Some Chicago Boyz know each other from student days at the University of Chicago. Others are Chicago boys in spirit. The blog name is also intended as a good-humored gesture of admiration for distinguished Chicago School economists and fellow travelers.
Via the usual source … Rosie O’Donnell 9/11 Conspiracy Comments: Popular Mechanics Responds.
I don’t mean to claim originality here; there will always be people who can’t read the signs of the times. The interesting thing is to see how similar their illogic is across supposedly insurmountable political boundaries. Consider WTC conspiracy theorists and antievolutionists.
[Note: This is one of my long comments at another site that I thought I would post here.]
I think our economic lives profoundly influence how we think about broader issues. The degree to which any individual can disagree with one’s superiors and peers without suffering harm to one’s career varies significantly from field to field. In turn, the degree to which mere human opinion plays a role in an individual’s success within a field determines how conformist to common opinion within a field an individual must be to succeed.
Ginny’s post got me to thinking about a topic I muse over every once in a while. I have two firm beliefs about scientists. One is that they do not need to be as much of a bunch of egotistical buggers as they tend to be. (I have devoted multiple posts on my blog to that effect.) The other is that the natural political state of the scientist (and of most engineers) should be libertarian / conservative, because the core non-technical skill required for scientific work above the B.Sc. level is the ready acceptance of personal responsibility.
Okay, I’m a science illiterate and generally have less curiosity than becomes a sentient being about much related to that large branch of learning. Still Belmont Club’s discussion of “post-normal science”, here and here, seems to describe a theory idiots like me can grasp. Amazingly enough, it appears to be a kind of science in which I (who might well be affected as would my children and who, God knows, have opinions) can participate (along with every high-school dropout rocker and the lightest of Hollywood ingenues). I have my doubts that’s a good thing. I wonder what the scientists on board think.
“Eternity is a very long time, especially towards the end.”