You know, it seems to me that in our modern world, with so much vice on offer, and so little in the way of moral instruction, people would rather obey power than listen to their conscience. What does conscience have to offer, after all, besides a connection to reality and truth? The fiction of man's omniscience is so much more appealing in the short-term. I mean, we are pretty impressive, and reality -- which includes death, suffering and limitations -- is daunting. Our digital age inspires us to think in black and white terms more than ever. The in-between is becoming ever more invisible. It is commonplace to hear talk of "good" people and "bad" people. This is a tragedy. We are slaves to our projections, and we are being robbed blind. In my 12-step program, we say "our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern." I don't know how to incentivize sobriety. But I think that's what we need now, more than ever.
In economics we say that people simply respond to incentives. It's value free in the sense that we try to predict the outcomes of various incentive structures, and more reliable than trying to convince anyone of a particular philosophy. From my perspective, your complaints about liberalism have more to do with modern republics upending incentive structures than they do with philosophy. Hans Herman-Hoppe has a book called Democracy: The God That Failed which makes this point rather forcefully. There are some brief clips you might be interested in on YouTube that summarise the argument.
But between the most marginal land in production and the King, there is of course plenty of room for morality. Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments comes to mind here.
You know, it seems to me that in our modern world, with so much vice on offer, and so little in the way of moral instruction, people would rather obey power than listen to their conscience. What does conscience have to offer, after all, besides a connection to reality and truth? The fiction of man's omniscience is so much more appealing in the short-term. I mean, we are pretty impressive, and reality -- which includes death, suffering and limitations -- is daunting. Our digital age inspires us to think in black and white terms more than ever. The in-between is becoming ever more invisible. It is commonplace to hear talk of "good" people and "bad" people. This is a tragedy. We are slaves to our projections, and we are being robbed blind. In my 12-step program, we say "our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern." I don't know how to incentivize sobriety. But I think that's what we need now, more than ever.
There was a book by Fred Harrison a few years ago that harped on a line from Ecclesiastes: https://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/5-9.htm
In economics we say that people simply respond to incentives. It's value free in the sense that we try to predict the outcomes of various incentive structures, and more reliable than trying to convince anyone of a particular philosophy. From my perspective, your complaints about liberalism have more to do with modern republics upending incentive structures than they do with philosophy. Hans Herman-Hoppe has a book called Democracy: The God That Failed which makes this point rather forcefully. There are some brief clips you might be interested in on YouTube that summarise the argument.
But between the most marginal land in production and the King, there is of course plenty of room for morality. Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments comes to mind here.