Friday, 28 March 2014

Economics without Illusions


Also Known As:
Debunking the Myths of Modern Capitalism
Year:
2010
Country:
United States…
Predominant Genre:
Non-fiction
Author:
Joseph Heath
Best Performances:
None.
Premiss:
Why profit isn’t all bad & the free market isn’t all good.
Themes:
Political Correctness | White culture | White guilt | White supremacy
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:
Unknown.
Review Format:
Book

The usual White claims about rational actors in economic theories created by Whites, that inevitably fail to adequately-account for the often-irrational manner in which Whites allocate economic resources; inevitably leading to recurrent economic recessions. That White lunatics are not seen as trying to take over the asylum is itself a delusion.

Although the style is breezy and likably non-academic, Austrian Economics offers a better understanding of human economic processes because it encompasses human nature rather than denying its existence. Yet, the book does make the attempt to critique the desire to make Economics a hard science by failing to take the very human nature economists claim to be describing into account.

Thus, economists claim that when one of their favorite theories does not explain the behavior created by the social policies they advocate, they rarely claim their theories are at fault. Instead, it is the agents (ie, ordinary people) who were being irrational. In this, modern, Western economics has much in common with Soviet psychiatry view that political dissidents were schizophrenic.

Despite the in-love-with-sound-of-his-own-voice style, the author manages to convey - albeit in too many words and in too many overly-involved examples - the mere ideology behind much modern economic theory and practice. The lack of economic literacy in the West is staggering given the high reported rates of educational achievement prevalent there but, again, this is down to believing ideology is better than the experience-backed common sense of the author’s non-fallacious SWOT analysis of Capitalism.

A fine Economics primer, but not an in-depth discussion.


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Science:



No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.



Jacob Bronowski… (1908 - 74), British scientist, author. Encounter (London, July 1971).


Sleep of Reason:



The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.



Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes… (1746-1828), Spanish painter. Caption to Caprichos, number 43, a series of eighty etchings completed in 1798, satirical and grotesque in form.


Humans & Aliens:



I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.



Terence… (circa 190-159 BC), Roman dramatist. Chremes, in The Self-Tormentor [Heauton Timorumenos], act 1, scene 1.


Führerprinzip:



One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.