You are a product of Gen X libertarianism -- economics-based and firmly grounded in reason.
The Millennial and Gen Z generations are products of psychology. They are reactions to the reason-based economics paradigm that dominated the neoliberal age. They are letting out all the emotions that that paradigm didn't accommodate.
But this development shouldn't lead you to doubt yourself. At all. The Millennial and Gen Z generations are wrong. As Hayek argued contra Freud, civilization depends in part on the suppression of emotion.* They are letting out repressed emotion because it's cathartic, but the effect is negative. Is the United States better off or worse off since Millennials became working age? Since they promoted both wokeism and the populist response? Millennials are at the heart of both of these emotional reactions. And most people perceive society as getting worse and becoming divided. Emotions lead to tribalism and conflict. It is reason that paves the way to cooperation and peace.
What we need is a rebirth of reason and the suppression of emotion once again. You may not live to see it, but it's something worth fighting for. We're witnessing generations with poor character undermine civilization. I'm for ultimately laying blame on individuals, but to the extent we can make collective judgements (and we should generally avoid doing so), the younger generations are emotionally immature and need to experience disapprobation.
*Hayek is seen as a critic of reason so his claim about emotion might seem confusing. But Hayek was a proponent of the part of reason he felt was unconscious and neglected. He thought we should place less value on conscious reason and more value on unconscious reason because markets operated using unconscious reason and conscious reason failed to plan economies. This is consistent with his opposition to cathartic expressions of emotion. It also explains how he could criticize reason, but also see its value in shaping society, without contradicting himself.
Actually, both younger and older generations embraced deeply misguided views of psychology by buying into the idea that being governed by one's reason and being in touch with one's emotions are mutually incompatible. For the older generation, this false dichotomy was symbolized in popular culture by the lead characters in the original _Star Trek_ series, particularly Spock as the emotion-suppressing champion of pure logic, McCoy as the logic-spurning emotionalist, and Kirk as trying to strike a balance between the two, though without ever being able to clearly articulate how one can systematically apply logic to an understanding one's psychological nature to formulate a rational hedonism.
For the older generation of libertarians (particularly the tail end of the boomer generation), this was manifested by a polarization between the followers of Ayn Rand (who championed a Spock-like rejection of emotions as a source of ethical guidance) versus various other libertarian tendencies that were seriously turned off by Rand's hyperrationalism and by her intolerance of anyone subscribing to philosophical deviations. While Bryan is not a Randian (at least not an orthodox one), he had enough early exposure to Rand that he still seems to equate reason with emotional suppression.
Generally speaking, younger generations haven't transcended this dichotomy; rather, they have been channeling McCoy and rejecting reason on the basis of New Left ideologies that have been festering since the 1960s. Such ideologies hold that emotional responses are arbitrary subjective constructs (often adopted unconsciously by individuals at the behest of more powerful groups and institutions in society) and/or are a product of one's genetic inheritance. Instead of appealing to reason, younger generations tend to prefer mob intimidation, censorship, and the circulation of unquestioned authoritarian propaganda, the premise being that you can't trust anyone to think things through for oneself or to think differently than yourself about anything and therefore must be cajoled not only into doing the right thing, but even to think and say the right things under the influence of the emotions of fear and shame.
Interesting take. However, I wonder how much you indulge in delivering disapprobation to younger generations. Older generations, even those in my own generation, still give in to emotion, or I feel that they do. But there are reasons behind emotions, reasons beyond the emotional beings' control. Underlying causes for their escapes from reality. It isn't all political religion at play; there are many people worried about their place in the world and how they could survive it. I have an uncle who wishes that all Americans would be forced to serve in the military, because of how good he thought it would be for everyone. In contrast, my father appreciated his military service (by choice, though he just barely missed the draft in the 1950s), because of of the good that it personally did for him. He didn't recommend the military to his family, though, and he always supported us furthering our educations, a drive that I continue to possess. Hard truths integrated into our sum of knowledge naturally without relentless hammering are easier to absorb and react to, and so few people recognize that.
Just last night I was listening to music, and I'm an atheist, but I noticed this transcendent feeling I was having, and it felt like "heaven exists" in a way. And all I can make of it is that while in my own temporary life, I can feel something that gets processed into a experience of eternal refuge, and that is pretty incredible.
I am also very dedicated to the truth, but I don't find the world to be full of "pretty lies and ugly truths." On the contrary, it seems to me that there are a lot of ugly lies out there and that the truth, well, it isn't exactly pretty, but it's more "plain" than "ugly." I think there are a lot of reasons for this:
1. People frequently attribute to malice what can more easily be explained by stupidity. The result is the ugly lie that the world is full of horrible, malicious people, rather than the plain truth that it's full of idiots and screw-ups.
2. People overestimate how easy it is to coordinate to solve social problems. This results in the ugly lie that people are maliciously refusing to coordinate, rather than the plain truth that coordination is hard.
3. People assume others hold the same implicit sociological and economic beliefs that they do, including beliefs about what policies have what consequences. This leads to the ugly lie that their opponents maliciously oppose policies with good consequences and support policies with bad ones, rather than the plain truth that their opponents disagree with them about what the consequences of those policies are.
I suppose it partly depends on your perspective. A lot of pretty lies and ugly lies go together. If you believe the pretty lie that the government can fix everything easily, then you need some way to explain why it hasn't already done so. The obvious solution is to embrace the ugly lie that there are evil people sabotaging the government.
I know I'll sound like an egotistical arsehole, but knowing that you have liked metal, I'd like to recommend my favorite music of this genre: Power Trip - Nightmare Logic. Thrash metal with elements of extreme punk. For me it's just metallica, but heavier https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPwPwSQE9bs
Viewing conditions are excellent for Arcturus in the Northern Hemisphere at this time of year. Look along the curve of the Dipper for the bright red star in the east while listening to this music, and you will find it there.
I taught an English lesson this this rich Japanese guy who owned a bunch of kindergartens. He contracted with my firm and took English lessons twice a week because my company didn't charge him and he used to live in L.A. back in the 80s. Dude loved to chat with Americans. The first lesson we did he wanted to know the meaning of a bunch of songs in English. I was bored pretty quickly and I tried to explain that Axl Rose is an idiot and his idea of world revolution is probably really idiotic. Whatever Aerosmith had to say about love is also written by idiots. Those idiots also had to sum up their views in a little over 3 minutes. Don't worry about the meaning of Master of Puppets, that guy was probably an idiot. You went to yale, or whatever, just jam on with your thing man.
Spock was half human. He had some (suppressed) emotions. Too much for Vulcan, too little for Human. Dogma is lies, but the only truly honest person is a sadist. So any truth is too Vulcan for the Dogmatist. I seek truth to shed light on my ignorance. Not to shed light on your ignorance, except if it seems to be truth.
I do not confuse fantasy (which I like being immersed in, since the days of Analog Magazine) with reality (which I find I also like being immersed in also. Sometimes.) ... but the solitude of riding a motorcycle is not the solitude of riding in my SUV. The former is searching for truth. The latter is walling dogma out.
Same here, brother. Principles over dogma and truth is the highest principle.
Master of Puppets is about drug addiction, specifically cocaine, IIRC.
Brian,
You are a product of Gen X libertarianism -- economics-based and firmly grounded in reason.
The Millennial and Gen Z generations are products of psychology. They are reactions to the reason-based economics paradigm that dominated the neoliberal age. They are letting out all the emotions that that paradigm didn't accommodate.
But this development shouldn't lead you to doubt yourself. At all. The Millennial and Gen Z generations are wrong. As Hayek argued contra Freud, civilization depends in part on the suppression of emotion.* They are letting out repressed emotion because it's cathartic, but the effect is negative. Is the United States better off or worse off since Millennials became working age? Since they promoted both wokeism and the populist response? Millennials are at the heart of both of these emotional reactions. And most people perceive society as getting worse and becoming divided. Emotions lead to tribalism and conflict. It is reason that paves the way to cooperation and peace.
What we need is a rebirth of reason and the suppression of emotion once again. You may not live to see it, but it's something worth fighting for. We're witnessing generations with poor character undermine civilization. I'm for ultimately laying blame on individuals, but to the extent we can make collective judgements (and we should generally avoid doing so), the younger generations are emotionally immature and need to experience disapprobation.
*Hayek is seen as a critic of reason so his claim about emotion might seem confusing. But Hayek was a proponent of the part of reason he felt was unconscious and neglected. He thought we should place less value on conscious reason and more value on unconscious reason because markets operated using unconscious reason and conscious reason failed to plan economies. This is consistent with his opposition to cathartic expressions of emotion. It also explains how he could criticize reason, but also see its value in shaping society, without contradicting himself.
Actually, both younger and older generations embraced deeply misguided views of psychology by buying into the idea that being governed by one's reason and being in touch with one's emotions are mutually incompatible. For the older generation, this false dichotomy was symbolized in popular culture by the lead characters in the original _Star Trek_ series, particularly Spock as the emotion-suppressing champion of pure logic, McCoy as the logic-spurning emotionalist, and Kirk as trying to strike a balance between the two, though without ever being able to clearly articulate how one can systematically apply logic to an understanding one's psychological nature to formulate a rational hedonism.
For the older generation of libertarians (particularly the tail end of the boomer generation), this was manifested by a polarization between the followers of Ayn Rand (who championed a Spock-like rejection of emotions as a source of ethical guidance) versus various other libertarian tendencies that were seriously turned off by Rand's hyperrationalism and by her intolerance of anyone subscribing to philosophical deviations. While Bryan is not a Randian (at least not an orthodox one), he had enough early exposure to Rand that he still seems to equate reason with emotional suppression.
Generally speaking, younger generations haven't transcended this dichotomy; rather, they have been channeling McCoy and rejecting reason on the basis of New Left ideologies that have been festering since the 1960s. Such ideologies hold that emotional responses are arbitrary subjective constructs (often adopted unconsciously by individuals at the behest of more powerful groups and institutions in society) and/or are a product of one's genetic inheritance. Instead of appealing to reason, younger generations tend to prefer mob intimidation, censorship, and the circulation of unquestioned authoritarian propaganda, the premise being that you can't trust anyone to think things through for oneself or to think differently than yourself about anything and therefore must be cajoled not only into doing the right thing, but even to think and say the right things under the influence of the emotions of fear and shame.
Interesting take. However, I wonder how much you indulge in delivering disapprobation to younger generations. Older generations, even those in my own generation, still give in to emotion, or I feel that they do. But there are reasons behind emotions, reasons beyond the emotional beings' control. Underlying causes for their escapes from reality. It isn't all political religion at play; there are many people worried about their place in the world and how they could survive it. I have an uncle who wishes that all Americans would be forced to serve in the military, because of how good he thought it would be for everyone. In contrast, my father appreciated his military service (by choice, though he just barely missed the draft in the 1950s), because of of the good that it personally did for him. He didn't recommend the military to his family, though, and he always supported us furthering our educations, a drive that I continue to possess. Hard truths integrated into our sum of knowledge naturally without relentless hammering are easier to absorb and react to, and so few people recognize that.
Just last night I was listening to music, and I'm an atheist, but I noticed this transcendent feeling I was having, and it felt like "heaven exists" in a way. And all I can make of it is that while in my own temporary life, I can feel something that gets processed into a experience of eternal refuge, and that is pretty incredible.
I wonder if it’s because you can’t possess it
A bit of stoic wisdom?
I am also very dedicated to the truth, but I don't find the world to be full of "pretty lies and ugly truths." On the contrary, it seems to me that there are a lot of ugly lies out there and that the truth, well, it isn't exactly pretty, but it's more "plain" than "ugly." I think there are a lot of reasons for this:
1. People frequently attribute to malice what can more easily be explained by stupidity. The result is the ugly lie that the world is full of horrible, malicious people, rather than the plain truth that it's full of idiots and screw-ups.
2. People overestimate how easy it is to coordinate to solve social problems. This results in the ugly lie that people are maliciously refusing to coordinate, rather than the plain truth that coordination is hard.
3. People assume others hold the same implicit sociological and economic beliefs that they do, including beliefs about what policies have what consequences. This leads to the ugly lie that their opponents maliciously oppose policies with good consequences and support policies with bad ones, rather than the plain truth that their opponents disagree with them about what the consequences of those policies are.
I suppose it partly depends on your perspective. A lot of pretty lies and ugly lies go together. If you believe the pretty lie that the government can fix everything easily, then you need some way to explain why it hasn't already done so. The obvious solution is to embrace the ugly lie that there are evil people sabotaging the government.
I know I'll sound like an egotistical arsehole, but knowing that you have liked metal, I'd like to recommend my favorite music of this genre: Power Trip - Nightmare Logic. Thrash metal with elements of extreme punk. For me it's just metallica, but heavier https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPwPwSQE9bs
Melodic Death Metal Be'lakor - Of Breath and Bone and Stone's reach https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVVcohPn64c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve9tqUlrpws. The vocals might be ofputting at first, but the melodies are superb.
Gallowbraid - Ashen Eidolon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=023oNRM72eQ Although it's black metal, it's quite soothing.
These are quite underrated IMO, so I'd just like to recommend them to whoever I can.
Therion:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfqecEyN1Ds
Opeth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4xCb_OU_lM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54O-jvjamvo
Arcturus:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uWIg5hI7hE
Viewing conditions are excellent for Arcturus in the Northern Hemisphere at this time of year. Look along the curve of the Dipper for the bright red star in the east while listening to this music, and you will find it there.
Is goal setting a form of thinking or wishful thinking?
I taught an English lesson this this rich Japanese guy who owned a bunch of kindergartens. He contracted with my firm and took English lessons twice a week because my company didn't charge him and he used to live in L.A. back in the 80s. Dude loved to chat with Americans. The first lesson we did he wanted to know the meaning of a bunch of songs in English. I was bored pretty quickly and I tried to explain that Axl Rose is an idiot and his idea of world revolution is probably really idiotic. Whatever Aerosmith had to say about love is also written by idiots. Those idiots also had to sum up their views in a little over 3 minutes. Don't worry about the meaning of Master of Puppets, that guy was probably an idiot. You went to yale, or whatever, just jam on with your thing man.
My favorite song about unplanned pregnancy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g9Rz89tw8E
Master of Puppets is a classic. And there is nothing wrong with being compared to Spock.
same here, except i use the furry fandom and creativity/arts instead of fantasy
Caplan wins the prize for the most eloquent restating of "touch grass" for today!
You might like this piece on how the Nightmare Before Christmas is anti-immigration!
https://www.kvetch.au/p/of-kings-and-immigrants
Spock was half human. He had some (suppressed) emotions. Too much for Vulcan, too little for Human. Dogma is lies, but the only truly honest person is a sadist. So any truth is too Vulcan for the Dogmatist. I seek truth to shed light on my ignorance. Not to shed light on your ignorance, except if it seems to be truth.
I do not confuse fantasy (which I like being immersed in, since the days of Analog Magazine) with reality (which I find I also like being immersed in also. Sometimes.) ... but the solitude of riding a motorcycle is not the solitude of riding in my SUV. The former is searching for truth. The latter is walling dogma out.
My standard advice to kids asking me if they should study economics is: If your favorite Star Trek character is Spock, then study economics.
Ready or Not by Jackson Browne, a song about an unplanned pregnancy