May 26 2012
However, the devastation of Iraq in the service of limiting proliferation did not begin with the war in 2003. For the previous 13 years, that country had suffered under economic sanctions, visited upon it by both Democratic and Republican administrations, that were designed to force the evil, if pathetic, Saddam Husse...
May 26 2012
The Yale Alumni Magazine has this: In the early decades of the twentieth century, eugenics "fell squarely in the mainstream of scientific and popular culture," according to Yale history professor Daniel Kevles, author of the 1985 book In the Name of Eugenics. Theodore Roosevelt popularized the term "race suicide," for...
May 25 2012
READER COMMENTS
Ken B
May 26 2012 at 12:34am
It’s an important point — but also a frustrating one. You can make people better with better societies with rules that make them — as David says — accountable. And you can’t go the other way: trying to improve society by making better people is always disastrous. Capitalism makes societies better, and that makes people better. It lets people choose to be better. This is the exact opposite of what most believe and I find it very difficult to persuade people.
I think you can make a good case — and Dinesh DeSouza did — that racial discrimination and slavery made racial animus much worse. It’s the flip side of David’s example. And again, I find most people just reject the notion out of hand.
MG
May 27 2012 at 9:38am
In this context, I had to relive Milton Friedman’s helping a youg woman see the validity of a similar point…even if in a slightly devilish way: “I am on your side…even of you are not.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsIpQ7YguGE
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