Blog Roundup

A Friday Hodgepodge

1. "The Midterm Elections: Trump's Abettors Have to Be Removed," by Peter Schwartz (Peter Schwartz):

Trump did not like how the 2020 election turned out, and tried to forcibly nullify it. What will he do about the next election whose results he does not like? He has said that his biggest regret about the 2020 election is his failure to send the National Guard to seize the voting machines. Will he rectify that failure in response to the upcoming midterm elections? Or the 2028 elections? We can't know -- but we do know that the Republicans will not defy him.

Republicans are now in thrall to Trump. They make possible his dismissal of legal constraints. The only way to neutralize Trump, then, is through a Congress controlled by Democrats. Yes, even if they are "democratic socialists." A president aided in his refusal to acknowledge the rule of law by an acquiescent Congress, is a far greater threat than legislators who want to enact socialized medicine or a ban on gasoline-powered cars.

1210 words/4 minutes

2. "The Hazard of 'The Government Knows Best'," by Jaana Woiceshyn (How to Be Profitable and Moral):

[H]uman flourishing does not mean bare economic survival and equal struggle for all. The condition of flourishing is that people are able to depend on their basic tool of survival, reason. They must be free to think, engage in any productive activity, and trade with others of their choosing, to survive and enjoy life. Thinking, producing, and trading requires freedom to choose one's work, to keep the proceedings from it and to prosper accordingly.

By limiting or abolishing that freedom -- through confiscation of property and "redistributing" it to others, trough taxation, welfare programs, and foreign aid, or through restricting trade through regulations -- a statist government undermines individuals' freedom to pursue their values and thereby their flourishing.

900 words/3 minutes

3. "'Effective Altruism' Produced the Doomers," by Harry Binswanger (Value for Value):

In today's Wall Street Journal, "The Weekend Interview" is "Why Did Technologists Become Doomers?"

It's not just the slant of the headline that's good. The interviewee, Zack Korman, is astonishing -- not just in being on the right side, not just in supplying important information about the risks of AI, but in actually showing that what caused the hysteria is a philosophy! And guess which philosophy: "effective altruism"!

920 words/3 minutes

4. "How I Solved My Writing Problems," by Jean Moroney (Thinking Directions):

In trying to follow their process, I had dropped my own judgment of whether the thing hung together logically. I was judging it based on whether I was following their procedure, not on whether it made sense to me. This is the problem that arises from focusing on rules instead of reality. In hindsight, my 15-step process, though it has a lot of merit and brings a lot of clarity, also encouraged a rule-focused approach to writing.

This was my first glimmer into the fundamental problem that has distorted my process for years.

At about the same time, I heard Peter Schwartz give a condensed overview of the writing process he taught me many years ago, and on which my writing process was based. (This was at last year's Randsday Weekend Conference, at which we'll both be speaking again in 2027.)

This time I heard him say, "You write because you have a message you want to communicate."

This sounds obvious, but it hit me like a ton of bricks.

1870 words/6 minutes

-- CAV