Stephen R.C. Hicks's Blog, page 116

Chipotle’s robot tortilla-making arm

The robots continue to free us from drudge work: Chipotle’s “Chippy” goes to work. Related: The Robots Will Free Us (Open College podcast).

Socialist professor Heilbroner: Who Predicted Socialism’s Failure?

In 1990, the year after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the year before the final collapse of the Soviet Union, Professor Robert Heilbroner wrote this: “But what spokesman of the present generation has anticipated the demise of socialism or the ‘triumph of capitalism’? Not a single writer in the Marxian tradition! Are there …

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Does Modern Monetary Theory mean we no longer need to pay taxes? (he asks hopefully)

Check out this definition: “Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) is an economic theory that suggests that the government could simply create more money without consequence as it’s the issuer of the currency, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.” Which seems to imply that taxation is obsolete, as the second paragraph hints: Excellent. I’m totally in. …

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Estimating: demographic realities versus perceptions

From YouGov, a fascinating presentation of survey results: “Americans overestimate the size of minority groups and underestimate the size of most majority groups.”

Turkish proverb about clowns in palaces

An ancient Turkish proverb says: When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a sultan.The palace becomes a circus. I recall that proverb, seemingly every election we have. Though it applies more generally: Places are what you make of them.

Art and the mirror of one’s soul

Shaw said many obnoxious things, but this is very good. And it fits modernist and postmodernist art well: “Why Art Became Ugly.”

Mis artículos en español (my articles in Spanish): Nietzsche and his sister

La hermana de Nietzsche y The Will to Power [transcripción de Open College] Por Stephen R. C. Hicks, Ph.D. Este episodio está inspirado en mi re-lectura de The Will to Power de Nietzsche. […]”cada palabra de The Will to Power fue escrita por Nietzsche en sus cuadernos de notas de 1883-1888″. Así que tiene ese …

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Mis artículos en español (My articles in Spanish):

La hermana de Nietzsche y The Will to Power [transcripción de Open College] La hermana de Nietzsche y The Will to Power [transcripción de Open College] Por Stephen R. C. Hicks, Ph.D. Este episodio está inspirado en mi re-lectura de The Will to Power de Nietzsche. […]”cada palabra de The Will to Power fue escrita …

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Audiobook with timestamping now (Explaining Postmodernism)

For ease of browsing and navigation, this audio edition read by author Stephen R.C. Hicks now has timestamps for each chapter and section: 00:00:00 EXPLAINING POSTMODERNISM 00:00:25 CHAPTER ONE: What Postmodernism Is 00:02:22 The postmodern vanguard: Foucault, Lyotard, Derrida, Rorty 00:09:22 Modern and postmodern 00:12:22 Modernism and the Enlightenment 00:22:50 Postmodernism versus the Enlightenment 00:25:06 …

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Cathy Young’s “The Return of the Anti‐​Enlightenment”

Worth reading: The full text of Young’s judicious 2022 article for Cato Policy Report. Related: Chapter One of Explaining Postmodernism for an overview of the Enlightenment against which the postmoderns are reacting. Full audiobook here. My Enlightenment Vision flowchart is pitched at a high level of abstraction, showing schematically how the philosophical revolution of the …

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