Thoughts for the Day: Wednesday 18 August 2021

 

But first, a few words from Pope Francis & Naomi Oreskes in his encyclical Laudato Si and her Introduction thereto (and then MacIntosh, et. al.): 

The pope calls for an “integral ecology,” by which he means a vision of the world founded fundamentally on respect for Creation, and a renewed emphasis on our mutual interconnection with one another and with nature in all its complexity. This ecology must necessarily include science and technology, but a science that moves past reductionism and a technology that is more focused on authentic needs. As the pope puts it: “We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental. Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature.”

(Location 213)

An integral ecology must also include also good governance, including “the establishment of a legal framework which can set clear boundaries and ensure the protection of ecosystems.” It must replace a culture of rampant individualism with a culture of care rooted in “love for society and commitment to the common good.” And it must not only reclaim the idea of the common good, but also recognize it as the centerpiece of civil society, environmental protection, religious communion, and, finally, human dignity, happiness, and love. Loc. 223

Crucially, this culture of care must include not just those of us alive today, but also future generations—a point the pope makes more than once, in both economic and moral terms. Our current economic models literally dis-count the future, insofar as damage in the future is counted as costing less than damage today, but what sort of a calculus is it that concludes that our needs are greater than our children’s? The notion of the common good, the pope concludes, also extends to future generations: “We can no longer speak of sustainable development apart from intergenerational solidarity … Intergenerational solidarity is not optional, but rather a basic question of justice, since the world we have received also belongs to those who will follow us.” Loc. 224.

And now to give the Pope a rest: 

Developmental Politics

Steve McIntosh

Within the realm of politics, the ascendency of modernism has created the cultural pressure that has helped consolidate most of America’s divergent religious outlooks into a coherent political block that often stands in opposition to modernity. This loosely affiliated cultural segment of American society embraces many religious communities, including Evangelical Protestants, Conservative Catholics, Mormons, Orthodox Jews, and many similar subcultures.

The Constitution of Knowledge

Jonathan Rauch

“Resist,” I advise Theaetetus. “There may be political reasons to claim that transgender women of color initiated the 1969 Stonewall riot, or that American colonists declared their independence in order to protect the institution of slavery, or that a Black man invented the light bulb, or any number of other factually challenged propositions. Fight the temptation. George Orwell (a socialist) understood that subordinating truth to politics is a game which tyrants and bullies always win. In the reality-based community, accuracy is the only game in town. It is our common denominator and the taproot of our integrity.”

A Thousand Small Sanities

Adam Gopnik

The reason liberals like laws is because they give us more time for everything in life that isn’t law-like. When we aren’t fighting every minute for minimal rights, or reasserting our territory, or worrying about the next clan’s claims, we can look at the stars and taste new cheeses and make love, sometimes with the wrong person. The special virtue of freedom is not that it makes you richer and more powerful but that it gives you more time to understand what it means to be alive.

Breath

James Nestor

The [Native American] tribes attributed their vigorous health to a medicine, what [19th-century lawyer, painter, & traveler George] Catlin called the “great secret of life.” The secret was breathing. The Native Americans explained to Catlin that breath inhaled through the mouth sapped the body of strength, deformed the face, and caused stress and disease. On the other hand, breath inhaled through the nose kept the body strong, made the face beautiful, and prevented disease.

Thoughts for the Day: Tuesday 17 August 2021

 

Continuing from the Introduction to Laudato Si by Naomi Oreskes:

The environment is one of those goods that cannot be adequately safeguarded or promoted by market forces.”

(Location 167)

Carbon markets have been widely advocated as the solution to climate change, but the pope has grave concerns here as well. The strategy of buying and selling “carbon credits” can lead to a new form of speculation which would not help reduce the emission of polluting gases worldwide. This system seems to provide … the guise of a certain commitment to the environment, but in no way does it allow for the radical change which present circumstances require. Rather, it may simply become a ploy which permits maintaining the excessive consumption of some countries and sectors.

(Location 173)

N.B. I'd refine the Pope's comments here. I believe that he's talking about a cap-and-trade regime, which has been tried in Europe (and perhaps elsewhere) with little to say for it. The other way to approach this problem, not mentioned above, is a price on carbon  and then to pay our the proceeds from the price paid as dividends. This scheme recognizes that dumping carbon into the atmosphere has a cost and that cost is recognized (at least to some extent) by its price. The price (or "fee") collected by the government will then be paid as a "dividend" to individuals on a per capita basis, which would aid lower-and middle-income individuals and families. 

[A] great deal of environmental wreckage has been inflicted by multinational corporations operating in developing nations in ways that would not be acceptable in the developed world. When these companies cease their operations, frequently they leave substantial damage in their wake, damage that is not an accident or oversight but the consequence of an ideology in which “ ‘whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenceless before the interests of a deified market, which become the only rule.’

(Location 183)

Thus the pope’s two themes are in fact one: our failure to care for creation is the result of a world-view that defines everything in consumerist terms and looks for solutions solely in things that can be bought and sold. The market economy and the culture of consumption are locked in a dance of death, leading to spiritual impoverishment for those who control it, material impoverishment for those who don’t, and environmental impoverishment across the globe.

(Location 204)

THE ALTERNATIVE: AN INTEGRAL ECOLOGY

Some may shrug and say that environmental damage is the price of progress, but the pope refuses to accept that conclusion as rational. On the contrary, viewed dispassionately, it comes to look a bit insane. “The markets, which immediately benefit from sales, stimulate ever greater demand. An outsider looking at our world would be amazed at such behaviour, which at times appears self-destructive.” The pope does not go so far as to label the technological paradigm religion, but his use of the phrase “deified market” certainly suggests that thought. Loc 208.

And now back to our regularly scheduled program: 

The Price of Peace

Zachary D. Carter

“The principle of accumulation based on inequality was a vital part of the pre-war order of Society and of progress as we then understood it,” Keynes wrote. “This principle depended on unstable psychological conditions, which it may be impossible to recreate. It was not natural for a population, of whom so few enjoyed the comforts of life, to accumulate so hugely. The war has disclosed the possibility of consumption to all and the vanity of abstinence to many.”

The Origins of Totalitarianism

Hannah Arendt

Caution in handling generally accepted opinions that claim to explain whole trends of history is especially important for the historian of modern times, because the last century has produced an abundance of ideologies that pretend to be keys to history but are actually nothing but desperate efforts to escape responsibility.

Between Past and Future

Hannah Arendt

Kierkegaard knew that the incompatibility of modern science with traditional beliefs does not lie in any specific scientific findings, all of which can be integrated into religious systems and absorbed by religious beliefs for the reason that they will never be able to answer the questions which religion raises. He knew that this incompatibility lay, rather, in the conflict between a spirit of doubt and distrust which ultimately can trust only what it has made itself, and the traditional unquestioning confidence in what has been given and appears in its true being to man’s reason and senses.

Arms and Influence

Thomas C. Schelling

“Compellence” is more like “offense.” Forcible offense is taking something, occupying a place, or disarming an enemy or a territory, by some direct action that the enemy is unable to block. “Compellence” is inducing his withdrawal, or his acquiescence, or his collaboration by an action that threatens to hurt, often one that could not forcibly accomplish its aim but that, nevertheless, can hurt enough to induce compliance.

Thoughts for the Day: Monday 16 August (that most august date) 2021

 

N.B. The following quotes are taken from Naomi Oreskes Introduction.

The problematic assumptions are thus three-fold: (1) that everything is here for our use, and whoever can find and market that use is warranted in doing so; (2) that the system that created these problems will somehow also solve them; and (3) that technology, enabled by science and fostered by the profit motive and consumerism, is the foundation of progress, prosperity, freedom, and even happiness.

(Location 130)

What [Pope Francis] rejects is the logic that sees the marketplace as the solution to all problems, that prioritizes profits to the exclusion of other considerations, and that privileges individual desire over the common good.

(Location 135)

The failures of communism are taken as total refutation of any attempted intervention in the marketplace, any attempt to guide technological development towards more humane ends. But theirs is the ideology of no ideology. Thus it is significant that the pope’s critique is based not only on theological foundations, but on empirical ones as well. It is based on the simple fact that the system as it currently operates has failed in three important ways. The first is a failure of equity. . . . The second failure is environmental damage. The champions of our current system often say its benefits have simply not yet reached the poor—and therefore we must continue (and even strengthen) the practices that have made the rich rich [sic] until they reach all. . . . The third failure is the spiritual impoverishment of the rich. The cheerleaders of capitalism insist that free markets are not just the best means of delivering goods and services, but the only means that protect our freedom.v In the aftermath of the Cold War, this can be a hard argument to refute, but the pope is a brave man and he takes on the challenge: Our paradigm leads people to believe that they are free “as long as they have the supposed freedom to consume.”

And now for some other voices to round-out our diet: 

Commanding Hope

Thomas Homer-Dixon

The claim that capitalism is the cause of our environmental problems is only partially true, at best. Historically, non-capitalist economies, like that of the Soviet Union, have also caused massive environmental damage; and environmental problems like climate change always have multiple causes— such as people’s psychological tendency to discount future costs— many of which have nothing to do with capitalism.

Plato's Revenge

William Ophuls

Socrates’s aim is to teach political moderation and philosophical dispassion to his young interlocutors—that is, to incline their minds to wisdom and virtue instead of ambition for wealth, honor, and power.

Conservatism

Edmund Fawcett

Liberalism promised the boons of protection from power and equal respect for all, whoever they were. It said little about who was to enjoy such boons. It fell silent about how far “all” stretched. Democracy, by contrast, insisted on liberalism’s boons for everyone. Democratic liberalism, that is, demanded that protection from power—the power of state, wealth, or social pressures—be available to everyone, whoever they were. The “everyone” here included not only majorities—the less educated, the less well-off—it also included minorities, be they rich or poor, upon whom majorities might prey.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Robert M. Pirsig

A classical understanding sees the world primarily as underlying form itself. A romantic understanding sees it primarily in terms of immediate appearance.

Conservatism

Edmund Fawcett

Although derided by Democratic liberals as a golf-playing do-nothing and by Taft’s followers as a risk-blind globalist, Eisenhower (1890–1969) presided as a skillful chairman over the post-1945 consolidation of American economic and strategic power. As former Supreme Allied Commander in Europe and then US president from 1953 to 1961, the changes he made to New Deal tradition were more in pace than direction.

Thoughts for the Day: Sunday 15 August 2021

 

[Naomi Oreskes from the Introduction]  What is a surprise—and a serious challenge to our global political and business leadership—is his attention to the set of mentalities that he variously calls the myths of modernity, the myth of progress, and the technocratic paradigm. 

Perhaps the most radical part of the letter (and the part that has already proved disturbing to some readers) is its powerful critique of our “models of production and consumption.” The pope addresses head-on our prevailing economic practices and the modes of thought that insist—despite considerable evidence to the contrary—that we just need to let markets do their “magic.” 

While the word “capitalism” does not appear in the letter, the word “market” (or its variants) appears nineteen times, usually in a critical context.

. . . . 

He [Pope Francis] is asking us to reexamine the creed of “individualism, unlimited progress, competition, consumerism, the unregulated market.”

. . . . 

[Quoting directly from the encyclical] "The basic problem … is the way that humanity has taken up technology and its development according to an undifferentiated and one-dimensional paradigm. This paradigm exalts the concept of a subject who, using logical and rational procedures, progressively approaches and gains control over an external object … Men and women have constantly intervened in nature, but for a long time this meant being in tune with and respecting the possibilities offered by the things themselves. It was a matter of receiving what nature itself allowed, as if from its own hand. Now, by contrast, we are the ones to lay our hands on things, attempting to extract everything possible from them while frequently ignoring or forgetting the reality in front of us … This has made it easy to accept the idea of infinite or unlimited growth, which proves so attractive to economists, financiers and experts in technology. It is based on the lie that there is an infinite supply of the earth’s goods, and this leads to the planet being squeezed dry beyond every limit. It is the false notion that “an infinite quantity of energy and resources are available, that it is possible to renew them quickly, and that the negative effects of the exploitation of the natural order can be easily absorbed.”" (Quoted from the encyclical.)

Pope Francis. Encyclical on Climate Change and Inequality . Melville House. Kindle Edition. 

And now for a bit of variety: 

Apologies to the Grandchildren

William Ophuls

A two-hundred and fifty year-old industrial civilization is also entering its terminal phase. It is mostly failing to come to grips with the problems occasioned by its success, and it exhibits all of the major contradictions that have driven past civilizations toward decline and fall—ecological stress, overpopulation, resource exhaustion, excessive complexity, loosened morals, burgeoning indebtedness, social strife, blatant corruption, and political dysfunction.

William Walker Atkinson Premium 7 Book Collection

WILLIAM WALKER ATKINSON

Desire is the motivating power behind all actions – it is a natural law of life. Everything from the atom to the monad; from the monad to the insect; from the insect to man; from man to Nature, acts and does things by reason of the power and force of Desire, the Animating Motive. "

The Principles of Art

R. G. Collingwood

To a person who knows his business as scientist, historian, philosopher, or any kind of inquirer, the refutation of a false theory constitutes a positive advance in his inquiry. It leaves him confronted, not by the same old question over again, but by a new question, more precise in its terms and therefore easier to answer.

The Wedge

Scott Carney

Success doesn’t happen if you only act when you are sure of a positive outcome. Real success means risking failure. We succeed only after we accept that we might fail and plan for the worst.

Thoughts for the Day: Saturday 14 August 2021

 

N.B. All quotations within the quotes below are to Laudato Si. 

“Often, what was handed on was a Promethean vision of mastery over the world, which gave the impression that the protection of nature was something that only the faint-hearted cared about. Instead, our ‘dominion’ over the universe should be understood more properly in the sense of responsible stewardship.”

(Location 66)

We are not God. The earth was here before us and it has been given to us. This allows us to respond to the charge that Judaeo-Christian thinking, on the basis of the Genesis account which grants man “dominion” over the earth (cf. Gen 1:28), has encouraged the unbridled exploitation of nature by painting him as domineering and destructive by nature. This is not a correct interpretation of the Bible as understood by the Church. Although it is true that we Christians have at times incorrectly interpreted the Scriptures, nowadays we must forcefully reject the notion that our being created in God’s image and given dominion over the earth justifies absolute domination over other creatures. The biblical texts … tell us to “till and keep” the garden of the world (cf. Gen 2:15). “Tilling” refers to cultivating, ploughing or working, while “keeping” means caring, protecting, overseeing and preserving. This implies a relationship of mutual responsibility between human beings and nature. Each community can take from the bounty of the earth whatever it needs for subsistence, but it also has the duty to protect the earth and to ensure its fruitfulness for coming generations.

(Location 72)

Clearly “the Bible has no place for a tyrannical anthropocentrism unconcerned for other creatures.”

(Location 85)

To the extent that God has given man a special place, it is the place of “cooperator with God in the work of creation.” But that is a responsibility as much as a right, “a splendid universal communion” that entails an obligation of care: “We do not understand our superiority as a reason for personal glory or irresponsible dominion, but rather as a different capacity which, in its turn, entails a serious responsibility stemming from our faith.”

(Location 86)

If this encyclical were only intended to reach the faithful, the pope might have ended his discussion there. But his intent to reach further becomes clear in the second part of his argument: that current attitudes and behaviors are not only wrong in a moral sense, they are also wrong in a practical sense. They have not worked. They have given us a world that is broken and unjust: where the wealthy worry about obesity while the extreme poor have next to nothing, and the whole planet (in what is destined to be the most quoted phrase of the letter) “is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.” This is no accident, for when “nature is viewed solely as a source of profit and gain, this has serious consequences for society.”

(Location 90)

Thoughts for the Day & A Special Announcement: Friday 13 August 2021

Pope Francis, author

Starting today and running until I decide not to, I'll be pulling quotes from one work. Normally, I receive (somewhat) random quotes from my Readwise app. It pulls my highlights from my Kindle reading and popular highlights from paper books that I've read and recorded in my Goodreads account. But now I'm pulling my quotes only from Laudato Si, the 2015 encyclical (fancy word for formal letter) issued by Pope Francis. The subtitle (all via an official translation from the Vatican) tells readers what it's about: On Care for Our Common Home. It addresses climate change, environmental degradation more generally, justice, and our common humanity and the creatures with whom we share this Earth. 

Why Pope Francis? 

Because he's the leader of the Catholic Church? No. 

Because he's a prominent figure in contemporary Christianity as a whole? No. 

Because he's a prominent figure among the leaders of various religious traditions in the world today? No. 

Of course, he's the leader of the Catholic Church, a prominent figure within Christianity as a whole, and he's one the most prominent religious figures in the world today. But I chose his encyclical to share because (just today) I sat down to read it and found (not to my surprise) that it's not addressed only to Catholics or Christians or the religious in general. It's addressed to all of us. Many papal encyclicals and Church-approved positions about morality are based on "natural law" (a somewhat dated and controversial notion), or in more contemporary language, upon arguments that arise from our common humanity and that apply to all of us. While the Pope's arguments are certainly grounded in Christianity and reference Catholic doctrine, ideas of the divine, and the Western tradition, as well as contemporary science, his arguments and prophetic voice are addressed to all of us. His argument should be judged by this standard: Do his arguments make sense to persons from diverse backgrounds from around the world? I think so, at least having dipped into the work. If I find that his arguments become parochial or unpersuasive, I'll change the channel. But until then, let's hear him out. 

The first set of quotes (sampled below) are taken from an "Introduction" written for this edition by Harvard professor the history science, Naomi Oreskes, who's written about climate change. (My review from 2014 of  The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future by Naomi Oreskes & Eric M. Conway.) The introductory remarks and quotes by Oreskes provide a useful overview of what is to come. 

Two lines of thought particularly stand out. The first is an affirmation of our interconnectedness and mutual responsibility toward one another, as well as toward our common Earthly home. The second is a denunciation of the aspects of modern life that have led to our current predicament. The essence of the critique is that our situation is not an accident—it is the consequence of the way we think and act: we deny the moral dimensions of our decisions and conflate progress with activity. We cannot continue to think and act this way—to disregard both nature and justice—and expect to flourish. It is not only not moral, it is not even rational. (Location 34)

 The wide-ranging character of the encyclical is consistent with its central, anti-reductionist argument, which is, quite simply, that everyone and everything is related because it is all part of Creation. (Location 39)

[Pope Francis] also invokes a theme that has been common in the history of science: that nature is “a magnificent book in which God speaks to us and grants us a glimpse of his infinite beauty and goodness. ‘Through the greatness and the beauty of creatures one comes to know by analogy their maker’ (Wis 13:5); indeed, ‘his eternal power and divinity have been made known through his works since the creation of the world’ (Rom 1:20).”

(Location 54)

The core of the argument is that because human dignity finds its roots in our common Creation, caring for our fellow citizen and caring for our environment are the same thing. It is not a question of people versus the environment and choosing which is more important. It is a question of abandoning the notion of “versus” altogether. Respect for creation and respect for human dignity are two aspects of the same idea. (Location 60) 

Thoughts for the Day: Thursday 12 August 2021

 

The Constitution of Knowledge

Jonathan Rauch

Somewhat surprisingly to Americans today, [Johan Stuart] Mill held that the most dire threat to freedom comes not from state repression but from social conformity, which leads to a shortage of diversity—diversity of inclination and interest and talent, but especially, he implied, diversity of opinion. “Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric.” His stark conclusion: “That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of the time.”

The Constitution of Knowledge

Jonathan Rauch

[Jonathan] Haidt likens trolling to terrorism, inasmuch as they both exploit the emotional dynamics of outrage, baiting us to overreact. Rationally, we may understand that rising to the bait makes the trolls (or terrorists) more visible and influential. But emotion rules.

The Constitution of Knowledge

Jonathan Rauch

Instead of being pluralist, [some on the political left] are purist. Instead of seeking to pit biases against other biases and prejudices against other prejudices, they seek to eliminate bias and prejudice from the get-go—an Augean task which first polices culpable words, then culpable ideas when different words are recruited, and finally culpable minds when bad ideas keep popping back up.

The Price of Peace

Zachary D. Carter

But Keynesianism was also developed to prevent war, and it remains one of the great tragic ironies of intellectual history that the very catastrophe Keynes had attempted to avert for nearly two decades would be the event that finally demonstrated the viability of his economic ideas on the world stage. Both The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money and The Economic Consequences of the Peace achieved their political apotheosis in the same calamity.

The Inevitability of Tragedy

Barry Gewen

What did Strauss mean by philosophy? Not what it was commonly understood to be. Philosophers were not to be found teaching in colleges and universities around the country because instructors in philosophy departments were no more likely to be true philosophers than instructors in art departments were to be true artists. Philosophy wasn’t an academic discipline or the stepping-stone to a career defined by the structures and customs of higher education. It was a personal commitment, a way of life, inspired by a sense of wonder, much like a religion though without the dogma. Philosophers were devoted to wisdom but didn’t propound doctrines or claim to have discovered the Truth. Their wisdom, like that of the prototype Socrates, consisted of an awareness that they knew nothing. Insofar as they could be said to possess knowledge, it was of the questions, not the answers, and philosophers ceased to be philosophers, Strauss said, when certainty replaced Socratic doubt.

Prometheus Rising

Robert Anton Wilson

[Q]uantum leaps, in outlook ala Teilhard de Chardin, occur with a fantastic jump to a new horizon or level of perception. This insight usually comes from a revolutionary overview which realigns or transforms former thinking into a new and more enlightening frame of reference.

Habits of the Heart

Robert N. Bellah, Richard Madsen, William M. Sullivan, Ann Swidler, Steven M. Tipton

The calling is a crucial link between the individual and the public world. Work in the sense of the calling can never be merely private.

Book by Book

Michael Dirda

(We do tend to forget, as the poet Randall Jarrell quipped, that the people who lived in a golden age probably went around complaining how yellow everything was.)

Age of Anger

Pankaj Mishra

Ultra-nationalism and imperialism were a corollary of this hatred of ineffective democracy, liberal individualism and materialism.