This is a memo to America’s hippies:

Tea Party values are hippie values.

Word of warning to Tea Partiers: if you really are the new Hippies, don’t let Eric Cartman find out.

Zombie presents an interesting four-quadrant diagram of political ideologies that (sort of) reminds me of my recent ponderings on the emergence of a new dichotomy.

One of the assumptions of the chart is the immutability of human nature. Zombie argues that collectivist systems assume that people can be changed while individualist systems assume they can’t. He quotes Bill Whittle outlining how one of the fundamental conservative ideas is the immutability of human nature.

I disagree that human nature is immutable. There’s a pretty good case to be made that human beings are growing kinder, less violent, more empathetic over time. Perhaps it isn’t our nature that’s changing, just attitudes and behaviors. (But then, what is our “nature?”)

Image via Wikipedia

Anyway, human ethical progress seems to correlate with human technological and economic progress. Today’s more affluent civilizations are more humane than the poorer ones of yesteryear. This is a correlation — it doesn’t necessarily imply causation. But hey, I say we might as well get more technology and wealth just in case.

I think the truth behind what Whittle is arguing is that changes in human nature can’t be forced. Libertarians (and Hippies) are ultimately opposed to all forms of coercion. Forcing people to be nice doesn’t make them really nice.

If the Tea Partiers truly are the new Hippies, some of them need to get hip to ideas like the Law of Accelerating Returns. Only squares think that human nature can’t be changed.  Or maybe they should read The Rational Optimist. It’s groovy, baby!

This is a memo to America’s hippies:

Tea Party values are hippie values.

Word of warning to Tea Partiers: if you really are the new Hippies, don’t let Eric Cartman find out.

Zombie presents an interesting four-quadrant diagram of political ideologies that (sort of) reminds me of my recent ponderings on the emergence of a new dichotomy.

One of the assumptions of the chart is the immutability of human nature. Zombie argues that collectivist systems assume that people can be changed while individualist systems assume they can’t. He quotes Bill Whittle outlining how one of the fundamental conservative ideas is the immutability of human nature.

I disagree that human nature is immutable. There’s a pretty good case to be made that human beings are growing kinder, less violent, more empathetic over time. Perhaps it isn’t our nature that’s changing, just attitudes and behaviors. (But then, what is our “nature?”)

Image via Wikipedia

Anyway, human ethical progress seems to correlate with human technological and economic progress. Today’s more affluent civilizations are more humane than the poorer ones of yesteryear. This is a correlation — it doesn’t necessarily imply causation. But hey, I say we might as well get more technology and wealth just in case.

I think the truth behind what Whittle is arguing is that changes in human nature can’t be forced. Libertarians (and Hippies) are ultimately opposed to all forms of coercion. Forcing people to be nice doesn’t make them really nice.

If the Tea Partiers truly are the new Hippies, some of them need to get hip to ideas like the Law of Accelerating Returns. Only squares think that human nature can’t be changed.  Or maybe they should read The Rational Optimist. It’s groovy, baby!

Tech CEOs tell US gov’t how to cut $1 trillion from deficit

The U.S. government can save more than $1 trillion over the next 10 years by consolidating its IT infrastructure, reducing its energy use and moving to more Web-based citizen services, a group of tech CEOs said in a report released Wednesday.

The Technology CEO Council’s report, delivered to President Barack Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, also recommends that the U.S. government streamline its supply chains and move agencies to shared services for mission-support activities.

“America’s growing national debt is undermining our global competitiveness,” said the council, chaired by IBM CEO Samuel Palmisano. “How we choose to confront and address this challenge will determine our future environment for growth and innovation.”