http://crookedtimber.org/2009/10/22/rules-for-contrarians-1-dont-whine-that-is-all/
Rules for Contrarians: 1. Don't whine. That is all
by Daniel on October 22, 2009
I like to think that I know a little bit about contrarianism. So I'm
disturbed to see that people who are making roughly infinity more money
than me out of the practice aren't sticking to the unwritten rules of
the game.
Viz Nathan Mhyrvold:
<quote>
Once people with a strong political or ideological bent latch onto an
issue, it becomes hard to have a reasonable discussion; once you're in
a political mode, the focus in the discussion changes. Everything
becomes an attempt to protect territory. Evidence and logic becomes
secondary, used when advantageous and discarded when expedient. What
should be a rational debate becomes a personal and venal brawl.
<unquote>
Okay, point one. The whole idea of contrarianism is that you're
"attacking the conventional wisdom", you're "telling people that their
most cherished beliefs are wrong", you're "turning the world upside
down". In other words, you're setting out to annoy people. Now opinions
may differ on whether this is a laudable thing to do - I think it's
fantastic - but if annoying people is what you're trying to do, then
you can hardly complain when annoying people is what you actually do.
If you start a fight, you can hardly be surprised that you're in a
fight. It's the definition of passive-aggression and really quite
unseemly, to set out to provoke people, and then when they react
passionately and defensively, to criticise them for not holding to your
standards of a calm and rational debate. If Superfreakonomics wanted a
calm and rational debate, this chapter would have been called something
like: "Geoengineering: Issues in Relative Cost Estimation of SO2
Shielding", and the book would have sold about five copies.
<end excerpt>
rest at: http://crookedtimber.org/2009/10/22/rules-for-contrarians-1-dont-whine-that-is-all/
Michael