Bryan Caplan's Blog, page 20

The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism Book Club, Part 3

Today, the Book Club finishes with Chapter 1, “Ignorance Is Strength.” Please leave your thoughts and questions in the comments and I’ll do an omnibus reply later this week.

The alteration of the past is necessary for two reasons, one of which is subsidiary and, so to speak, precautionary. The subsidiary reason is that the Party member, like the proletarian, tolerates present-day conditions partly because he has no standards of comparison. He must be cut off from the past, just as he must be cut...

Persecution Bet

I’ve already seen George Mason University badly mistreat non-conformist professors.  Should I expect the same to happen to me?  I wouldn’t be surprised, but I’m not greatly worried either.  I’m definitely not going to self-censor to protect myself.  Yet quite a few people tell me that I’m in grave danger.  One of them, Todd Proebsting, a C.S. professor at the University of Arizona, has offered to bet me.

To be clear, Todd wishes me well.  He does not want me to suffer mistreatment; he merely pre...

The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism Book Club Commentary, Part 2

Here are my thoughts on the latest batch 0f Book Club comments.  Your words are in blockquotes; mine aren’t.

Weir:

If your ideology of unfreedom is open, uninfected by any vestige of tolerance, then you can’t pay lip service to some other ideology.

If hierarchy is what you consciously aim at, then you can’t also delude yourself that you’re not a slave-driver.

If equality is no longer an ideal to be striven after, then you openly call yourself the factory boss, and your nation a fortress. You aba...

The Office of Free Speech: A Not-So-Modest Proposal for Academia

Here’s a third post from an anonymous professor here at the University of Texas, printed with his permission.  The proposal is intended in all seriousness.

We are now unquestionably at a crisis point for free speech, academic freedom, and intellectual diversity in higher education.  Ritualistic denunciations of faculty who dissent from consensus, under the thin veneer of combating “misinformation,” are now practiced by prominent universities and broadly accepted within higher education.  Politi...

The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism Book Club, Part 2

The TPOC Book Club continues its march through Chapter 1, “Ignorance Is Strength.” Please leave your thoughts and questions in the comments and I’ll do an omnibus reply later this week.

After the revolutionary period of the fifties and sixties, society regrouped itself, as always, into High, Middle, and Low. But the new High group, unlike all its forerunners, did not act upon instinct but knew what was needed to safeguard its position. It had long been realized that the only secure basis for oli...

I Win My Trump Bet

Back when Trump was President-Elect Trump, I made the following bet:

If Donald Trump dies in office, resigns, is removed  by the Senate after impeachment, or otherwise is permanently removed as per the the 25th Amendment, or if it never happens that he takes the Oath of office as POTUS on Jan 20, 2017, the BC owes [redacted] $350. Otherwise, [redacted] owes BC $100.

Since Trump has now completed his term, I have won this bet, bringing my cumulative public betting record to 22 wins, 0 losses.  Fa...

The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism Book Club Commentary, Part 1

Here are my reactions to your thoughts on Part 1 of the Orwell book club.

David Henderson:

Here’s another glaring statement that shows Orwell at his economically illiterate worst:

As for the problem of overproduction, which has been latent in our society since the development of machine technique

Orwell buys into the idea of overproduction. He doesn’t understand that our wants are unlimited. That may be also why, as you noted, he doesn’t worry about incentives. In his view, we had too much even ...

The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism Book Club, Part 1

This is the first installment of my book club on Orwell’s book-within-a-book, entitled The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism by fictional dissident Emmanuel Goldstein.  I’m going to treat Orwell as the author of the book, even though he probably didn’t agree with all of the general claims, and almost surely didn’t mean to predict the rise of his precise geopolitical scenario.  Today I’ll start with Chapter 1, “Ignorance Is Strength.”  Please put all your thoughts and questions in ...

Convenience vs. Social Desirability Bias

Convenience has a massive effect on your behavior.  You rarely shop in your favorite store, eat in your favorite restaurant, or visit your favorite place.  Why not?  Because doing so is typically inconvenient.  They’re too far away, or not open at the right hours, so you settle for second-best or third-best or tenth-best.  You usually don’t switch your cell phone company, your streaming service, or your credit card just because a better option comes along.  Why not?  Because switching is not con...

Open Borders and the Environment

My Open Borders neglects two major worries about immigration.

The first is contagious disease; I did not see that one coming, though I try to remedy my oversight here.

The second omission is less excusable.  Somehow I failed to address immigration’s environmental effects.  Here’s what I should have said – and what I will say if there’s ever a second edition.

1. The obvious environmental objection to immigration is that it raises population and therefore leads to more pollution and other negative...