Monday, April 13, 2020

Links — 13 April 2020

India Punchline
Why the OPEC+ deal is a many-splendoured thing
M. K. Bhadrakumar | retired diplomat with the Indian Foreign Service

Reminiscence of the Future
Cognitive Dissonance.
Andrei Martyanov

OilPrice
OPEC+ Deal Is “Too Little And Too Late”
Nick Cunningham

Peoples Dispatch
The OPEC+ deal on oil production: what are the implications?
Abdul Rahman

Sputnik
US Energy Department Estimates 2.1% Drop in Oil Production in May, 1% Drop in Natural Gas

The Unz Review
Models: the Logic of Failure
James Thompson

Irrussianality [Robinson's translation of "Various forms of liberalism" by Boris Chicherin, 1862]
Various forms of liberalism
Paul Robinson | Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa





4 comments:

Matt Franko said...

UNZ: "The main problem was people pushing a view of how they wanted the country to function, rather than how it actually functioned. I was working with a government in waiting, and I think they were chastened by their misplaced optimism. With any luck, it was a good warning that formulating policies must always be based on a good understanding of how systems actually work."

It wasnt that they were "chastened by misplaced optimism" they started with the Theory first which is textbook Liberal Art 101... never works...

lastgreek said...

Tom, all these oil-related links this morning has reminded me that 1) I need to fill the car with gas, and 2) need to buy some oil … olive oil ;)

Btw, here is the link to an article on philosophy I read last month that I think you and the readers here will enjoy:

Reading Richard Rorty in Tehran

What the American philosopher’s visit to Tehran in 2004 can teach us about Iranian society—and our own.


https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/reading-richard-rorty-in-tehran/

Peter Pan said...

The Zen of Electric Bicycles by Helmut Saefty

A must read.

Tom Hickey said...

@ lastgreek

Thanks for the link.

My favorite Rorty quote: "My sense of the holy is bound up with the hope that some day my remote descendants will live in a global civilization in which love is pretty much the only law.” (Rorty was an atheist.)

The author of the article at The Nation is apparently ignorant of Iran's ancient civilization, rich culture, and highly sophisticated philosophical tradition, which influenced Abrahamic religion and ancient Greek thought as two of the pillars of Western civilization. The idea of the West "schooling" Iran, India, China, Russia, etc., is risible. The Western liberal element in these cultures is miniscule. Moreover, they are already liberalizing on their own terms and integrating traditional and modern at their own pace.