Let's go to the videotape. When Brad said, "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to drop out of this list. Too many ignorant fools, and its pushing me rightward into a place where I don't want to be" -- this is what he was responding to, the proximal reason for his scurrying off the list:
>From: "Carl Remick" <carlremick at hotmail.com>
>Subject: Re: (no subject)
>Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 03:57:21
>
>>Ah. Now we're getting into "Their Morals and Ours" territory... Is it
>>more immoral for the United States to issue an ultimatum to
>>Afghanistan (if it is indeed Osama bin Laden's group that is
>>responsible) and to follow through (if bin Laden and company are not
>>delivered) with massive retaliation (and thus to kill innocent
>>civilians by the office-tower-load)? Or is it more immoral not to
>>take actions that kill yet more innocent civilians by the
>>office-tower-load, and thus to teach every fanatic for the next
>>century that large-scale terrorism is a really effective way of
>>getting the world's attention, and has little downside, and so set
>>the table for even more massive civilian casualties in the more
>>distant future?
>>
>>I don't know the answer. One reason I do economics and not political
>>science is that even thinking about such questions leaves me
>>profoundly depressed...
>>
>>Brad DeLong
>
>This is one of the most revealing comments I've seen you make, Brad.
>Something that fascinates me about economics is the abstraction that is
>involved and the way that aids in sanitizing capitalism's basic grubbiness
>and insulating the observer from the sheer brutality that fills the
>marketplace. You guys seem content just to twiddle with your globalistic
>formulas -- math is the fun part, as you say -- and set them loose in the
>field via outfits like the IMF; then, boom!, when the natives revolt and
>Indonesia is torn apart or the WTC/Pentagon is blown up, the political
>scientists are left with the hard work, tackling thorny moral problems that
>never should have arisen in the first place.
>
>Carl
Now, I'll let you numbers jocks get back to that fascinating and oh so timely thread on probability theory that has had you so engrossed.
Carl
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