An economics, investment, trading and policy blog with a focus on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). We seek the truth, avoid the mainstream and are virulently anti-neoliberalism.
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Saturday, May 28, 2022
The Purpose of a Liberal Arts Education — Gonzalo Lira
Good description of what a liberal arts education used to be but no longer is. The Purpose of a Liberal Arts Education Gonzalo Lira https://youtu.be/Z_FBkZL3b9I
He only has to “absorb” information that fits his professors preconceived thesis of what was going on…
This is the Liberal Art (Socratic/Platonist) methodology…
You can see it in current “inflation!” thesis being spewed by the Art Degree Monetarists…
They just sit there saying “money printing causes inflation! money printing causes inflation!” all the time year after year decade after decade… meanwhile Fed increases “money supply” in September 2008 and March 2020 and prices collapse…. they don’t say anything.., and when finally there occurs a period of time during unprecedented global pandemic when their “money supply” increases with a commensurate increase of some price index they say “see! we told you!”…
And it’s revealing here he says “the purpose of a Liberal Art education “… education has no purpose… we educate ourselves to SERVE a purpose…
I’m not sure what purpose this methodology serves (maybe to entertain?) but anyone educated and employing it is not qualified to be working in any purposeful endeavor that has to do with material matters… the fact that they are is why a lot of shit is all fucked up…
“ Plato's theory of Forms or theory of Ideas[1] [2] [3] asserts that non-material abstract (but substantial) forms (or ideas), and not the material world of change known to us through sensation, possess the highest and most fundamental kind of reality.”
Successful material outcomes are secondary to the preconceived thesis.,,
So Lira can skim through “37 hours of reading per day” because he is only looking for that small portion of the information that supports his instructors thesis..,
Plato's theory of Forms or theory of Ideas[1] [2] [3] asserts that non-material abstract (but substantial) forms (or ideas), and not the material world of change known to us through sensation, possess the highest and most fundamental kind of reality.
Asserting that the conceptual trumps the perceptual is in itself, a conceptual argument.
“What’s the difference between a BS in Economics at Wharton and BA major in economics in a liberal arts program? We get this question all the time, and the answer comes down to curriculum and teaching and learning methods.…. In a liberal arts setting, students often learn by starting with a theory or abstract idea. After fully understanding the theory, they then look for problems to understand how the theory applies.“
That Art Degree methodology describes Monetarism 100%…
iow they are not going to test their methodology… their methodology doesn’t require testing…
Testing is part of a Scientific methodology that was first established in the academe in 1860…
We’ve only been operating with this for about 150 years.., and not exclusively as there are still Art Degree morons being established every year for $200k of indebtedness..
Welcome to another controversy algorithmically designed to tear America apart.
In a short story published last October, “Sort by Controversial,” Scott Alexander imagines a Silicon Valley company that accidentally comes up with an algorithm to generate what it calls a “Scissor.” The scissor is a statement, an idea or a scenario that’s somehow perfectly calibrated to tear people apart — not just by generating disagreement, but by generating total incredulity that somebody could possibly disagree with your interpretation of the controversy, followed by escalating fury and paranoia and polarization, until the debate seems like a completely existential, win-or-perish fight.
The twist in the short story comes with the narrator’s realization that several Scissors on the algorithm-generated list have happened already — the “ground zero mosque,” the N.F.L. and the national anthem, the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings. So maybe somebody (Putin? the C.I.A.?) made this breakthrough first, and weaponized it against American society. “Of the Scissor’s predicted top hundred most controversial statements, Kavanaugh was No. 58 and Kaepernick was No. 42. No. 86 was the ground zero mosque. No. 89 was that baker who wouldn’t make a cake for a gay wedding.” —Ross Douthat (The New York Times)
The most recent scissor was Roe v. Wade, and now we have the school shooting. Because it's lopsided after the shooting, we now have another shooting that supports the other side, you know, just to keep things calibrated.
For those of you who don't know, Ross Douthat writes on religious issues for the New York Times, so he's talking from that perspective here but using that story as a vehicle for his ideas, i.e., that everything that happens comes from God and happens for a reason.
Sorry, Peter Pan, I forgot about you when I mentioned the Covington Scissor (bold mine).
Before the pandemic, I once built a column around the psychiatrist-blogger Scott Alexander’s concept of “the scissor,” which describes a controversy or idea or event perfectly calibrated to divide people while making them think that the other side is bonkers. Arguably Covid’s death rate makes it a perfect scissor: It’s high enough to make the alarmed feel vindicated but still low enough that many skeptics feel vindicated as well. —Ross Douthat
The claim was made that Covid was 10 times deadlier - then it was debunked.
Lies, fear-mongering and divisive language from politicians and pundits, tear American and Canadian society apart. And make no mistake, that is their intention.
Controversy also sells. One of the easier ways to make money.
Shootings and abortion and taking a knee etc don’t have anything to do with management and administration of our material systems…. ie not part of our economy…
Matt will disagree!
ReplyDeleteHe only has to “absorb” information that fits his professors preconceived thesis of what was going on…
ReplyDeleteThis is the Liberal Art (Socratic/Platonist) methodology…
You can see it in current “inflation!” thesis being spewed by the Art Degree Monetarists…
They just sit there saying “money printing causes inflation! money printing causes inflation!” all the time year after year decade after decade… meanwhile Fed increases “money supply” in September 2008 and March 2020 and prices collapse…. they don’t say anything.., and when finally there occurs a period of time during unprecedented global pandemic when their “money supply” increases with a commensurate increase of some price index they say “see! we told you!”…
And it’s revealing here he says “the purpose of a Liberal Art education “… education has no purpose… we educate ourselves to SERVE a purpose…
I’m not sure what purpose this methodology serves (maybe to entertain?) but anyone educated and employing it is not qualified to be working in any purposeful endeavor that has to do with material matters… the fact that they are is why a lot of shit is all fucked up…
Here:
ReplyDeletehttps://resources.saylor.org/wwwresources/archived/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/PHIL201-1.3.3.pdf
“ Plato's theory of Forms or theory of Ideas[1] [2] [3] asserts that non-material abstract (but substantial) forms (or ideas), and not the material world of change known to us through sensation, possess the highest and most fundamental kind of reality.”
Successful material outcomes are secondary to the preconceived thesis.,,
So Lira can skim through “37 hours of reading per day” because he is only looking for that small portion of the information that supports his instructors thesis..,
I wonder if Coach Red Pill is capable of absorbing MMT...
ReplyDeletePlato's theory of Forms or theory of Ideas[1] [2] [3] asserts that non-material abstract (but substantial) forms (or ideas), and not the material world of change known to us through sensation, possess the highest and most fundamental kind of reality.
ReplyDeleteAsserting that the conceptual trumps the perceptual is in itself, a conceptual argument.
Here
ReplyDeletehttps://undergrad.wharton.upenn.edu/academics/bs-in-economics/
“What’s the difference between a BS in Economics at Wharton and BA major in economics in a liberal arts program? We get this question all the time, and the answer comes down to curriculum and teaching and learning methods.…. In a liberal arts setting, students often learn by starting with a theory or abstract idea. After fully understanding the theory, they then look for problems to understand how the theory applies.“
That Art Degree methodology describes Monetarism 100%…
“ Asserting that the conceptual trumps the perceptual is in itself, a conceptual argument.”
ReplyDeleteSure… this is what they have been taught..,
iow they are not going to test their methodology… their methodology doesn’t require testing…
ReplyDeleteTesting is part of a Scientific methodology that was first established in the academe in 1860…
We’ve only been operating with this for about 150 years.., and not exclusively as there are still Art Degree morons being established every year for $200k of indebtedness..
No bueno..,
Jesus trying to use figurative language to get his uneducated disciples away from this non discriminatory methodology for a Sunday morning:
ReplyDelete“broad (Plato) is the gate that leads to destruction” Mat 7:13
didn’t work…
Now here we are 2000 years later out of baby formula…
Ptolemy took the conceptual methodology to its logical conclusion...
ReplyDeletere: The Covington Scissor
ReplyDeleteWelcome to another controversy algorithmically designed to tear America apart.
In a short story published last October, “Sort by Controversial,” Scott Alexander imagines a Silicon Valley company that accidentally comes up with an algorithm to generate what it calls a “Scissor.” The scissor is a statement, an idea or a scenario that’s somehow perfectly calibrated to tear people apart — not just by generating disagreement, but by generating total incredulity that somebody could possibly disagree with your interpretation of the controversy, followed by escalating fury and paranoia and polarization, until the debate seems like a completely existential, win-or-perish fight.
The twist in the short story comes with the narrator’s realization that several Scissors on the algorithm-generated list have happened already — the “ground zero mosque,” the N.F.L. and the national anthem, the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings. So maybe somebody (Putin? the C.I.A.?) made this breakthrough first, and weaponized it against American society. “Of the Scissor’s predicted top hundred most controversial statements, Kavanaugh was No. 58 and Kaepernick was No. 42. No. 86 was the ground zero mosque. No. 89 was that baker who wouldn’t make a cake for a gay wedding.” —Ross Douthat (The New York Times)
The Covington Scissor
The most recent scissor was Roe v. Wade, and now we have the school shooting. Because it's lopsided after the shooting, we now have another shooting that supports the other side, you know, just to keep things calibrated.
'This is why we need the 2nd amendment!' West Virginia mystery woman is hailed as a hero for using legally-owned pistol to kill criminal armed with an AR-15-style rifle at a graduation party a day after Uvalde school shooting
For those of you who don't know, Ross Douthat writes on religious issues for the New York Times, so he's talking from that perspective here but using that story as a vehicle for his ideas, i.e., that everything that happens comes from God and happens for a reason.
Sorry, Peter Pan, I forgot about you when I mentioned the Covington Scissor (bold mine).
ReplyDeleteBefore the pandemic, I once built a column around the psychiatrist-blogger Scott Alexander’s concept of “the scissor,” which describes a controversy or idea or event perfectly calibrated to divide people while making them think that the other side is bonkers. Arguably Covid’s death rate makes it a perfect scissor: It’s high enough to make the alarmed feel vindicated but still low enough that many skeptics feel vindicated as well. —Ross Douthat
What if Covid Were 10 Times Deadlier?
The claim was made that Covid was 10 times deadlier - then it was debunked.
ReplyDeleteLies, fear-mongering and divisive language from politicians and pundits, tear American and Canadian society apart. And make no mistake, that is their intention.
Controversy also sells. One of the easier ways to make money.
Shootings and abortion and taking a knee etc don’t have anything to do with management and administration of our material systems…. ie not part of our economy…
ReplyDelete