Tyler Cowen discusses the people he most admires.
the very top of my personal list would be shaped more by how much individuals had sacrificed
I think that the question of who you admire can be interpreted two ways. One way is aspirational. “I wish that I could dance like Inbar.” Another is gratitude. “I admire people who serve in our armed forces, even though I do not aspire to be like them.” I am not sure that Tyler has sufficiently articulated how he would weigh these two interpretations.
I find it easier to think about who I least admire. The answer that comes to mind is “toadies.” People who ingratiate themselves with politicians or business executives. Or academics. To me, the meetings of the American Economics Association are just mass exercises in toadyism.
Based on that, I would say that the people I admire are people who are not toadies.
Not sure if there is a fancy name for it, but those who pass off self-serving opinions as though those opinions are the result of rigorous and impartial analysis. For example, just about every CEO on CNBC when discussing policy (taxation, trade, etc.).
I personally believe your moral obligation to be somewhat honest ranks higher than your fiduciary obligation to shareholders (although i admit I am among a tiny minority holding that opinion).
Everyone does this, to greater and lesser extents. Or minds are evolved to convince others, not debate logically. Those of us who can subsume that impulse here and there are the exceptions, not the rule.
The more egregious cases are especially disgusting though, so I’m with you there.
“Everyone does it” isn’t a good excuse in my world. Simply present your conclusions as being self-serving. Doesn’t make them any less valid per se.
We idolize those in power in this country. Once you’ve earned that respect I think you have an obligation not to abuse it.
Obviously we all have our biases but i’m talking about more egregious examples (a steel industry executive citing studies about the negatives of free trade to promote import tariffs).
I don’t think we are far apart on this. It is just hard for me to get worked up about this since it is everywhere you look, and I have even seen it in myself, in retrospect, many times. When I see intelligent, moral people that I personally know engage in motivated reasoning on certain things, it makes me think there is little to be done about it.
Every society idolizes power; they just make up different rules for the appropriate types of power to seek and which virtues the powerful need to pay lip service to in their never ending quest for more of it.
Global Warming Deniers
Global warming alarmists who think lying is ok as it is that important
He’s not totally immune, and I think he’s just plain wrong sometimes, but this is why Warren Buffett is high on my list.
Is toady synonymous with crony? Not having heard the term “toadyism”, perhaps I run amok with the term. But, if toadies and cronies are the same; are you against success, Arnold?
For most would say that we do not admire slaveholders, and for obvious reasons. The less obvious and more distasteful reasons are that slavery was an economic failure, whereas, cronyism (toadyism, if you please) is a massive success.
Much in the way that prostitutes make use of assets of demand. Toadies make use of assets of supply. The find swamps, and drain swamps, only to create more swamps. One might be tempted to call this… economic activity.
no: toady is synonymous with sycophant, or obsequious fawning. Toadies do not attain success by achieving, but by ingratiating themselves with powerful people who need ego stroking
Crony implies some level of equality: so Big Industry Crony asks pal Politician to pass a favorable law.
But do we have a word for when the Crony graduates to the next level, where the politician is no longer the equal but the supplicant, perhaps even the toady?
Warren Buffet. Elon Musk. Google CEO. Hedge Fund guys…at some point the politicians who realize these are not cronies but masters.
There are many dimensions, virtue, belief, motivation, intention, effort, accomplishment, individual, social, forced, chosen, courage, persistence, honor, independence, loyalty, leadership. Many sacrifices are forced on people and many fail to accomplish anything, but require several of these. Achievement has costs but any cost can be excessive.
Interesting. I was having trouble with the question because I’m not one to think looking up to people is particularly healthy since regression to the mean bites more often than not.
But I was thinking one metric could be an individual who did more than anyone else to improve more people’s lots. And I came up with Mikhail Gorbachev.
As far as I can tell he’s not personally admirable. He certainly had to be a toady to get to a position where he could become General Secretary. And in the eyes of his predecessors in that role he probably looked like a very very weak toady being obsequious to the west. But admirability breaks free, it expands to new territories and crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously, but, uh… well, there it is.
good point. I think Deng Xiaoping would qualify too, no?
Norman Borlaug – no one close.
The people I least admire are the megamurderers whom the late RJ Rummel discusses in his book Death by Government: Mao, Stalin, Hitler.
Within the subset of people going along with the zeitgeist because it benefits them, the people I least admire would be the ones who don’t even care. I think this is one thing that makes some lawyers so despicable.
“taking the most charitable view of those who disagree”? That said, I agree. Toadies!
I am probably too cynical,
but my admiration for politicians is basically 0. It is not that I hate them. I just think that in the skilled ones there is an inherent gradiosity combined with motivated reasoning that leads them to just-so-happen to support stances that benefit them politically that makes them completely unadmirable.
Thomas Paine’s quote about government being a necessary evil could just as easily applied to politicians themselves.
They are disgusting but an ecological necessity, like maggots.
This why I root for politicians who are anti-politicians AND I’m a Bills fan!
Notwithstanding the fact this was filed under “Tyler Cowen is my Favorite Blogger”, of course.
Isn’t your lack of admiration for toadies lack of gratitude? You don’t see toadism as a skill that you don’t have, just something that you don’t want to do.
Gandhi apparently said or wrote: “I do believe that, where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence”
I don’t know about Gandhi, but the attitude that being actively and assertively evil is more admirable than being passively good is quite widespread.
I personally don’t admire Gandhi. He sacrificed his children’s and wife’s interests to pursue his own ideals. My contrarian take is to admire people who take responsibility for their family, who try to get along, conform and provide service for their community. I assume that most people who make great sacrifices for some greater good are psychologicaIly abnormal and thus difficult annoying people. Of course I’m indebted to many of these difficult people who fought for the ideals and values that I now hold dear.