- Feb 8, 2001
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I know that many posters on this forum have imaginary friends, but just imagine that these constant companions had analogues in the real world.
David Brooks of The New York Times has two imaginary friends he calls Mr. Bentham and Mr. Hume. Bentham vs. Hume. As I am a particular fan of David Hume, in all fairness I have to take a step away from immediately identifying with the "Mr. Hume" of Mr. Brook's imagination.
So, I found a follow-on commentary by David Harsanyi of The Denver Post that identifies his own two friends, Mr. Hoover and Jim. I may not know Jim, but I know hundreds just like him, as I know dozens and dozens of Mr. Hoovers, being in DC and all.
I admit that, like Mr. Hoover, I, too, know where the best Ethiopian restaurants are in the DC metropolitan area. And I can reel off the best vintages on most any wine list like Mr. Bentham. Sadly, I may have been here too long, but not nearly as too many politicians have been here too long.
There is a big debate going on between all of our imaginary friends and there is a more serious debate going on between their real life analogues. It is not necessarily a debate between the Democrats and the Republicans but a schism between the doers and the "thinkers."
Unlike the above authors, I do not know who will win, but I know who's side I am on.
Do you?
The doers against the "thinkers"
Harsanyi: The doers against the "thinkers"
By David Harsanyi
The Denver Post
10/07/2009
This week, New York Times columnist David Brooks introduced readers to his imaginary friends, Mr. Bentham and Mr. Hume, as a way of highlighting the nation's philosophical divide.
If only our ideological split were that complicated.
As it happens, I also have two imaginary friends (and boy, do I need them) named Mr. Hoover and Jim.
Mr. Hoover knows everything. He attended a high-brow graduate school and worked as a Senate aide before becoming a policy expert. (He even pretends to understand Jeremy Bentham.) He is a man who craves acceptance from the other smart people who surround him.
Jim is pretty smart, too, but hasn't squandered his talent working in Washington. Rather than theorizing about economics, Jim takes an authentic risk by starting a business. He ends up employing 20 people and creating the capital that helps pay for their health insurance ? as well as fund many of the social safety net programs that Mr. Hoover dreams up.
Mr. Hoover is an awesome lunch partner, though. If you ask him to recommend an Ethiopian restaurant, he'll rattle off the six best in Washington. Jim would never eat Ethiopian, though he unapologetically gulps high-fructose carbonated drinks while rooting for his state school's middling football team.
If you put a man like Mr. Hoover in charge of government, he'd take to the task with an unrestrained confidence. Since he's so much smarter than you, he'd have no compunction forcing you to do the right thing on an array of issues, from your light bulbs to your health care.
If you told him to solve an intricate problem like global warming, he'd assemble a group of similarly dazzling thinkers to centralize the entire energy economy for the next 40 years through taxation, subsidies, mandates and corporate giveaways. He does this because he knows precisely what the weather will be like in 2050. That's how smart he is.
Now, Jim, I'm afraid, would be far less impressive. If you asked him to "solve" global warming, he'd question the costs and benefits of federal-controlled energy production. He understands, from his own life experiences, that you can't decree an economic outcome.
Jim, who has never read Hume in his life, might take time to study the failed European cap-and-trade scheme and wonder why anyone would hamper the American economy with a regressive tax that brings only marginal environmental gains. He's no cynic, but he understands from experience that corporations ? even those swine in the fossil fuel business ? are tax collectors, not taxpayers.
"I don't know the best way to generate clean energy," he'd justifiably declare, "because who the hell knows what technology will win out?" He might also ask, "Since when do we have the right to tell people what kind of energy they can use?"
Even when Mr. Hoover has come up with a sensible idea, Jim hates that it will be implemented by the state through force.
David Brooks might believe it's Mr. Bentham and Mr. Hume who represent the choices we face in this nation on issue after issue. I believe it's Mr. Hoover and Jim.
The United States has from its inception squabbled over the appropriate role of government ? one that pundits on cable TV, for all their bluster, rightly label a debate between socialism and free markets. Yes, this debate pits the theoreticians against the doers, but it is largely a fight between the state and the individual.
So let's have the debate. But before we do, let's understand that Mr. Hoover is going to win. Mr. Hoover always wins. He takes no real risk. If he can't convince us, he has the power to bribe, print money, "compel" citizens, bully and monopolize the process. It's no more complicated than that.
If you want to pass anything, he is your man.
David Brooks of The New York Times has two imaginary friends he calls Mr. Bentham and Mr. Hume. Bentham vs. Hume. As I am a particular fan of David Hume, in all fairness I have to take a step away from immediately identifying with the "Mr. Hume" of Mr. Brook's imagination.
So, I found a follow-on commentary by David Harsanyi of The Denver Post that identifies his own two friends, Mr. Hoover and Jim. I may not know Jim, but I know hundreds just like him, as I know dozens and dozens of Mr. Hoovers, being in DC and all.
I admit that, like Mr. Hoover, I, too, know where the best Ethiopian restaurants are in the DC metropolitan area. And I can reel off the best vintages on most any wine list like Mr. Bentham. Sadly, I may have been here too long, but not nearly as too many politicians have been here too long.
There is a big debate going on between all of our imaginary friends and there is a more serious debate going on between their real life analogues. It is not necessarily a debate between the Democrats and the Republicans but a schism between the doers and the "thinkers."
Unlike the above authors, I do not know who will win, but I know who's side I am on.
Do you?
The doers against the "thinkers"
Harsanyi: The doers against the "thinkers"
By David Harsanyi
The Denver Post
10/07/2009
This week, New York Times columnist David Brooks introduced readers to his imaginary friends, Mr. Bentham and Mr. Hume, as a way of highlighting the nation's philosophical divide.
If only our ideological split were that complicated.
As it happens, I also have two imaginary friends (and boy, do I need them) named Mr. Hoover and Jim.
Mr. Hoover knows everything. He attended a high-brow graduate school and worked as a Senate aide before becoming a policy expert. (He even pretends to understand Jeremy Bentham.) He is a man who craves acceptance from the other smart people who surround him.
Jim is pretty smart, too, but hasn't squandered his talent working in Washington. Rather than theorizing about economics, Jim takes an authentic risk by starting a business. He ends up employing 20 people and creating the capital that helps pay for their health insurance ? as well as fund many of the social safety net programs that Mr. Hoover dreams up.
Mr. Hoover is an awesome lunch partner, though. If you ask him to recommend an Ethiopian restaurant, he'll rattle off the six best in Washington. Jim would never eat Ethiopian, though he unapologetically gulps high-fructose carbonated drinks while rooting for his state school's middling football team.
If you put a man like Mr. Hoover in charge of government, he'd take to the task with an unrestrained confidence. Since he's so much smarter than you, he'd have no compunction forcing you to do the right thing on an array of issues, from your light bulbs to your health care.
If you told him to solve an intricate problem like global warming, he'd assemble a group of similarly dazzling thinkers to centralize the entire energy economy for the next 40 years through taxation, subsidies, mandates and corporate giveaways. He does this because he knows precisely what the weather will be like in 2050. That's how smart he is.
Now, Jim, I'm afraid, would be far less impressive. If you asked him to "solve" global warming, he'd question the costs and benefits of federal-controlled energy production. He understands, from his own life experiences, that you can't decree an economic outcome.
Jim, who has never read Hume in his life, might take time to study the failed European cap-and-trade scheme and wonder why anyone would hamper the American economy with a regressive tax that brings only marginal environmental gains. He's no cynic, but he understands from experience that corporations ? even those swine in the fossil fuel business ? are tax collectors, not taxpayers.
"I don't know the best way to generate clean energy," he'd justifiably declare, "because who the hell knows what technology will win out?" He might also ask, "Since when do we have the right to tell people what kind of energy they can use?"
Even when Mr. Hoover has come up with a sensible idea, Jim hates that it will be implemented by the state through force.
David Brooks might believe it's Mr. Bentham and Mr. Hume who represent the choices we face in this nation on issue after issue. I believe it's Mr. Hoover and Jim.
The United States has from its inception squabbled over the appropriate role of government ? one that pundits on cable TV, for all their bluster, rightly label a debate between socialism and free markets. Yes, this debate pits the theoreticians against the doers, but it is largely a fight between the state and the individual.
So let's have the debate. But before we do, let's understand that Mr. Hoover is going to win. Mr. Hoover always wins. He takes no real risk. If he can't convince us, he has the power to bribe, print money, "compel" citizens, bully and monopolize the process. It's no more complicated than that.
If you want to pass anything, he is your man.
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