In Federalist no. 51, James Madison, himself an avid student of politics, observed that, “in framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”
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“Henry, there’s something I would like to tell you, for what it’s worth, something I wish I had been told years ago. You’ve been a consultant for a long time, and you’ve dealt a great deal with top secret information. But you’re about to receive a whole slew of special clearances, maybe fifteen or twenty of them, that are higher than top secret.
“I’ve had a number of these myself, and I’ve known other people who have just acquired them, and I have a pretty good sense of what the effects of receiving these clearances are on a person who didn’t previously know they even existed. And the effects of reading the information that they will make available to you.
“First, you’ll be exhilarated by some of this new information, and by having it all — so much! incredible! — suddenly available to you. But second, almost as fast, you will feel like a fool for having studied, written, talked about these subjects, criticized and analyzed decisions made by presidents for years without having known of the existence of all this information, which presidents and others had and you didn’t, and which must have influenced their decisions in ways you couldn’t even guess. In particular, you’ll feel foolish for having literally rubbed shoulders for over a decade with some officials and consultants who did have access to all this information you didn’t know about and didn’t know they had, and you’ll be stunned that they kept that secret from you so well.
“You will feel like a fool, and that will last for about two weeks. Then, after you’ve started reading all this daily intelligence input and become used to using what amounts to whole libraries of hidden information, which is much more closely held than mere top secret data, you will forget there ever was a time when you didn’t have it, and you’ll be aware only of the fact that you have it now and most others don’t….and that all those other people are fools.
“Over a longer period of time — not too long, but a matter of two or three years — you’ll eventually become aware of the limitations of this information. There is a great deal that it doesn’t tell you, it’s often inaccurate, and it can lead you astray just as much as the New York Times can. But that takes a while to learn.
“In the meantime it will have become very hard for you to learn from anybody who doesn’t have these clearances. Because you’ll be thinking as you listen to them: ‘What would this man be telling me if he knew what I know? Would he be giving me the same advice, or would it totally change his predictions and recommendations?’ And that mental exercise is so torturous that after a while you give it up and just stop listening. I’ve seen this with my superiors, my colleagues….and with myself.
“You will deal with a person who doesn’t have those clearances only from the point of view of what you want him to believe and what impression you want him to go away with, since you’ll have to lie carefully to him about what you know. In effect, you will have to manipulate him. You’ll give up trying to assess what he has to say. The danger is, you’ll become something like a moron. You’ll become incapable of learning from most people in the world, no matter how much experience they may have in their particular areas that may be much greater than yours.”
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If that proves true, the lessons from Asia would need to be revised. There, farmers responded to rising population density by working their land more intensively. But African farmers are cutting their hours most rapidly in congested places, especially near cities. That might be because African economies are relatively integrated into global markets, so city-dwellers’ growing demand for food is partly met by imports. If local food prices do not rise, farmers have less reason to intensify.
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I strongly disagree with their critique of Paul Giamatti.
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There is a book to be written (or maybe has been written and I need to read it) about the relationship between NYT Styles Section journalists, who make fun of people like Audrey Gelman in a way that isn’t directly mean but lets the readers chuckle judgementally, and people like Audrey Gelman, who knows she is being made fun of but uses it for publicity of her latest venture anyway.
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Guinea's legendary dance band, Bembeya Jazz, are a pillar of modern West African history. Begun in 1961 in the flush of Guinea's independence and Sekou Toure's maverick presidency, the band played under the inspired leadership of guitar giant Sekou "Bembeya" Diabate.
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“The ability to be wrong is one of the most important virtues, and it is extremely difficult. It should be emphasized in families and schools alongside standard virtues like honesty, sharing, and kindness, starting as young as possible.”
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It does not make sense to me that after all of this Macky Sall is in the running for UN Secretary General.
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The real momentum for effective and durable cooperation among U.S. allies and partners lies among the private companies and research institutions in which many of the technological innovations that yield cutting-edge military capabilities occur. To maximize the benefits of defense and technological collaboration, the U.S. government and its partners must pair national efforts with transnational ones: pooling allied capital, technical know-how, production capacity, and supply chains through networks of firms, universities, investors, and governments. Building these networks will not only make it possible to innovate more quickly and produce at scale. It will also reinforce the United States’ increasingly uneasy alliances and partnerships, providing durable connections that can withstand a transactional and turbulent world.
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Interesting result: couples counselling leads to more IPV in Rwanda.
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Podcast: Jerusalem Demsas and Matt Yglesias’ critical take on “Life and Death of Great American Cities”.
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The first of Morgan Meis’ Three Paintings Trilogy. Based on this recommendation.
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T.J. Clark on representations of labor under capitalism.