Americans’ proclivity to embrace myths is a frequent topic on this blog, so this Will Wilkinson post regarding Paul Krugman and this engaging William Easterly post on complexity and spontaneous order (among other things) is right up our alley. As Wilkinson notes:
It’s clear by now that Paul Krugman thinks there is something seriously wrong with Republicans. . . .
Though it is a challenge to accept that a man of Mr Krugman’s intelligence truly believes America’s ills flow exclusively from the intellectual and moral failures of the people who disagree with him, I don’t believe he is arguing in bad faith. He really is that self-righteously Manichean. What drives Mr Krugman absolutely nuts is that people who are wrong about everything are just as self-righteously Manichean as he is. Where do they get off? [. . .]
. . .there is something quite significant about the evidently negative rhetorical charge of "welfare" and "food stamps" among smaller-government, freer-markets types. And there is something quite significant about Mr Krugman’s evident confusion about American public opinion and his genuine alarm over libertarian "taxation-is-theft" rhetoric.
Although Americans left and right have remarkably consistent "ideologically conservative but programmatically progressive" preferences when it comes to redistributive social policy, it benefits political parties and party politicians to greatly exaggerate their differences. Partisan brand identity and distinction is achieved largely through a commitment to a certain stock of rhetorical tropes and symbolic gestures that float almost entirely free of the party’s substantive commitments. People are suckers for rhetoric, which is why merely rhetorical differentiation works at both the grocery store and the polling station. It is also why we are prone to believing crazy things about what the other "side" believes. And this leads to a rhetorical atmosphere corrosive to the trust necessary to facilitate compromises over policy that would be agreeable to most everyone.
Our problem, and Mr Krugman’s, is that we believe our own BS.
great post. now for MY own BS, which, indeed, i believe: yes, almost all people are “ideologically conservative but programmatically progressive” and differ only over petty details. THAT is our problem–not that we believe our own BS.
said differently, most of YOU PEOPLE are so program progressive by way of government instead of private initiative that YOU have tossed our country into the crapper—NOW, THERE–see? being self righteous is hardly the exclusive property of mr. krugman–enjoy a prosperous weekend.
I’ll take Krugman any day over the right-wing rhetoric that we’re exposed to 99% of the time
in the media.
Calling for additional regressive taxes here in
Texas, but describing them as merely being fees
is a prime example of how the public gets conned
by conservative (sic) politicians.
so much thing to talk about the way he show up, the issue is still there. Thanks for sharing.