Deirdre McCloskey, The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce
http://www.amazon.com/
If you have some money left over from Christmas, this is a book you will want to own. Otherwise, you will want to get it numerous times from your library.
If you are as fed up with Daniel J. Flynn, A Conservative History of the American Left as I am, hundreds of pages of what's wrong with America because it's chock-a-block with leftards, or if you find Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism an endless round of more of the same, then this is where to go for relief and great insight into what makes the Modern world so fine in spite of its problems. This is a smart book by a smart ... person. Nice to read, bright, insightful, up-lifting, and volume one of a projected four volume work. I am liking it big time.
We know leftards are evil scums, but this book has nothing much to do with that. This is a book about good people, and why they are so because of the Modern world. In my own voluminous effort I attempt to write something similar, to show the good, but I haven't done anything as good as this so far. This is great reading, good thinking, smart and informed, all-round a wonderful book. Amazon reviews are strange. Give this one a chance, and a few pages in you'll see for yourself why I am in love with this one.
19 comments:
Hi Dag,
Merry Xmas to you!
Long time no see!
You've been busy killing Mooslums? Whats the score now?
Cheers from Kuala Lumpur,
-Abdooss
Well, hello to you.
Sorry to say I don't do much killing of anyone. It's not to say I don't think lots deserve it, but it's not my line of work, and no point doing something like that for free, is there? If a man is going to make his way in the world it requires he be a professional and make a living at it. I'm not a professional in this field, so I leave it to those who know better how and exactly who. It means that emotion plays no part in it, objectifying and in a sense rationalising the effort.
I look at it this way: anyone who hates more than a dozen people is a nut. Who knows more that a dozen people very well at one time? Almost no one. ne would be hard pressed to know a dozen people well enough to hate them deeply enough to want to kill them. Who could claim to love a dozen people? My point, then, is that it's just crazy to say one hates a group. No one knows a group. No one is a group. So, I leave it to others to combat unified forces such as you seem to allude to above. I honestly don't care one way or another about individual Muslims as Muslims. Islam on the other hand is something of itself, and that I can hate with a good conscience. If some individual Muslims were to come into my life in a real way and present an immediate threat to me and mine-- or to you, for that matter-- I'd act in an appropriate fashion according to my limited abilities. But mostly I'm a writer.
As it turns out, mate, I will be in your general vicinity in the coming year, all things else being equal. I hope to be in Laos. Yes, it's a bit like the fellow who told me that since I was going to be in Amsterdam that I should visit his sister living in St. Petersburg. Still, if you're free for it, come and visit me for coffee. Heck, stay for dinner if you're willing to go so far to see me!
Now, since I have your attention, let me emphasise that you would like the book I wrote a bit about above. It's written specifically for you, writes the author, for those sceptical about Modernity's blessings. Even if you disagree with the author's points you'll find them well-considered and interesting. I don't often promote books by transsexual historians, so I hope you realise that I'm serious here.
Good of you to wish me a Merry Christmas, Abdu,and I thank you for it.
I've been absent from these pages for a while because I've been putting much effort into writing a large work, now five volumes of roughly 200 pages each, on the development of Leftist thought from Plato to our current time. The work above does something similar, though from a different angle, and a good one. I am deeply impressed by this work so far. My own effort is still in early stages, written for the most part but not typed. I've done it all by hand. So, off I go to Laos to sit by the river and bang away at the keyboard till I finish. It has little to do with jihad, sorry to say. Mostly it's about those among us who reject the Modernist Revolutions in favour of Reaction. Funny though, that Reaction is a Modernist Revolution in itself. That came to me late in the writing, so I have to rethink my position to a fair extent. And now, thanks to this book under discussion, I have a very clear idea of Prudence, which I had previously underplayed but now see as crucial. I like to think that if we can see our ideas' genealogy that we will come to discard them or adapt them consciously in favour of our independent consideration. You're a bright fellow, and I think that if you truly understand what the History of Ideas shows, then you will accept that some of your assumptions, like anyone's, are just that, unexamined possessions one didn't know the worth of, or lack thereof. It's exciting, as well, for intellectuals to gain this kind of insight, and I think you'll like it if you have a chance to look at it.
I was looking recently at some photos of Asia at the time of Joseph Conrad, W. Sommerset Maugham, George Orwell, and Graham Greene. Funny that they were so attuned to things exotic and so sympathetic to the locals, and yet today they're often written off by Western ideologues as cultural imperialists and racists. The unhappy truth is that the Arab Invasion is the problem in your area of Asia, not Georgian and Edwardian travel writers.
My guess, as I've mentioned before, is that you're fairly well-to-do. You have what is, to my mind, an expensive education. I'd kind of like to look at some parts of Asia with a fellow such as yourself so I can see things that I'll otherwise miss. A general example of what I mean is that I don't go to foreign places to meet the locals: they're all the same no matter where, all illiterate peasants who have never left the village. I go to foreign places to meet fellow cosmopolitans, such as yourself. That makes it worth the while.
Not sure when I'll be in Asia, but I'll be posting here once I settle in. I'm prone to hypergraphia on the road, so you won't be disappointed if you want much of my take on things as I figure 'em.
Till then, I'm going to post more often here and hope to see you on these pages as I do so.
My best,
Dag.
Well this book does appear to go against the "Chicago way". . .snatching the following from the reviews: "Eschewing the notion that capitalism is evil and the middle class is soft and cowardly, University of Illinois professor McCloskey argues that bourgeois economic practices and people promote the widest possible range of virtues. An economically free and prosperous middle class is not only peaceable, law-abiding and prudent, McCloskey argues, it can also be artistic and spiritual, and support traditional cultures, protect the environment, win wars, make discoveries and care for the unfortunate better than aristocratic or proletarian social organizations."
and
she advocates: "a catalogue of seven "bourgeois" virtues--love, faith, hope, courage, temperance, prudence and justice" - acknowledging "the obvious fact that they are essentially the Christian, "sacred" virtues."
Interesting.
I'm spending a lot of my life on looking into fascism and Romanticism, and I see this book addressing "prudence" in a way that shocks me. Prudence, one thing the fascist mind cannot stand, is one thing that creates our Modern world. McCloskey's work is filled with this kind of insight. I'm looking forward to finishing this volume so I can go on to the next, and maybe the coming two.
Glad it piques your interest.
Dag,
Glad to know that all that talk had not turned into action.. and also that you are still the Dag I knew; who can answer a simple greetings with a dissertation!
Happy New Year 2011 to you!
(My wish for Xmas & the New Year; Peace in the Middle East)
Best Regards,
Abdooss
Abdooss, How come you never comment on the human rights violations in your country?
Abdooss, Is it because you are afraid? Because that would be understandable. But someone has to find the courage to say people have the right to believe what they want to believe, that propping up "religion" by coercion, is not the role of government. Who will be the first in pisslamic countries to start the cry?
Also, Abdooss, why are you so obsessed with Dag? Were just laying in wait for him to publish something so you could pounce, like you have before? What did Dag ever say that has you so bothered? I must have missed it?
Rose, I think you know what's up with Abdu. I suspect he'll get over it.
Merry Christmas to you. Hope all is well, and wishing you the best in the coming year.
Best regards, Dag.
It's just this isn't the first time Abdooss has laid in ambush for you. I DON'T know what's up with him? I know that he is full of doubt and has a good heart and mind, but I wonder what it was that you said that has bothered him so? It's a mystery to me. With all the stuff that is said here, what could you have possibly of said that is eating at him so?
Dag,
In fact, I am looking forward to your contributions to the blog (and Pastorius's).. yours ( and P's) are some that I can agree to disagree, without feeling any venom (implied or other wise) from your reply.
Some of the others', well, it is better for me not to response or say anything abusive and spoil this season's mood (as taught by my prophet). Sorry guys (and gals), don't take it personally, but you are on my ignore lists.
Abdu, someone has taken over your exclusive right to publish comments under your name. Whoever it is has written above that they (he or she) feel just fine in slagging my fellow bloggers, friends, and colleagues at this blog. You should immediately track down the culprit who is misrepresenting you here, you being a gentleman, I'm sure, who would object to such a thing on the face of it. Your good name suffers due to someone acting is such a fashion.
My best regards,
Dag.
Vancouver, Canada
I'm so glad I actually got to read this, cause I would like to correct what Abdooss, or whoever wrote for Abdooss, above. I believe you mean "as taught by my raping, murdering, child fucking prophet, who was Arab not Asian and who commands me to kill everyone who is not mooslum."
Asians are Buddhists and follow the words of the undeniably saintly man, Siddhartha Guatama. You might want to check out his teachings. They have been a godsend to me, whereas the teachings of moehammy and the societies that follow his commands to kill and rape and bomb and not question anything about his commands, make me nauseous.
Rose, it looks like the next stop in my romp through life will be among practitioners of Theravada Buddhism in the lands of Laos, maybe Burma, and perhaps the surrounding areas, depending on how things work for me once I'm there.
Looking forward to a new country, new kind of life, and new opportunities to grasp life as Idea.
Best to you and all for the New Year.
Dag.
Dag,
Joseph Campbell once said that if there was one "religion," (and, of course, that term is used lightly about Buddhism as there is no godhead in Buddhism), that could bring about universal sisterhood, it is Buddhism. I hope we continue to hear from you as you travel. I, for one, will be very interested in hearing your impressions. Good luck! Safe travels!
I've been anxious to break camp here in Canada so I can hit the road and continue my travels. I've been here by far long enough, and more. But I might be here yet till Spring. This isn't a bad place to be, but it's long past time to have moved on. I bend my efforts to that effect.
If the past is any guide, I will again turn to hypergraphic travel writing. Everything is interesting to me, and I write about it at every stop.
My plan is to sit by the Mekong River and type out the five volumes of my Genealogy of Left Dhimmi Fascism, all done now in long hand, unreadable to most, and to publish it in the West. Since my recent discovery of McCloskey I have become excited about the way she works and presents her case, and I hope to revise my texts to approach the clarity and depth she delivers in her work. Funny thing, thought, is that when my friends and colleagues at Covenant Zone hear me say that I'm in agreement with some of their ideas and principles they stare at me in disbelief: "Do you mean to say that this is what you think we said!?" Well, yeah....
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