Jude Wanniski: War Is Off

Nathan Newman nathanne at nathannewman.org
Wed Feb 26 13:33:49 PST 2003


----- Original Message ----- From: "Steven" <mailinglist at navari.com>


>Precious metals to preserve our vital bodily fluids?
>Isn't talk of the need to return to the gold standard
>a virtually certain indicium of being a crank?

-Please excuse my naiveté, but what is it about mentioning the gold -standard that gets one branded a "crank"?

Well, aside from the humor of continually repeating a policy bromide from the 19th century as the cure-all for modern ills, it's the fixation on any one policy as so important. Cranks are usually identified by their fixation with one idea; on the left, hoary exhortions to a "general strike" as the be-all and end-all of social change have the same flavor (see Sparts).

The gold standard or a general strike might be a useful tool, but the fetishization of any one method, especially when repeated monomaniacally in a social context where it's unlikely to happen in any immediate period, qualifies you as a crank.

-- Nathan



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list