Tuesday, March 10, 2009

"New Ideas" and Butterfly Effects

Conservatives should talk about "fixing problems", but not about "new ideas". Old ideas work just fine; old ideas are the fixes. "New ideas" are narcissism run amok, i.e.
Lets just create something out of thin air, without understanding all the consequences (the myriad Butterfly Effects) which will ensue as a result, because we are just that smart and clever.
We are living inside an economy of complexity which we creators of "new ideas" cannot account for. Vaclav Havel:
It's very hard to make a law that works.
Havel is referencing the complex, unforeseen consequences which inevitably result. Proponents of "new ideas" ignore the magnitude of risk from unintended consequences. Why? Hubris? Yes. Denial? Yes. Ignorance? Yes: not just ignorance of economics, but also ignorance of the very design of existence - of reality, of how the world works - and of the potential magnitude of interrelated complexities therein.

Our economic problems result from unforeseen complexities originating out of Congress' oppressive and even corrupt regulation and meddling
  • especially into mortgage markets (meddling which was ironically paired with a refusal to adequately regulate the quasi governmental Fannie/Freddie), but also
  • meddling in the auto industry (forcing the manufacture of certain percentages of undesirable high mileage vehicles which could not be built and sold at a profit) and
  • meddling in other industries in myriad ways.
Our problems are not due to failure of free markets/free enterprise. Our problems were caused by "new ideas" and by corruptions which were foisted upon a complex domestic and world economy and which resulted in unforeseen butterfly effects which mounted upon themselves until they devastated us. And it's our own fault. Hubris. Denial. Ignorance. Narcissism run amok. Our government's meddling has resulted in economic disaster. This recession was avoidable.



One Cosmos:
One of the enduring defects of leftist thought is that it habitually tries to change the world before it has understood the world....

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