Musings on the Current New Republic Magazine

I strongly urge my readers to subscribe to the New Republic.  It needs you and you will get balanced views (in the traditional sense not the Fox News way) of the goings on in Washington and elsewhere, you will get to read Leon Wieseltier for a traditional support of Israel on issues they are dealing with and in the middle you will find outstanding intellectual content on the Arts and the odd other things they delve into.

This week it is the Publishing Industry and the books.  I could not read all of it, but if you enjoy books and want to understand the world of books, go to your Newsstand and buy the October 21st issue.   Or you can subscribe to the New Republic on-line, but I am generally a man of paper.

In this issue, there were some compelling observations.

1st:  Why do people deny science?  They present a cultural theorist view of the world.  People who distrust global warming are not stupid, it is their framework that is different.  If you want to communicate with them, you have to do so in a way that presents your argument within their framework.  The framework contrasts Hierarchical vs Egalitarian and Individualist vs Communitarian.  They place the critical political issues into the quadrants.  If you are Communitarian/Egalitarian, you are concerned about climate change.  If you are Hierarchical/Individualist, you are more concerned with government intrusion than climate change.  Attacking peoples thought process will not convince them, it will only antagonize them.  Ways need to be found to present the arguments in their framework so they agree something should be done.

2nd:  The minimum wage should support a poverty level of living, not 72% of a poverty wage.   While this may cut down employment on the margin, it will also increase the wages of those working at the minimum wage, which will give them more to spend on necessities (being at the poverty level), which will increase the demand for some things and the need for more employment.  So balance, it would be better to have the people working be at least at the poverty level rather than at 72% of poverty.  The article says it much better than I just did.

3rd:  We need the NSA.  Cyber-attacks are both a reality and an inevitability.  Only the NSA has the where-with-all to protect us.  US is for the most part major companies in the US who employ large numbers of people and for whom technology has produced greater efficiency and consumer convenience.  I for one, do not want some cyber terrorist to disrupt my use of the internet.  And that is on a temporary basis, what if they were successful for an extended period of time.

4th:  The Taliban and the Tea Party have certain things in common.  They believe in conspiracies.  They believe that they have the only correct policies.  They believe in running non-believers out of their  organization and anyone who compromises is a non-believer.

and I have yet to get to everything on books.

Please subscribe.  They need you.