Brains think: Plato for me, Machiavelli for thee

Quite possibly among my favorite articles this week is Jason Kuznicki's analysis of neoconservatism's roots, comparing three men the neocons all say they admire: Leo Strauss, Irving Kristol, and Adam Smith.

I've dissed Kristol before, even on the day he died, because he is the author of our modern misery. Kristol was infamous in my circles for injecting himself into the question of evolutionary biology's validity with this response:

There are different kinds of truths for different kinds of people. There are truths appropriate for children; truths that are appropriate for students; truths that are appropriate for educated adults; and truths that are appropriate for highly educated adults, and the notion that there should be one set of truths available to everyone is a modern democratic fallacy. It doesn't work.

Kuzniki points out that Kristol derived from Strauss these philosophical points:

• There is an unbridgeable chasm between the wise few and the vulgar many.
• Man and society have come unhinged from the natural order and from the religious faith necessary to sustain moral and political unity.
• The political order should mirror the "hierarchic order of man's natural constitution" (i.e. that Thomas Jefferson was wrong and, indeed, "that the mass of mankind has been born with saddles on their backs, a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride, by the grace of God")
• Wise statesmen should not be hampered by conventional morality or the rule of law... wise statesmen must use "benevolent coercion" to make their citizens virtuous.
• Wise statesmen should ground the regime on pieties and myths. The cardinal virtue for the vulgar many is self-sacrifice.

Wow, if that doesn't mirror General William T. Sherman's letter that I posted from a few days ago, I don't know what does.

Kuznicki points out that the one classical virtue neither Strauss nor Kristol never mention "hubris" among the classical values. (Kristol's intellectual acumen apparently didn't devolve to his son, Bill, who is insane, immoral, and desperate for attention among the neocons.)

Kuznicki finishes, "I've been reading Leo Strauss this month as well, and I'm struck at how blatant so much of his supposedly esoteric doctrine really is. Strauss repeats ad nauseam those terrible, terrible secrets that cannot be told to the common man."

Kuznicki is addressing Kristol's base assumption about "noble lies," especially the assumption that without Fear of Hell™, the "vulgar masses" will not fall into line. Kuznicki quotes Adam Smith:

History bears out the opinion that mankind can perfectly well do without the belief in a heaven. The Greeks had anything but a tempting idea of a future state. Their Elysian fields held out very little attraction to their feelings and imagination. Achilles in the Odyssey expressed a very natural, and no doubt a very common sentiment, when he said that he would rather be on earth the serf of a needy master than reign over the whole kingdom of the dead. Yet we neither find that the Greeks enjoyed life less, nor feared death more, than other people.

Really, these people ought to read more Smith and Oakeshott, and even Burke, and stop reading Kristol, Kirk and Strauss.

Why we can't have nice things, part MCMXIII

I was talking to a friend of mine last night, and pointed out an article about how silly Americans are fretting over how much we spend in foreign aid. "Good," he said. "We ought to stop sending so much."

"How much do you think there is? What percentage of the annual budget do you think goes to foreign aid?"

He paused for a second. "20 percent?"

"Most people think it's about 20%," I said, "and those who think it's a good idea still think that 15% is the right amount. The real number is less than 1%."

This is a guy who thinks he's politically savvy. He listens to NPR. He reads the news. And he still has no idea how much we spend in foreign aid.

Your Political Parties, by Consumer Reports!

Yagil Hertzberg suggests we select a political party the way we select a car: Since 1960, each of the A Party administrations has delivered higher rates of jobs creation than any of the B Party administrations.

Since 1960, the deficit each of the A Party administrations has passed to its successor was lower than the one it inherited, while each of the B Party administrations was greater.

The gross state product of the 20 states that voted for the A Party candidate ("A States") at least 5 times out of the last 8 elections is 15 percent higher than those states that voted for the B Party candidate ("B States").

"A States" best "B States" in every category but one:

• The median household income: 16% higher.
• Population below the poverty line: 21% lower.
• Population without health insurance: 21% lower.
• Divorce rate: 19% lower.
• Teen birth rate: 38% lower.
• Unmarried birth rate: 7% lower.
• Infant mortality: 24% lower.
• Murder: 17% lower.
• Rape: 20% lower.
• Aggravated assault: 18% lower.
• Robbery: 10% higher (that one category)
• High school dropout rate: 16% lower
• College graduation rate: 16% higher

So, yeah, the "A" states are blue states, ones that have voted for the Democratic candidate for president in at least 5 out of the last 8 elections, and "B" states are red states, that voted for the Republicans.

If you were to pick a party the way you pick a car, the Republicans would be the Yugo of parties.

How not to write a post that makes your point

David Levine makes the correct observation that there's no obvious causal relationship between a state's voting for a national candidate and the state's subsequent economic and social well-being.

Red staters will tell you that it's all about the values: the values that contribute to the well-being of a polity are also those that come into play when choosing a candidate for wider office. Blue states voted for Barack Obama for the same reason they have lower pregnancy rates: that's what their values tell them is the best course of action.

Philip Premeau more or less makes this point when he links to a PZ Myers (!) post in which Myers talks about being married for 31 years, yet he's a "dirty little atheist," while Newt Gingrich gets to speak on behalf of the party that "talks family values," but has had multiple, unnecessarily cruel, divorces along with multiple incidents of infidelity. Premeau wrings his hands about several undeniable facts:

The formula of the culturally liberal upper middle class - contraception, education, extended courtships, late marriages, small families - spells success. The formula of the culturally conservative lower middle and working classes - abstinence, religion, brief courtships, early marriages, large families - spells disaster. ... When it comes to inculcating sexual piety, the power of bourgeois culture rivals, even exceeds, the power of traditional religious institutions.

So, despite being of "the party of family values," Premeau re-iterates that blue staters are still succeeding, because of their values, whereas red staters are not.

Premeau, however, must end with a long paragraph in which he says, "I could not link to Myers' post without confronting his odious insinuation that traditional Christian marriage dictates abject servility for the wife and unbound power for the husband."

He should have.

By ending with a long wail about how unfair and "ignorant of the way of the cross" Myers is, including quoting from his favorite spellbook, Premeau short-circuits his point. He wants to spark a discussion about how red states are failing to live up to their values, but blue states not only live up to theirs, but surpass red states in living up to red-state values. Instead, his conversation is all about Myers. His thesis is ignored in favor of lambasts (and defenses) of a consciously deliberate lightning rod of a guy.

Exercise details!

Huzzah! 32 GMs, 7 CVs, 8 Myotatic crunches, and 4x4 get-ups.

Unfortunately, I was forced (forced!) to have a lot of carbs for dinner. Kouryou-chan cooked Tuna Noodle Casserole, and I just couldn't turn her down. Still, managed to keep the portion size under control and eschewed dessert. (That last part isn't easy; Kouryou-chan and I made chocolate chip cookies this weekend.)

I still want to get back to where I was before I was laid off at Isilon. It was about six months before the layoffs that I discovered the truth about gyms: the good stuff is tucked away into the corners and never gets pimped by the staff, in much the same way that meat and vegetables are tucked off to the sides of the grocery store and never go on sale. The elliptical machines, Natilus gear and all their clones, the treadmills, and so forth don't do crap. Six months after ditching the various machines for free weights, I had the most amazing shoulders, my abs tucked in well, my knees were stabilized.

Then cames the layoffs. I sat on my lazy ass for almost a year, then got a job and started bicycling again. (Here's the thing: I had plenty of time to ride while I was laid off. I didn't because I was too freakin' neurotic about what will I do to feed my family, that I was effectively a basket case for too many hours of the day.) Then I had the bicycle crash that broke my ankle, which effectively put me out of any exercise program for two months. I never got back into it.

I'm trying now. Finding time is hard, because I have two girls in the 'tween and teen range, a wife who's physically handicapped but politically charged, and a more-than-full-time career with a startup, but I've been giving up an hour where I'd normally surf or play video games. Bioshock has my attention, but it's almost over. And the girls find it giggly when I work out; Storm wants better abs, so she's joining in for the crunches. (Disappearing into a mancave for hours on end when Portal 2 comes out will be another story.)

What glutues medius exercise am I doing?

Someone asked me which exercise I'm doing for the gluteus medius. This illustration in Men's Fitness shows exactly the exercise recommended to me by my physical therapist for my knees.

By the way, that's a great (and truthful) article, although most of what he says I'd already gleaned from other sources.