Frederic S. Lee — Challenging the dominance and anti-intellectual behavior of mainstream economics

[H]eterodox economists need to be more active in challenging the dominance and anti-intellectual behavior of mainstream economics and economists. Not being respectable, standing up and just saying NO, pursuing heterodox research, and working with and through groups that are not part of the social-political-economic elite to promote better social-economics policies that benefit the non-elite are just some of the things heterodox economists can do. Of course, such behavior is frown upon, discouraged by the critics of heterodox economics — they would rather you be docile, embrace conformity, and behave as mainstream economist do. All I can do is to urge you to not crave respectability, but to develop a content-based heterodox economic theory and associated economic policy that contributes to building a better world out of the shell of the old.

(Fred Lee’s last editorial of the Heterodox Economics Newsletter, Issue 92, December 16, 2009).

Frederic S. Lee

Challenging the dominance and anti-intellectual behavior of mainstream economics
Posted by Tae-Hee Jo