Chris Dillow: Why economists need history

Chris Dillow argues Why economists need history

Reigning in monopoly power requires governments to overcome these forces. And that in turn requires the growth of either a threat to capitalism itself or at least a countervailing power to capital. It's no accident that capitalism was more equal (and productive) when there were strong trades unions and a threat of communism.

So yes, I think we do need intellectual (and social and economic) history - because it teaches us that meaningful improvements in economic policy must be a collective effort and not merely clever people proposing technocratic tweaks.

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This really requires a significant portion of the proletariat to raise its class consciousness enough to confront the forces of Capitalism. Using the ERA (experience, reflection, action) model, workers should:

1.		Experience what is happening. This means articulating what is happening to them. Articulation brings the experience to the foreground. It can be simple as saying "This is sucks!". It is a realisation that things are right somehow. It may be something simple as a feeling of unease.
2.		Reflect upon this experience. This is when theory and a knowledge of history comes in. The current state of things has arisen from the decisions made in the past. It is vital that people understand that society is a human construct that is reproduced daily. Rules and customs exist to solve problems. We need to understand what those problems were, and why those choices were made. Theory helps us to clarify our thinking by focusing on what is important.
3.		Act upon this reflection and experience. What happens next depends on what you perceive your capabilities to be and what reaction you can survive. Be very aware that any action you take will incur a reaction from those whose believe that they benefit from the current system. The intensity of this reaction will be proportional to the fear that they feel.
4.		Repeat

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Ted Rall: Elon Musk, Gender and the War over Pronouns

Ted Rall discusses Elon Musk, Gender and the War over Pronouns

The pronoun thing also feels irrelevant to people who live in communities where they not only don’t know anyone who is transgender or nonbinary, no one they know knows someone who is. Politics fail when they don’t connect to perceived reality.

Can transgender Americans achieve full equality and eliminate discrimination without a radical grammatical transformation? If not, there is only one way to get there absent the kind of wholesale cultural transformation that took place in revolutionary Russia and its attendant social pressures. Stop preaching and wage a patient, persistent educational campaign that convinces most citizens that a more complicated world is a better one.

I’m not optimistic.

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The pronoun issue is a microcosm of a social revolution. Individual changes in behaviour eventually becomes a societal one. Because the order of society is changed, those who consider themselves to be beneficiaries of the current order, will wage a vicious campaign to maintain their current status in the current order. The benefits of a new social order must exceed the cost of overcoming the resistance to change, and that benefit must be seen by enough people to be good enough to pay the cost, in order for the societal change to be implemented.

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