Digest, 1/22/2022: No One's Gonna Play the Harp When You Die
the thirty-fifth digest post
Get on my level, Yglesias.
Check me out on the Let’s Talk College podcast. And Richard Hanania’s show:
This Week’s Posts
Monday, January 17th - Sneer if You'd Like, But Engineered Solutions Are a Lot More Plausible Than Behavioral Change in 2022
Geoengineering more space in Manhattan may not sound plausible, but neither does provoking behavioral change to fix problems either.
Perhaps Not Everything is Eugenics
Perhaps! Just perhaps! Some things can be bad without being eugenics.
Tuesday, January 18th - There is No Such Thing as a Takedown
I am bored of takedown culture and the notion that entire books, entire careers, entire people can be somehow erased by scalding prose.
Thursday, January 19th - You Don't Get to Withdraw "Your Share" of Public Expenditures, Doofus
The public coffers do not come with a debit card.
Ditching the SAT is a Money Maker
A brief interlude.
Friday, January 20th - To Return to a Theme: If You Dislike the Behavior, Consider Changing the Incentives (subscriber only)
Another rumination on this business, with a basic theme: why do people who hate my success and that of those like me do so much to facilitate that success?
Also another Book Club post.
From the Archives
Song of the Week
Substack of the Week
Josh Barro does not, to put it lightly, share my politics. In fact he leans in the neoliberal centrist technocrat direction that I have spent so much of my writing career attacking. But he does bring an essential quality to the discourse: calm. We live in a hyperventilating era. Media’s interests have also bent in the direction of the prurient and the hysterical, and the toxic dynamics of the clicks era have only intensified this problem. We’re living through a no-bullshit pandemic, too, and the Trump era was really… something. So there are legitimate reasons to be worried, anxious, upset. There is not, however, reason to be panicked. Panicking never helped anybody, and too many smart people are giving into it right now.
Barro’s perspective is a balm in such times. He’s resolutely committed to not giving in to overheated rhetoric. Sure, this attitude is often expressed in defense of neoliberal policies I reject, but honestly, in a country in which some insist on wearing masks during Zoom meetings, I’ll take levelheadedness wherever I can get it. Also, this essay about getting married is very sweet. Give it a look.
Book Recommendation
The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe, Elizabeth Eisenstein, 1983
This one is pitched to very few of you, ultimately, but I think the slice of you that could get into this book would really love it indeed. This book is an abridged and edited version of a massive two-volume work of academic history that Eisenstein wrote about the rise of printing and its influences in European history. (Which, for the record, I have not read.) What’s here is a more streamlined and ready-for-a-popular-audience tome about just how profound the impact of the printing press really was, for the Reformation and Enlightenment and the “Western canon.” Eisenstein’s career was a decades-long commentary on the fact that everybody knew how important printing was for world history, but that the actual analysis was typically quite vague and unclear about how that all worked out in practice. This book is an eminently interesting history, although not one to be taken on casually. I want to say that it’s a good example of how a book can be ideological without being political, but maybe it’s the exact opposite. But I recommend it either way!
NFL Picks of the Week
Knew we wouldn’t even need the points!
For the divisional round I like the Cincinnati Bengals (+3.5) on the road over the Tennessee Titans. I might be tempted to go moneyline there too. Derrick Henry wasn’t playing well before he got hurt, and it’s hard to see him playing any better coming off of a major injury and months of rust. And even if he was full speed, I think I’m going with Cincy here. They’re a far more explosive offense with vastly better receivers than the Titans. I think Joe Burrow is becoming a little overhype, but when he’s on he can really sling it. If the Titans have to play from behind this one could get out of hand quickly.
Win-Loss-Push: 15-16-0
Comment of the Week
My main concern if malls close is where can one experience the sensory overload of a bath and body works without them? -Erin E.
That’s it! Enjoy the weekend.
When a universally beloved geriatric public figure is trending on Twitter there should be a clear 'dead' or 'alive' label slapped next to their name.
Playoff Freddie in the house!