Who Says There is No Karma

Last night, Attorney General Michael Mukaskey collapsed from an apparent heart attack while giving a speech to the Federalist Society, a conservative lawyers' group. In his speech Mukaskey asserted that the Bush Administration's detention policy at Guantanomo Bay and warrantless surveillance programs had "saved lives."

There may, in fact, be a god.

Quotes of the Day

“I am really and truly frightened by the collapse of support for the Republican Party by the young and the educated,” (Conservative writer David Frum, on his resignation from National Review)

"It isn't that culture doesn't matter. It does. But preaching to the choir produces no converts. And shifting demographics suggest that the Republican Party -- and conservatism with it -- eventually will die out unless religion is returned to the privacy of one's heart where it belongs. " (Conservative Kathleen Parker on the future of the GOP)

Outliers

I have not yet read Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, but based on the discussion it generates, it seems worth talking about in the context of a new zeitegist. Gladwell writes about the origins of success. His thesis:

"People don't rise from nothing ....They are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot ... It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn't."

In other word, Gladwell takes issue with the notion that success is simply a product of personal virtue. For Gladwell, not everyone who works hard, is forthright, punctual and conscientious will succeed. Those types of qualities may (or may not) be precursors to success, but the story of any success is largely a societal one. The circumstances of your birth, the culture of your upbringing, the characteristics of your social milieu, and your proximity to opportunity all play decisive rolls.

Why is this interesting? Well, for the last twenty years we have endured a politics -- and to a lesser extent a culture -- which reified personal virture or "personal responsibility." Success, or lack thereof was always described as the presence of virtues or the absence of vices. The idea that larger influences, such as race, class, or culture played any role in success was dismissed as a liberal apologia, an epistle from the "blame society" crowd. Now it would appear that the opposite viewpoint is making itself known. It may help us explain why scores of untalented, avaricious people succeed and scores of talented and virtuous people are consigned to the margins.

Changing the rules of the philosophic debate is great, but once we have a better handle on what conditions make success posiible, we may actually have an interesting policy war to fight. For example, what types of policies may help us re-create the successes that certain groups (be they Jewish lawyers, WASP Investment Bankers or New York artists) have experienced.

Perhaps even more interesting is the impact of this analysis on how our economy distributes rewards. Traditionally, we have justified outsized rewards to business leaders and investors because we assumed the rewards were the results of their hard work, intelligence and risk taking. Now it seems that may not be entirely true. Instead, we recognize that windaflls may be the result of societal inputs, and beneficial circumstances beyond anyone's control. In other words, some succeed because they were given the tools necessary to succeed and then placed in a position where success could find them.

This vision is quite a bit different than the "capitalist hero" narrative our society has worked from. Followed to its logical conclusion, it undermines the winner take all mentality that we used to justify our have and have not society.

Another Sign the Times Are A Changin'

One of the headlines of today's Detroit News is "War on Poverty Renewed." The accompanying article chronicled the problem of homlessness in Metro Detroit. Amazing. A few months ago, poverty was not on the editorial agenda of a pro business, Republican leaning paper like the News. In fact, airy fairy ideas like poverty reduction were presented as the pipe dreams of unrepentant leftists or hopeless dreamers. The News was much more likely to write articles about how the poor screwed us all and diverting precious resources away from the Suburban American Dream.

I view this as a sign, however insignificant, that the tenor of our national conversation maybe changing. The libretarian/corporate mindset that was all the rage among the upper middle class may be receding ... along with the granite countertops and luxury imports.

Right Wing Push Back

Rush Limbaugh began this new political era by declaring that "The game has begun."

That's the problem with you Rush. You think this is a game. So you treat it like game. And we all lose.

We Are All Neo -Neo -Keynsians Now

I was reading yet another economist's bromide for fixing the economy. His three part solution included: 1) growing US productivity and innovation at home rather than relying upon outsourcing; 2) moving beyond financial "innovations" and producing real products we can sell at home and abroad, and 3) a fiscal stimulus plan aimed at funding infrastructure education and innovation rather than consumer spending.

The source of such left wing snake oil? Businessweek.

To be fair, I am sure the author of this particular article, Michael Mandel, has been consistently advocating these types of changes for a while. A lot of economists and policy makers have. But their ideas were drowned out by the din of Wall Street lobbysist and conservative think tanks. The sad thing about our current economic debacle is not that there was no one to predict it and no one to suggest a change of course. There was. We just did not listen.

November 5, 2008 12:25 AM

YES WE CAN...

November 5, 2008 12:25 AM

A Few Parting Shots

She is soon to be history, but one cannot help but marvel at the stunning vapidity of Sarah Palin. On a conservative call in show, she stated that the media's attacks on her statements about Barak Obama made her worry for her First Amendment Rights. Ummm... the First Amendement secures the right of free speech against restrictions by the state, not the news media. Being criticized is not the same as being censored and the First Amendment specifically protects the press' ability to criticize, praise, analyze or ignore the statement of political buffoons like Gov. Palin.

But we can't expect her to be up on all this Consitutional stuff.... that's for elitists.

In other news, at least one poll shows that Sen. Obama has gained ground among Catholics. Roughly 40% of Catholics still intend to vote for John McCain based on his anti abortion stance. It appears Christopher Hitchens still has the better part of the argument.

For the Times ... Maybe

Here in my great state we have two ballot initiatives up for a vote. The first would make medicinal use of marijuana legal. The second would broaden the scope of permissible stem cell research. According to weekend polls, both look to pass handily.

The (apparent) success of these initiatives combined with the cool reception Governor Palin is receiving on the trail (fully half of surveyed voters said her presence on the ticket made them less likely to vote for McCain)and the (again apparent)failure of attacks on Sen. Oabama based on Bill Ayers and Rev Wright suggest that maybe a new wind is blowing.

No, all things will not be peace, love, and cool beer at a reasonable price. But I think we may be seeing the end of the so called Culture Wars, the time when issues of racial, sexual and gender identity, abortion, guns, stem cells and drugs played a central role in political life. For me, the height of the culture wars occurred at the 1992 GOP convention in Houston. There, Pat Buchannan and others railed against foreign, seditious and immoral influences in our culture in ways that would make Governor Palin look like a Weatherman.* Homosexuals, evolutionists, pro choicers and unwed mothers all got a piece of the vitriol. No behaviour, however personal and intimate was safe from potential regulation.

Now, most of these issues barely got a whisper in this campaign. In part, that may be due to the almost historic failure of the Bush Presidency combined with the economic crisis which dominated at least the last weeks of this campaign. That said, a lot of the culture warriors met their end before the election began (Rick Santorum comes to mind) in off year elections and any analysis of the GOP's election efforts has to consider the absence of any discernible influence from the Christian Right.

This suggests that the death of the Culture War may have deeper roots than this one election. Maybe Americans have grown tired of the Culture War and that maybe our national sights are being set on less parochial goals. Maybe Americans have realized the limits and toxicity of this internecine little battle. Maybe some of the Warriors have just had a change of heart. Maybe Americans are turning their sights to more concrete goals, like economic justice, simple competence, and realistic foreign policy.

These are all maybes, but personally, I'll take any of them and call it a win.

* Of course, the Culture Wars really began with the Goldwater movement and Richard Nixon's tactic of turning the "counterculture" into an enemy. If you are interested, I suggest Rick Pearlsteins's Nixonland.