It is funny how posts mesh together. My whining personal post about my intellectual incubators letting me down fits well with Carlos's post. (I invite everyone to write a personal post every now and then. It is therapeutic.)
Bono and Springsteen think that they are helping the world with their pleas for greater aide to corrupt Africa, the sanctioning of violent backward autarkists, and all of their pseudo-environmental causes. (I just saw where Bono's wife was protesting a nuclear power plant.) Even though they completely miss the perverse repercussions of their proposals, they engage many followers. As they did with me, they spawn intellectual activity. Sadly, many followers never read Hayek, Rand, Bastiat, Russ Roberts or Don Boudreaux, and they think Bono's and Springsteen's teachings are the Truth.
The real sad part is that these people perceive themselves as altruistic. They think they are "saving the world from humans." In a way, I respect the people whom disagree with trade because of narrow self-interest much more than those whom reject it out of altruistic reasons.
Rand's Objectivists have called for a new intellectual movement in which the rationality of the Enlightenment trumps Romanticism. They are correct; the world will never reach its potential and trade freely without finding intellectual leaders other than Bruce and Bono.
Disclaimer
This post was written while listening to "Born in the USA" and U2's "Where Did It All Go Wrong?" and "Please."
Link
Don Boudreaux's and Russ Roberts's Cafe Hayek
http://www.cafehayek.com/
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