Saturday, November 16, 2019

What’s that you say?

Listening to candidates speak, I notice that practically all of them claim to have definitive answers about how to resolve certain vexing problems. None of them gets to really core matters, or even matters that turn on moral questions, apart from reproduction. I want to see a candidate who:

  • Will commit to surrounding himself or herself with expert advisors. These should be people free of obvious self-serving bias. People drawn from relevant academic disciplines.
  • Will employ critical thinking tools to address problems.
  • Will not be afraid to touch on moral questions. Chiefly I’m thinking about questions of economic justice. But I’m also tired of the neo-liberal technocrats who occupy positions of authority in both parties who believe that the market alone can sort out the truth.

Can you rebuild an advisory circle centered on expertise? Do you think critically? Will you address the underlying moral questions of our day?