Friday, January 3, 2014

Walter Block: Paul Krugman Makes the Cult Smear

Walter Block emails:
Dear Bob:

Re this excellent piece of yours (http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2014/01/is-austrian-school-of-economics-cult.html)

our man Krugman also calls us Austrians a cult:

Krugman, Paul. 2013. “Fine Austrian Whines.” February 20;
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/fine-austrian-whines/?_r=0

this article of Chris' lead me to that Krugman cite:

Rossini, Chris. 2013. “Paul Krugman: Hide Thy Enemy.”  December 31;
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2013/12/paul-krugman-hide-thy-enemy.html


Best regards,

Walter

Walter E. Block, Ph.D.
Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics
Joseph A. Butt, S.J. College of Business
Loyola University New Orleans

4 comments:

  1. That's funny (and ironic). The people that use the smear insult to attack people promoting individualistic freedoms are all in the same group - a collective.
    - JS

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  2. If ever proof was needed that Austrian economics is not a cult, Walter Block is the living embodiment of it. What cultist would allow such a thorn as him to remain a member? No leader would allow him a moment's time to question their received wisdom.

    A cultist would instead insist that certain topics are not open for debate. A cultist would tell him he needs to understand, not indict and convict. His persistent, questioning search for truth would never be tolerated, and he would be promptly excommunicated (or worse) from the cult.

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  3. I think that it is worth pointing out that the terms "cult" as used in a derogatory sense to describe supposedly mindless followers of a leader is itself a questionable term. There seem to be obvious examples such as the Jonestown group, but even in this case it doesn't help to just call those people crazy. Isn't the moral thing to do, even in that case, to understand their point of view and if necessary, to criticize it, point out its flaws, etc. It is a cheap move to call any group or person "crazy" and leave it at that. The best example of how the word and concept have been at Waco used to horrendous consequences is the Branch Davidians, where the Feds seemed to assume that the group was too irrational to converse with, and therefore felt quite content to murder all those innocent people.

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  4. It is ironic since if you ask a group of ten people at LvMI what it means to be Austrian, you will get 11 answers. Viz. Boetkke vs Block, Block vs anyone any time, Block vs himself, and other disagreements.
    Krugman? That dude is lockstep with The Bernanke, Mankiw, etc. no deviation allowed.

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