The Humanities, Part I

Last semester a friend suggested I read the transcript from a great lecture he just heard. It was about the value of the humanities at universities and was given as part of a program that promotes the humanities at an otherwise science and engineering-focused school.

Back to the lecture. The argument was that we think we know more than we do and humanities can help us see this and adjust. The financial crisis was (according to the argument) a product of epistemic hubris--thinking risk (a known unknown) was understood (a known). The humanities teach that we don't know a lot of things. The lecturer illustrated this by giving an interpretation of two romantic poems.

This argument very unsatisfying. Can't we just study Godel's incompleteness theorems if we want to internalize the limits of knowledge? Or read up on the limits of various econometric techniques? Or just look at a list of provably unsolvable problems? These have the added benefit of teaching rigiourous thinking and employable skills.

This argument fits a broader pattern of argument that ends with the conclusion of "humanities make us better people." If you've read Bertrand Russell's "The Value of Philosophy" (from Problems of Philosophy) then you've read the most eloquent version of all these arguments. They're all bullshit, but I won't try to convince anyone of why since it's either obvious or near impossible to see.

I would like to just challenge the premise that the humanities are the best way to reaching an end though. If the humanities are for answering the important questions in life and making us better people, then why do we need humanities when we have religion? Religious people are happier than non-religious people. They have more of a sense of meaning and tend to behave more ethically (given their system of ethics). Religions do everything secular humanism does, just better. (I know you're thinking "but it's not about the end, it's about the journey" but that argument is bullshit.)

If you want to find the meaning of life then get a religion. If you want to change the world, you're not going to do it with a new interpretation of Roamntic poetry.

The article

Perhaps the best article I've ever read about politics in America:

A Triumph of Misinformation by James Fallows

I'm too young to remember what the health-care debate was like in 1994, but everything going wrong today is in here.

"The other purely political calculation concerned sales strategy. Throughout his campaign Bill Clinton had emphsized the overall cost of medical care as a central evil."

"polls showed . . . that most people supported the idea behind Clinton's plan. . . . [M]ost people also believed that the plan would drive costs up, not down. . . . [T]he more the administration emphasized its cost-control themes, the less believable it would become."

The administration even tried to ram the bill through as part of budget reconciliation, and made the misstep of letting the polarizing spending bill pass first setting the stage for partisan conflict.

The only thing missing is a personal blemish on the President like Whitewater and a task force writing the bill. Of course, Obama's choice to let congress write the bill may turn out worse because we still have no specific bill and it let legislators commit the mistake of a bill only slightly "'left of center' . . . [which] when Republicans lost interest became a liability."

Update: The Barack Obama edition even has Betsy McCaughey

The Bucket List

I've wanted to write a list of things I need to do before I die and today is the day to do it.

1. Read Leigh Brackett's screenplay for The Empire Strikes Back (only available at a library in New Mexico)

2. Visit Cedar Point and Disneyland

3. Run up the stairs in Philadelphia like Rocky

4. Eat wings at the Anchor Bar

5. Donate a kidney

6. Do the Ben Franklin thing with at least $500,000

Those are the only essentials, though I plan to add more.

Last Updated: March 26, 2010

Swiss Cheese

Paul Krugman points out today what everyone not living in a PVI R+10 district already knows: Obamacare will resemble the Swiss system more than England's NHS.

To save readers time I've done a simulation of Glenn Beck's response:

"If you think the Medicare doughnut hole was bad wait until you get Swiss cheese coverage under Obamacare."

Douthat: Pro-death panel

The token conservative columist for the New York Times decided to endorse "death panels" in his latest column:

"We’re already practically a gerontocracy: Americans over 50 cast over 40 percent of the votes in the 2008 elections, and half the votes in the ’06 midterms. . . . Somebody will need to say “no” to retirees."

Florida, cutting edge as ever, has been test-driving the gerontocracy for years and the reviews are in: "We're lovin' it." (It's like being at McDonald's 24/7.)

The only difference is that McDonald's doesn't tax other people to pay for your all-you-can-eat order.

Empire Strikes Back

From what I can tell The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars are neck and neck in the race to claim the "Greatest Star Wars Film" title (and perhaps greatest film period).

I never understood why. To me Star Wars is vastly superior. The action is better, the ending is more satisfying, the soundtrack is better and acting is fresher. But the biggest problem is that: "[Empire] suffered from . . . the classic problems of being the second act in a three-act play."

Then I watched the original unaltered editions last week and I gained something of a newfound respect for the ending. The middle is still muddled, but the direction and pacing of the last 20 minutes or so deserve more credit. Kershner does a great job of easing up on the throttle in the falling action, giving a few jolts of excitment to keep the movie from going into free fall (as in Return of the Jedi). The scoring is also at its best in the series aside from during the trench run.

Quote of the Day

From the Economix blog:

"Many Americans oppose [a mandate to buy health insurance] as an infringement of their personal rights, all the while believing that they have a perfect right to highly expensive, critically needed health care, even when they cannot pay for it. This immature, asocial mentality is rare in the rest of the world."

That was written in April. If people had doubts then about the "immature" part then certainly the town hall meetings have changed minds.