A Forty Year Plan

We barely have 10 years here.  We will take it to 10 more and 10 more and 10 more to construct the new social virtues.
—Hugo Chavez as reported by Mary Anastasia O’Grady in The Wall Street Journal: “Chave’s 40-Year Plan to Conquer Vice.”  December 5, 2011.  A15.

Chavez is expressing his desire to force the same virtues that resonate within the successful communal societies I discussed in a previous post. What he doesn't understand—or more likely, what he doesn't acknowledge—is that these communal societies thrive because the virtues were voluntarily adopted by the residents of those societies (they can leave), and the religious fervor undulating throughout their congregation helps to intensify these virtues, as well as employs god to punish the vices.

A forty year plan is not necessary to Venezuela's resurgence. What is necessary is something Chavez cannot provide.

Great Hobhouse Quotes

From Social Evolution and Political Theory (1911)

If the process of the universe is inherently opposed to the ethical order, it follows that the ethical order is inherently opposed to the process of the universe.  In this state of things the position of humanity would be very unfortunate.
——Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse in Social Evolution and Political Theory (1911, page 10).  The Columbia University Press.

Mathematical arguments drawn from the assumption that human actions proceed with the statistical regularity that might be found in a flock of sheep are often exceedingly difficult to refute in detail, and yet they rest on an insecure foundation.  Man is not merely an animal.  He is also a rational being, and accordingly, he reacts to new circumstances in a way that can only be determined by taking the possibility of rational purpose into account.
—Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse in Social Evolution and Political Theory (1911, page 15).  The Columbia University Press.

The past, when it is seen at all, appears always in a halo of romance.
—Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse in Social Evolution and Political Theory (1911).  The Columbia University Press.

Those who are most zealous for social improvement will indeed be the last to minimize the evils that exist.
—Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse in Social Evolution and Political Theory (1911).  The Columbia University Press.

There was probably never a time at which among civilized peoples there was so much diffused sensitiveness to any form of social ailment.  If we were briefed to defend our own time, the line to take would surely be, not that its evils are few or small, but rather that every evil calls forth a strong and persistent effort to cure it.
—Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse in Social Evolution and Political Theory (1911).  The Columbia University Press.

In sociology as in all sciences specialism is a necessity and it is also a danger.  It is a necessity for the simple reason that human capacity is limited and it is not given to man to acquire sound knowledge and adequate skill in many departments at once.  It is also a danger because social life is no more divisible into independent sections than the human body is divisible into independent organisms.
—Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse in Social Evolution and Political Theory (1911, page 5.).  The Columbia University Press.

Give a man a sheet of meal with a dint in it, he says, and ask him to flatten it out.  What does he do?  If he knows nothing of metal work, he takes a hammer and knocks the dint flat, only to find that it has reappeared elsewhere.  He applies the hammer again at the new point with the same result, and so he goes on till he convinces himself that dints are not to be levelled out by this direct and easy method.  So it is, urges Mr. Spencer, with society.  We find some evil or evils which we seek to prevent by direct and forcible means, only to find, says this critic of social effort, that a corresponding evil appears somewhere else.  We put down overt crime only to find that some form of secret vice is increasing.  A temperance crusade suppresses drunkenness, and it is discovered that those who used to drink now find an outlet for excitement in gambling.  Compensation for accidents is secured by law to workmen, and in consequence it is alleged that elderly workmen are refused situations.  Workmen form trade unions only to maintain and improve the conditions of their work, and no sooner do they succeed than their employers imitate them and form federations by which the unions are overpowered...Mr. Spencer did well to call attention, that every change, however good in itself, provokes unforeseen reactions, and that if we are to achieve permanent and assured good we must as far as possible keep in view the life of society as a whole and seek not jealously to magnify our own little sectional interest at the expense of the others, but rather to correlate it with the work that others are doing and endeavor to induce in them the same spirit.
—Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse in Social Evolution and Political Theory (1911, page 5.).  The Columbia University Press.

Small farms are all we need

I fervently hope the person talking to Jeff Greene in the quote below never gains any political influence.

I found that no one could offer me a coherent explanation of why they hated Wall Street, and no one suggested a workable plan for regulation banks.  (One fellow told me all we need to do is establish more small farms.)
—Jeff Greene describing his mingling with the Occupy Wall Street Protestors.  “We Should Listen to the 99%.”  Wall Street Journal.  November 13, 2011.  A17.  (Not a quote I identify with)

Nothing New Under The Sun: Daoism and the Law of Unintended Consequences

Economists love the Law of Unintended Consequences, illustrating how ambitious politicians can often make her constituents worse off in her appeal to enhance their lives.  In my textbook, I use the example of air pollution in Mexico City, where a law requiring each car to remain idle one day each week resulted in more older cars being driven, which resulted in worse air pollution.


I had only encountered this law in economics, yet I recently discovered there is nothing new under the sun that economists can offer.  Between the 6th and 4th centuries B.C., Chinese philosophy of governance consisted largely of two camps: Confucianism and Daoism.  We have all heard of Confucius, but Daoism?  


Basically, Daoism asserts that our understanding of the world is limited, that everything that happens, happens for a reason, and when we attempt to employ our limited knowledge to control the world we often destroy institutions and activities that serve a valid purpose, and in the process, become ineffective leaders.  That is, in essence, the Law of Unintended Consequences.


Source:
Dr. Kenneth J. Hammond
From Yao to Mao: 5000 Years of Chinese History
Lecture 5: Confucianism and Daoism
The Teaching Company

The Beauty of Pollution

A recent study shows that Americans live three years longer than they did decades before, and five months of this increase in life expectancy is due to cleaner air.

Over at Cafe Hayek, a reader with much wit comments...

Of course we'll have no way of knowing how much the life expectancy would have increased without the "expense" i.e. the redirecting of resources that would otherwise have been invested and ultimately resulting in more comfortable and healthier lives for everyone.

This accounts for 5 months out of three years. where did the other 2 years and seven months come from? Who gets the credit for that? The short answer is from the very same things that result in pollution.

Don't think so? then how did that kidney get rushed from California to New York overnight?