Re: [Pen-l] How to Set Up a Right Wing Think Tank

[Sean Andrews <cultstud76@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 22:57, Michael Perelman
<michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Yes, Sean, you are near the belly of the beast.
>
> What is wierd is that I personally like people the people I know
> who are associated with Mercatus, but their work harms many people by
> fighting against regulation.  Say hi to Wendy Gramm, whom I do not know.

I don't think it is weird: you seem like a very loving guy.  Liking
people probably comes pretty natural to you, hence your interest in
keeping random asshats from destroying society and the ecology it
inhabits.  Moreover, despite their rhetoric, I'm sure their state
salaries and the Northern Virginia lifestyle they all enjoy makes them
generally more cosmopolitan and even liberal-leaning in their
consumption.  They are well fed, well dressed, and feel confident that
every thought they have is the most irrefutable bit of genius created
in the process of human development.  Aside from an unsightly bit of
arrogance, this (along with the fact that many of them spend a lot of
time schilling) makes them generally agreeable to be around until you
find out what they do.  That is to say that there are many nice, smart
people wrapped up in this operation--making them both easy to like and
their mission all the more devastating.  Finally, the people here who
are closest to human--people like David Levy or the late Don
Lavoie--are decidedly more interested in a full range of ideas.  I
think you've said he is a guy you like there--and he is a genuinely
nice guy.  Though I'm sure he mostly believes in the full package, his
interest in Adam Smith, Ricardo, and other 19th century thinkers is
more academic, like someone who studies Walt Whitman or Melville: one
can even have a conversation with him without feeling like he's doing
you a favor.  The rest (especially at marcatus itself) are mostly
interested in winning--a situation which, indeed, would continue to
harm people, but since this will likely have no consequences for them,
even in the long run, they can whistle and make themselves generally
agreeable while they go about setting the depth charges on the remains
of the welfare state.

I spoke to a congressional staffer a few months before I left (I'm
still at GMU but am living in Austin) and he said that every week
Mercatus or someone from GMU was on the Hill giving some workshop or
lecture for the aides and representatives--the content being exactly
what you would anticipate.  I asked him if this was something a lot of
universities did, wondering if there were a range of perspectives.  He
said, "No, just GMU."  Obviously a vacuum being filled by these people
and it baffles me that there aren't others up there, but maybe this
guy wasn't all that well traveled.  Anyway, with this ideological
atmosphere it is no wonder that the Stimulus package is looking more
like a ramshackle MacGyver job--and it is almost certain that it will
be designed to do nothing to help anything, a fact which the press
afterwards will underplay, making it seem like something was actually
done, thus making it inexplicable--and the problem of the minuscule
left/keynes/prog influence rather than the poisoned ocean of rhetoric
and tripe that swallows up the latter like light in a black hole.

I don't know Dr. Gramm either, but if I ever bump into her, I'll pass
along your greeting.

s
_______________________________________________
pen-l mailing list
pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l