Like Eric a couple of weeks ago, I am attempting to carry out exercises for the chapter.
Here are my "ten areas in which your thinking-feeling is conservative."
1. On Twitter, Eric Alper recently asked, "If you could add 10 productive years to the life of any deceased musician, who would you choose?" I agree with Julian Sanchez' answer, "Mozart. How is this remotely even a question?"
2. Aviation and the development of flight was a big technology in the last century and offers lessons for making space flight safer and more of an everyday thing.
3. As Bryan Caplan says, perhaps the best few pages of philosophy is the "Letter to Menoeceus" by Epicurus.
4. Children are best off when they are raised by two parents. (Not that I don't have sympathy for single parents -- I was one for many years.)
5. Music culture in this country has gotten worse for many years, for example as shown by the lack of interest by younger people in jazz and classical music.
6. Radio is an underrated source of news, sports and music. It is the form of entertainment anyone can afford, as a radio from a garage sale costs almost nothing.
7. Literature is the deepest form of art. Not that I don't like music, visual art and movies (in pretty much that order.)
8. As much as I like bands such as the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Roxy Music and so on, the conventional wisdom is correct: The Beatles were the best and most important rock music band.
9. Open up the borders and make trade free.
10. I prefer paper books, all things considered, but digital books are a way to build a library cheaply.
Here are ten ways where my thinking seems radical:
1. The shift toward people choosing their genders is a natural outgrowth of the modern tend toward individualism and it seems unlikely to be reversed. People soon will be choosing their own race.
2. All drugs should be legalized. People should have complete control over what they put in their body.
3. We would be better off if the statement in the First Amendment about Congress making "no law" restricting freedom of the press were interpreted by the courts to mean "no law."
4. The Internet has been a wonderful improvement in life for many of us, giving access to entertainment and education that would have seemed Utopian within recent memory (or at least my memory.) Many of the problems with it are self-inflicted by people complaining about the net.
5. While I think all drugs should be legalized, I think regulation should have some relationship to the actual dangers involved. Alcohol is really one of the most seriously abused drugs. I would keep it legal but would restrict advertising, enforce the ban on sales to minors very strictly, etc.
6. Pro football is terrible, producing hundreds of cases of brain damage from CTE and many cases of early death. People should not support it.
7. Taxpayer funding of stadiums for professional football teams and other pro sports teams should be banned. I don't see how that's a legitimate government expenditure.
8. Robert Anton Wilson is an important writer who deserves Library of America volumes, large continuing sales, etc. I still think we may get there.
9. Chrissie Hynde is better than Bruce Springsteen. The Pretenders are not as big as they should be, even in northern Ohio.
10. Public library cards ought to be universal, i.e. you should be able to use your local card at any U.S. library.
