andrew_gelman_stats andrew_gelman_stats-2013 andrew_gelman_stats-2013-1892 knowledge-graph by maker-knowledge-mining
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Introduction: Ole Rogeberg writes: Recently read your blogpost on Pinker’s views regarding red and blue states . This might help you see where he’s coming from: The “conflict of visions” thing that Pinker repeats to likely refers to Thomas Sowell’s work in the books “Conflict of Visions” and “Visions of the anointed.” The “Conflict of visions” book is on his top-5 favorite book list and in a Q&A; interview he explains it as follows: Q: What is the Tragic Vision vs. the Utopian Vision? A: They are the different visions of human nature that underlie left-wing and right-wing ideologies. The distinction comes from the economist Thomas Sowell in his wonderful book “A Conflict of Visions.” According to the Tragic Vision, humans are inherently limited in virtue, wisdom, and knowledge, and social arrangements must acknowledge those limits. According to the Utopian vision, these limits are “products†of our social arrangements, and we should strive to overcome them in a better society of the f
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1 A: They are the different visions of human nature that underlie left-wing and right-wing ideologies. [sent-5, score-0.295]
2 ” According to the Tragic Vision, humans are inherently limited in virtue, wisdom, and knowledge, and social arrangements must acknowledge those limits. [sent-7, score-0.16]
3 According to the Utopian vision, these limits are “products†of our social arrangements, and we should strive to overcome them in a better society of the future. [sent-8, score-0.144]
4 Leftists believe that these positions are defeatist and cynical, because if we change parenting, education, the media, and social expectations, people could become wiser, nicer, and more peaceable and generous. [sent-11, score-0.342]
5 ” I think it’s more accurate to say that rightists like large government when it’s controlled by the right, and leftists like large government when it’s controlled by the left. [sent-14, score-0.879]
6 Do they have the tragic vision (because they are conservative) or the utopian vision (because they want a single church to be in control)? [sent-16, score-1.42]
7 And then there is the conjunction between “small government” and “a strong police and military. [sent-17, score-0.312]
8 ” Guatemala for many years ago had small government (for one thing, the people who ran the country did not want to pay taxes) and a strong police and military. [sent-18, score-0.643]
9 Put these together and you get a demonstration of “the tragic vision”: the strong police and military killed hundreds of thousands of Guatemalans. [sent-19, score-0.769]
10 More generally, what does it mean to have a strong police and military with a small government? [sent-20, score-0.537]
11 Also, I agree with Pinker that lots of issues get grouped into left and right, but I don’t see tragic vs. [sent-25, score-0.374]
12 I don’t see this fitting into a tragic vision of human nature. [sent-28, score-0.8]
13 Perhaps it is a utopian vision (all potential babies deserve to be born) or a conservative vision (the roles of men and women should remain traditional). [sent-29, score-1.184]
14 Just to clarify a few things: The relevance of Guatemala was to question Pinker’s claims that rightists like small government because “no leader is wise enough to plan society” and that rightists like a strong police and military because “people will always be tempted by crime and conquest. [sent-33, score-1.674]
15 , but in Guatemala my impression is that rightists liked small government because they wanted low taxes and they didn’t want to share power, and the police and military had nothing to do with people being tempted by crime and conquest. [sent-36, score-1.202]
16 It’s not about whether the Guatemalan government policies were good or bad; rather, I’m questioning his claim of a common denominator. [sent-38, score-0.244]
17 Similarly with issues of birth control and abortion. [sent-39, score-0.162]
18 These are big left-right issues but I don’t see them fitting into the tragic vision thing. [sent-40, score-0.793]
19 Some people would describe politics as a struggle between generations, or social classes, or economic classes. [sent-46, score-0.198]
20 utopian vision, and I think that choice says something about how he views politics. [sent-51, score-0.301]
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