More Good and Evil

Arthur Brooks has an interesting piece today in the WSJ about the demographic fertility slide Liberals are losing. (This is not in the classic sense of liberal or conservative I mention in this post.)

But all things considered, if the Democrats continue to appeal to liberals and the Republicans to conservatives, getting out the youth vote may be increasingly an exercise in futility for the American left.

An even better opinion piece (requires subscription) is offered by Shelby Steele about the difference between the culture of death of Islamists and the culture of life by the rest of us. Thinking about good and evil (mentioned in the article) it is natural to equate hatred with selfishness and love with selflessness in all but the rare cases. [One may 'hate' those who target children but more likely this is loathing and pity.]

As Sartre says in his great essay on the subject, the anti-Semite "is a man who is afraid. Not of Jews of course, but of himself." By hating Jews, he asserts that his own group represents the kind of human being that God truly wants.

For those relentless Noam Chomsky supporters, although Chomsky is nominally Jewish his 'own group' really is the crowd that reveres intellectualism above justice and humanity and to prove their subservience would burn their 'own' at the stake. [While I abhor group think one should never throw the baby out with the bathwater and lose track of fairness.]

Steele goes further then to associate 'white guilt' (Liberals who legitimize Islamic fanaticism as a response to Western 'oppression') with stoking the fires of extremism.

...the fact that Islamic extremism is the most explicit and dangerous expression of human bigotry since the Nazi era.

But white guilt's most dangerous suppression is to keep from discussion the most conspicuous reality in the Middle East: that the Islamic world long ago fell out of history. Islamic extremism is the saber-rattling of an inferiority complex.

This brings me to a wonderful political theory podcast on EconTalk featuring NYU political scientist Bruce Bueno de Mesquita about the economics [that is the field of study about human decision making] of political power. He creates a model (based on mathematical research) of the difference and impact of dictatorships and 'democracies'. It offers keen insight into the problem of building democracies as well as mentioning in passing that dictators may be good or evil (or even both). It is 1 hour 28 minutes of though provoking material. Along the way he slays numerous dragons such as the danger of direct financial aid and the unintended consequence of term limits.  Bravo Russ Roberts!

Comments

[Dan tdaxp]

Combine declining liberal fertibility with associative mating (liberals are increasingly breeding only with ohter liberals) and the strong genetic component of political orientation -- the picture is even brighter (or darker).

Maladaptive genotypes are selected out. For us, for now: "good."