstein on the Taylor Rule; Principles of Freedom Conservatism; Alice Evans and Rob Henderson on exit and voice;

Rita Range writes,

surely it is permissible to acknowledge the difficulties associated with a condition such as autism. A refusal to do so is unlikely to help those with autism or their families, some of whom struggle significantly with many aspects of their own or their family member’s behaviour and functional limitations. This is not about a failure to love and appreciate those with disability in all their uniqueness—it’s about acknowledging reality and calling it what it is.

It seems to me that as a culture we are developing a phobia about confronting deviance, whether it’s abnormal sex conduct*, shoplifting, or mental illness. I think it is ok to want to help someone overcome conditions that make life unpleasant for them and for others.

*I don’t wish to overgeneralize here. For example, one exception to the trend toward “any sexual preference is ok” is the movement to condemn groping.

In a podcast with Yascha Mounk, Susan Neiman says,

Let me lay out what I think are three liberal left principles that are violated by the woke. The first is that, traditionally, the Left has always been on the side of universalism rather than tribalism. Tribalism has always been a conservative view, suggesting that the only people you will have real connections with and therefore real obligations to are people who belong to your tribe.

…The second point about left and liberal is that you believe there's a principled difference between justice and power. …But what many of the woke have concluded is, because claims to justice or universal justice have been abused, that they are nothing but claims to power.

…The third principle (on which liberals and leftists agree) is a belief in the possibility of progress. …So claims like “Nothing has changed in the United States since slavery” or “We're still living under a patriarchy that hasn't fundamentally changed” are statements about, really, the futility of actual change, which undermines efforts to make more.

I wonder whether the race/gender essentialism of the left would go away even faster without a Christopher Rufo style assault on it.

Moses Sternstein writes,

According to the Taylor Rule, if the Fed really wants 2% inflation, then the Fed Funds rate should be 9% (and not 6%), given current levels of inflation and employment

I’m pretty skeptical of these sorts of macro rules, partly because I don’t full understand them, but partly because not all inflations are the same, and “economies” are not closed systems that can be reduced to an equation

The Taylor Rule is one of many prescriptions for monetary policy that assumes a tight relationship between Fed actions and macroeconomic results that I do not believe exists.

Some proposed principles of Freedom Conservatism. They include:

Immigration is a principal driver of American prosperity and achievement. America is exceptional because anyone—from any corner of the earth—can seek to live in America and become an American. Nearly all American citizens descend from someone who came here from somewhere else, and we must treat all citizens equally under the law. To this end, the United States, as a sovereign nation, has the right to secure its borders and design a rational immigration policy—built on the rule of law—that advances the interests and values of American citizens. 

In business, a mission statement or a statement of principles only matters if it tells you clearly what the business won’t do. If I cannot figure out what would violate a principle, then the principle means nothing. The principle quoted above means nothing, as do most of the other principles.

Alice Evans writes,

Cooperation, conflict and state formation all seem to have emerged much more quickly and more typically in rich ecologies with weak exit options.

If the land surrounding my region is good, I don’t need to cooperate with my neighbors. If I need to, I can go live somewhere else.

But if the surrounding region does not have good land, then I had better stick around and engage in coalition-building with my neighbors.

This relates to Hirschman’s concepts of exit and voice. Rob Henderson recently reviewed Hirschman’s book from 1970.

Prosperous and capable people are among the first to drop out and seek alternatives when the quality of a product or organization declines. In fact, they would be willing to pay a much higher price for a non-deteriorated alternative.

…As the book puts it, “the consumer who is rather insensitive to price increases is often likely to be highly sensitive to quality declines.”

substacks referenced above:

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The Burdens of Devotion

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The Origins of States

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Freedom Conservatism: A Statement of Principles

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Typoglycemia

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Susan Neiman on Why Left ≠ Woke