Part 10: My New Favorite Memory

[swimmyplus]

Ten entries about the ten best songs of all time.

The Weakerthans - "This Is a Fire Door Never Leave Open"

I've been reading Tyler Cowen's Discover Your Inner Economist. In the fourth chapter, this pops up:
We use our cultural decisions to support or help create stories about what kind of person we are, what kind of marriage we want, or what kind

Comments

[teratocarcinoma]

Imma disagree witcha, just 'cause I'm drinking alone in a dark house. Anyways, the idea that your model of yourself is the basis for your model of others I think is wrong. I believe that your model of yourself is based on your models of others. You are (or try to be) what other people are, and what other people are are trying to be what other people are, and so on and so forth. What do you want? To be like others. What do other people want? To be like others. In order to be like others, you have to want like others, and what they want is to be someone else

[swimmyplus]

Interestingly enough, your problem with economists isn't one at all--you've basically just given Hayek's response to Galbraith and his whole "innate desire" thing. Economists don't assume desires are innate. One with proper training will tell you all value is subjective; even stuff we think of as intrinsic, like food and water, are completely irrelevant if you're suicidal. (Value=death

[teratocarcinoma]

Ah.