The Classical Liberal

One of the greatest tectonic shifts in my thinking occurred several years ago with the discovery of Nassim Nicholas Taleb ’s book The Black Swan. Indeed, it was actually one of the first things I posted about in this nearly three year old blog.

There were so many take-aways from the book, that it is impossible to list them all here. In fact, if you are interested in researching it, I recommend purchasing the audio version so you can continually revisit it. I am constantly reviewing it and pick up something new from it every time that I do.

One of Taleb’s greatest insights is the recognition that people tend to believe in what is convenient, not what is necessarily true. We adopt things that confirm our biases and ignore those that contradict them. People believe what they want to be true, trivializing and ignoring every fact that does not fit that paradigm. As humans, we have an incredible capacity to deceive ourselves. It is how we comfort ourselves from the very random and scary world in which we live. Likewise, we tend to argue to be right, not to discover truth.

Recognizing this has changed my entire world view. It has opened me up to constant change. I now recognize that I know much less than I think I do. It is very humbling. The evolution of my political beliefs are a great example.

Political labels are dangerous. Everyone tends to have a different definition for them. But by my own definitions, over the years I have gone from a hard-core left of left liberal (while in a political argument with my father during my college days, he once called me a “communist”), to a mainstream Democrat, to a paleo-conservative independent, to a Libertarian. But that is not where it ends. Last week, I recognized another evolution in my thinking.

Several months ago I ran into John Papola’s “Fear The Boom And Bust”, a rap video about John Maynard Keynes and F. A. Hayek, two of the great economists of the 20th century. Recognizing I had the same admiration for Hayek and Austrian Economics as Papola, so I started reading his blog, But What The Hell Do I Know...

I immediately recognized we have a similar thought process. (I may be a bit more light-hearted, though. I doubt you will ever find music reviews, guest blogs or favorite recipes on his blog.) As Papola states: “I’m blogging as a way to work out my thoughts and hopefully get useful criticism that will help me be a better thinker and a more open person. Much of my reading and writing is about economics, but I ultimately believe that ethics are the core of any social discussion. So this really is a philosophic and educational exercise.”

That brings me back to Taleb and my search for truth. Because I like to “engage” in discussion rather than “argue” politics, I am adopting Papola’s political “label”. Although I remain a registered Libertarian, I would now call myself a Classical Liberal. As Papola states: “I generally prefer “Classical Liberal” as a label since it provokes questions and lacks the baggage of “conservative” or even “libertarian” in some ways.... for now. I’m open to change as I learn and grow. I simply ask that you, the reader, not ascribe to me any ideas that I haven’t put out there directly. Guilt by association is lame hackery.”

So as I also continue to “work out my thoughts” on this blog, remember, if we are discussing politics, I am not here to “argue”. Engage me, but be prepared to carry out your thoughts to their logical conclusions. Also be prepared to recognize that the way you want the world to be may not be the way the world really works. I am here to learn and discover through inquiry and skepticism what truths I can stumble upon. In doing so, I am prepared to be wrong. I hope you are, too.