Dangerous Idea Research Articles

Suzanne J. Konzelmann, The Economics of Austerity

Mark Blyth’s new book on austerity (Blyth, 2015) suggests that this dangerous idea has been at the very core of economic liberalism’s turbulent relationship with society. It is also an idea that reaches back in the dawn of “classical liberalism” and stretches into the various recalibrations that this idea has experienced in the post-Lehman era. This is a potent argument that cries out for a book that has in one place all the original key texts that detail economic liberalism’s internal and ex...

American biodefense: how dangerous ideas about biological weapons shape national security

American biodefense: how dangerous ideas about biological weapons shape national security

Not So Dangerous Ideas: Law, Politics, New Progressivism and Trimming

Not So Dangerous Ideas: Law, Politics, New Progressivism and Trimming

Trusting Politicians with Our Money is like Leaving a Cat in Charge of a Cream Jug (A debate on Illogical Endowment, Rational Depletion of Entrusted Capital in a Monopoly Industry, and Total Decentralization of Governmental Services.)

There is a prevalent belief of there being two classes of politicians: the good and the bad ones; that is to say that some politicians hold the public's interest at heart and will make good use of public funds (i.e. taxed capital), while other politicians, due to a plurality of possible reasons, will make inefficient or even fraudulent use of public money. This belief is often attached to the notion that if the politicians are chosen by a system of representative democracy, and if they only hold office for a set amount of years, society can dish out the bad ones in a process of trial and error.The purpose of my paper is to dispel these dangerous and utopian ideas with pure and a priori logic in the praxeological tradition of the Austrian School of Economics. I aim to show the logical inconsistency that is inherent to the irrational, yet commonly held trust towards individuals that claim to be able to use our money better than ourselves, and who enforce this assertion with the threat of private property violations. The conclusions of this piece are that not only is it impossible for capital that is acquired without a person's explicit consent to be used in said person's best interest, but also that in the larger scheme of things, every ethical individual in society is to benefit from living in an environment where the services currently provided by governmental agencies are instead handled by private entities which do not act as monopolistic expropriators.

Anti-Muslim Buddhist Nationalism in Burma and Sri Lanka: Religious Violence and Globalized Imaginaries of Endangered Identities

In Burma, monks are promoting a new marriage law restricting interfaith marriages. They have used hateful anti-Muslim rhetoric and claimed that Buddhism, language, culture and the national identity is endangered. Since 2012, Burma has seen widespread anti-Muslim riots resulting in burned mosques and casualties instigated by the 969 movement. Burmese monks study in Sri Lanka where the Buda Bala Sena, (‘Buddhist Power Force’) movement runs a fierce anti-Muslim and anti-Christian campaign. There is a clear connection between the monks in these former British colonies where Buddhism was part of the nationalist anti-colonial struggle. Buddhism is still part of ongoing identity politics.Today's xenophobic Buddhist nationalism seems to contain a combination of the traditional Buddhist cosmological imaginary of a decline in the doctrine—a dark age of moral chaos, and a modern globalized imaginary of other religions—Islam and Christianity in particular—attempting to wipe out Buddhism.The article discusses how these religious imaginaries and monks are engaged in nationalist politics and absorb globally transmitted ideas of danger to religion and identity; and how these imaginaries are translated and localized to a modern context. This seems to be part of a globalized ‘ontological scare’ in Burma and Sri Lanka. The movements are generating xenophobic and fundamentalist views and using religion as a medium of violence.

Studying Ghalat Schools in Muslim context

Although flow of grain is discussed in early Islamic books, but this issue is not investigation particularly in special time in a separate and independent manner. This study seeks to address this issue in depth in the first and second centuries of independent research and inquiry about it. Exaggeration (Ghalat) is extracted from Ghla which means much out of and Similarity in this concept is giving divinity of Ali (PBUH) and his descendants, the Alavian, denominations such as forms and different ways consider and develop thought of transmigration or reincarnation or the frequent transfer of spirits in various objects. Ali Asghar Hekmat, in his History of Religions defines Ghalat as some of them, have taken up his position (Ali (PBUH)) to the point of hyperbole and exaggeration that consider him worthy of worship. They are busy for their thoughts. One of the diversion flows on Shia Islam and dangerous idea emergence of exaggeration. Research methodology in this study is descriptive, analytical, and historical.

Approaching Transhumanism: On How Human Beings Transform in the 21st Century

The following article is to introduce the reader into a cultural and intellectual movement whose aim is to identify the need for improvement in human life in the sphere of physicality as well as mentality with the aid of modern technologies – transhumanism. With the dramatic change in the perception of technology, transhumanist welcome the opportunity to improve cognitive skills, help to perpetuate human happiness, or increase longevity. Although the opponents of the transhumanist thought dismiss it as “the world’s most dangerous idea,” the adversaries advocate that the alternation of human form is both practical and reasonable. With the use of modern technology, enthusiasts of transhumanism try to prove that the human body needs to be re-invented in order to transcend the natural limitations. In my work I will try to tackle the problem of human body being currently subject to gradual transition from Homo Sapiens to Robo Sapiens, the process of ‘becoming’ a cyborg. By incorporating bodily augmentation, contemporary artists such as Stelarc or Neil Harbisson cast a light on the change of physical form, as well as the definition of being human. Evoking much controversy, transhumanism brings a completely new dimension to the understanding of the current human condition.

Dangerous ideas: improving the quality of significant event audit by involving the patients.

We propose that, when a GP practice intends to perform a Significant Event Audit (SEA) for any reason, they inform the patient that this is taking place; invite them to comment on the SEA, including inviting them to the SEA meeting; and send them a copy of the final SEA report. IT’S MY LIFE — THE EVENT HAPPENED TO ME! WHAT DO YOU MEAN, THE PRACTICE MADE …

Dangerous Ideas: resistant superbugs and the potential of the microbiome.

When the Chief Medical Officer, Sally Davies, talks about a ‘ticking time bomb’ and the Prime Minister, David Cameron, warns us of the dangers of going back to ‘the Dark Ages’, you know that the problem is serious. Both were referring to the global threat of antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance is increasing. There are sufficient tales from secondary care to remind us of the doomsday scenario when antibiotics might lose all potency against invading bacteria. In intensive care, the emergence of gram negative septicaemias resistant to the last effective antibiotics, the carbapenem group, has caused considerable alarm.1 In a military setting, multidrug resistant skin infections in healthy army recruits have become a serious concern, sometimes resulting in amputations.2 The rise of antibiotic resistance is …

Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013; 288 pp.:978-0-19-982830-2; 978-0-19-938944-5 (pbk).

Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013; 288 pp.:978-0-19-982830-2; 978-0-19-938944-5 (pbk).

Submission to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario -- Re: CPSO Policy Statement #5-08 -- Physicians and the Ontario Human Rights Code

The Ontario Human Rights Commission made a serious error in 2008 when it attempted to suppress freedom of conscience and religion in medical profession on grounds that physicians are providers of secular public services. In publicly perpetuating this error, Commission has contributed significantly to anti-religious sentiments and a climate of religious intolerance in Ontario. Both were on display earlier this year when it became front page news and a public scandal that three physicians had told their patients that they would not recommend, facilitate or do what they believed to be immoral, unethical, or harmful. The physicians had followed guidelines of Canadian Medical Association and College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. Physicians must advise patients about treatments or procedures they are unwilling to recommend or provide for moral or religious reasons, so that patients can seek services elsewhere, but are not required to help patients obtain services or procedures they believe to be wrong.The arrangement is a compromise that safeguards legitimate autonomy of patients and preserves integrity of physicians, but it has been continually attacked by activists who want to compel objecting physicians to provide or facilitate abortion and contraception, and, lately, euthanasia. Essentially, activists assert that physicians have a duty to do what they believe to be wrong because they must not act upon their moral or religious beliefs.However, it is incoherent to include a duty to do what one believes to be wrong in a code of ethics, very purpose of which is to encourage physicians to act ethically and avoid wrongdoing. Moreover, one cannot practise medicine without reference to beliefs, whether they reflect a secular ethic or a religious one, and neither a secular ethic nor a religious ethic is morally neutral. Thus, demands that physicians must not act upon their beliefs or must practise medicine in a morally “neutral” fashion are unacceptable because they are impossible.The demand that physicians must not act upon religious beliefs because medical practice is a secular profession is unacceptable because it is erroneous. The Supreme Court of Canada has acknowledged that a secular society is not faith-free; it includes both religious and non-religious believers, and rational democratic pluralism must make room all. The full bench of Court has warned that to disadvantage or disqualify exercise of religiously informed conscience in public affairs is an illiberal distortion of liberal principles.If it is legitimate to compel religious believers to do what they believe to be wrong, then it is equally legitimate to compel non-religious believers to do what they think is wrong; everyone would have a duty to do what is believed to be wrong. Hence, compromise worked out by Canadian Medical Association not only safeguards integrity of physicians and legitimate autonomy of patients, but protects community against temptation to give credence to a dangerous idea: that a learned or privileged class, a profession or state institutions can legitimately compel people to participate in what they believe to be wrong - even gravely wrong - even murder - and punish if they refuse.Freedom of conscience and freedom of religion are not unlimited, but mantra, the freedom to hold beliefs is broader than freedom to act on them is inadequate. More refined distinctions are required to address difficulties that arise in a pluralist democracy. One of reflects two ways in which freedom of conscience is exercised: by pursuing good and avoiding evil. There is a significant difference between preventing people from seeking perfection by doing good that they wish to do and destroying their integrity by forcing to do evil that they abhor. As a general rule, it is fundamentally unjust and offensive to force people to support, facilitate or participate in what they perceive to be wrongful acts; more serious wrongdoing, graver injustice and offence. It is a policy fundamentally opposed to civic friendship, which grounds and sustains political community and provides strongest motive for justice. It is inconsistent with best traditions and aspirations of liberal democracy. And it is dangerous, since it instills attitudes more suited to totalitarian regimes than to demands of responsible freedom.This does not mean that freedom of conscience exercised to preserve personal integrity can never be limited. It does mean, however, that even strict approach taken to limiting other fundamental rights and freedoms is not sufficiently refined to be safely applied here. Like use of potentially deadly force, if restriction of preservative freedom of conscience can be justified at all, it will only be as a last resort and only in most exceptional circumstances. When College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario receives complaints from patients who have been unable to obtain services they want, College should help connect patients with willing service providers. That would be more helpful than attempting to suppress freedom of conscience and religion in medical profession.

Naming the Unnamed: Taboos and Dangerous Ideas in Modern Science Fiction

Naming the Unnamed: Taboos and Dangerous Ideas in Modern Science Fiction

German Ordoliberalism as Agenda Setter for the Euro Crisis: Myth Trumps Reality

German political leaders have extolled the advantages of the rule-based ordoliberal doctrine as a panacea for the Eurozone countries to regain competitiveness. This legalistic doctrine has been used by the German Bundesbank as an important agenda setter to prevent alternative ideas from challenging the austerity discourse in the Eurozone. A closer look across German economic history tells a different story. At no time did perfect market competition work in practice as the ordoliberal doctrine postulates. In fact, it was the London Debt Agreement of 1953 with the Marshall Plan, and the combination of Ordnungspolitik with a more ethical and publicly provided social policy (what has become known as the Soziale Marktwirtschaft) which account for the German Wirtschaftswunder. But rather than rejecting Ordnungspolitik on the grounds that it is ‘a dangerous idea’, we should focus on institutional reforms based on an ethical and socially oriented economic model for the European Union (EU). In fact, this is what Germany has done since the 1950s, with the scales tipping sometimes in the direction of strengthening the ordoliberal side of competition policy, and at others shifting to more inclusive social measures. The question is whether Germany's ‘real’ economic history can provide a more realistic model for a sustainable social EU.

Book reviews

Books reviewed in this issue International Relations theory The vulnerable in international society. By Ian Clark. Liberty abroad: J. S. Mill on International Relations. By Georgios Varouxakis. Wronged by empire: post-imperial ideology and foreign policy in India and China. By Manjari Chatterjee Miller. Interpreting international politics. By Cecelia Lynch. International organization, law and ethics The Routledge companion to alternative organization. Edited by Martin Parker, George Cheney, Valérie Fournier and Chris Land. Conflict, security and defence The gamble of war: is it possible to justify preventive war? By Ariel Colonomos. NATO in Afghanistan: fighting together, fighting alone. David P. Auerswald and Stephen M. Saideman. Just war: authority, tradition, and practice. Edited by Anthony F. Lang Jr, Cian O’Driscoll and John Williams. Counterinsurgency in crisis: Britain and the challenges of modern warfare. By David H. Ucko and Robert Egnell. Arguments that count: physics, computing, and missile defense, 1949–2012. By Rebecca Slayton. The discourse trap and the US military: from the war on terror to the surge. Jeffrey H. Michaels. Political economy, economics and development The dollar trap. By Eswar Prasad. Austerity: the history of a dangerous idea. By Mark Blyth. Development aid confronts politics: the almost revolution. By Thomas Carothers and Diane de Gramont. Energy, environment and global health The future is not what it used to be: climate change and energy security. By Jörg Friedrichs. The politics and institutions of global energy governance. Thijs van de Graaf. International history The new Cambridge history of American foreign relations, vol. 4: challenges to American primacy, 1945 to the present. By Warren I. Cohen. The Holocaust, fascism, and memory: essays in the history of ideas. By Dan Stone. Europe Britain in global politics, volume 1: from Gladstone to Churchill. Edited by Christopher Baxter, Michael L. Dockrill and Keith Hamilton. Britain in global politics, volume 2: from Churchill to Blair. Edited by John W. Young, Effie G. H. Pedaliu and Michael D. Kandiah. Transitional justice in post-communist Romania: the politics of memory. By Lavinia Stan. Europe's deadlock: how the euro crisis could be solved—and why it won’t happen. By David Marsh. The struggle for EU legitimacy. Public contestation, 1950–2005. Claudia Schrag Sternberg. Russia and Eurasia Russia 2025. Scenarios for the Russian future. Edited by Maria Lipman and Nikolay Petrov. Middle East and North Africa Toppling Qaddafi: Libya and the limits of liberal intervention. Christopher Chivvis. The Syria dilemma. Edited by Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel. Party politics and the prospects for democracy in North Africa. By Lise Storm. Sub-Saharan Africa A poisonous thorn in our hearts: Sudan and South Sudan's bitter and incomplete divorce. By James Copnall. Liberation movements in power: party and state in southern Africa. By Roger Southall. South Asia Magnificent delusions: Pakistan, the United States, and an epic history of misunderstanding. By Hussain Haqqani. No exit from Pakistan: America's tortured relationship with Islamabad. By Daniel Markey. The warrior state: Pakistan in the contemporary world. By T. V. Paul. East Asia and Pacific Contestation and adaptation: the politics of national identity in China. By Enze Han. North Korea in transition: politics, economy, and society. Edited by Kyung-ae Park and Scott Snyder. North America The Kennan diaries. Edited by Frank Costigliola. The empire trap: the rise and fall of U.S. intervention to protect American property overseas, 1893–2013. By Noel Maurer. What changed when everything changed: 9/11 and the making of national identity. By Joseph Margulies. Latin America and Caribbean Democratic Chile: the politics and policies of a historic coalition, 1990–2010. Edited by Kirsten Sehnbruch and Peter M. Siavelis. Política externa e democracia no Brasil: ensaio de interpretação histórica. By Dawisson Belém Lopes. In search of the Amazon: Brazil, the United States and the nature of a region. By Seth Garfield.

Palestine: a week in November.

The Occupied Palestinian Territories (population 4.5 million) has no system of postgraduate training for family practice. Primary care is provided by GPs without specific training and specialists based in the community. The hero of this story, Dr Samar Musmar, is a Palestinian who was trained and licensed as a family practitioner in Florida, and has returned to her first home to build specialist family medicine there. An invitation for her to speak at a Society of Academic Primary Care meeting in 2011 and then at a ‘dangerous ideas’ session at the Royal College of General Practitioners conference in Glasgow in 2012 sparked off a commitment from some UK doctors to support her efforts. With Samar having set up a training programme for 19 primary care doctors, the first step was to plan an intensive 1-week …

Egalitarianism and Moral Bioenhancement

A number of philosophers working in applied ethics and bioethics are now earnestly debating the ethics of what they term “moral bioenhancement.” I argue that the society-wide program of biological manipulations required to achieve the purported goals of moral bioenhancement would necessarily implicate the state in a controversial moral perfectionism. Moreover, the prospect of being able to reliably identify some people as, by biological constitution, significantly and consistently more moral than others would seem to pose a profound challenge to egalitarian social and political ideals. Even if moral bioenhancement should ultimately prove to be impossible, there is a chance that a bogus science of bioenhancement would lead to arbitrary inequalities in access to political power or facilitate the unjust rule of authoritarians; in the meantime, the debate about the ethics of moral bioenhancement risks reinvigorating dangerous ideas about the extent of natural inequality in the possession of the moral faculties.

A dangerous idea? Freedom, children and the capability approach to education

This article begins by observing how education is currently appreciated primarily for its utility value, a view informed by utilitarianism and neoclassical economic theory. A critique of that framing is offered and an alternative way of valuing education informed by a Capabilities Approach is presented. In doing so, I also observe that while key proponents of the Capabilities Approach promote the idea of freedom, they deny it to children and some young people. The argument they present is that in the hands of children, freedom destroys their capabilities because they lack capacity for good judgment and therefore should only make minor decisions. The focus should be on adulthood because only at that stage can we exercise good judgment and exercise freedom properly. I explain why this view limits the application of Capabilities Approach, why it is problematic and offer a way of overcoming that constraint.

It Takes a Regime Shift: Recent Developments in Japanese Monetary Policy through the Lens of the Great Depression

Last week, we witnessed one of the most exciting developments in monetary policymaking since the 1930s. The Japanese central bank staged an honest-to-goodness regime shift. The Bank of Japan went beyond vague promises and cheap talk. As I will describe in more detail later, it took dramatic actions and pledged convincingly to do whatever it takes to end deflation in Japan. The theoretical reasons why this regime shift may be important are well understood by economists. Persistent deflation and anemic growth suggest that Japan continues to suffer from a shortfall of demand. But their policy interest rate is already at the zero lower bound. Furthermore, riskier, long-term rates are also very low— suggesting that unconventional policies such as large-scale asset purchases are unlikely to do much to further reduce nominal rates. As discussed by Paul Krugman, Gauti Eggertsson and Michael Woodford, and others, if unconventional monetary policy can raise expected inflation, this can push down real interest rates even though nominal rates cannot fall. 1 This, in turn, can raise aggregate demand by stimulating interest

Book Review: Austerity: the history of a dangerous idea

Book Review: Austerity: the history of a dangerous idea

Entrenching a 'Duty to Do Wrong' in Medicine: Canadian Government Funds Project to Suppress Freedom of Conscience and Religion

After a young woman had to go to a clinic in the next block to get birth control pills, a crusade was started against three physicians who decline to prescribe contraceptives that spilled into mainstream media and earned a blog posting by Professor Carolyn McLeod on Impact Ethics. Professor McLeod objects to the physicians’ practice for three reasons. First: it implies - falsely, in her view - that there are medical reasons to prefer natural family planning to manufactured contraceptives. Second, she claims that refusing to refer for contraceptives and abortions violates a purported “right” of access to legal services. Third, she insists that the physician should not have used a written notice, but met the patient to explain himself and then helped her to obtain contraception elsewhere by referral. However, there is still room in the medical profession for critical thinking; note that the Canadian Medical Association Code of Ethics requires physicians to advise patients if their views are not representative of those of the profession as a whole. While a face-to-face meeting with patients is normally preferable, it may actually be preferable for walk-in clinic patients to be advised promptly by the receptionist when they arrive. Professor McLeod makes surprising and erroneous claims that if freedom of conscience and religion is not limited, Muslim physicians would refuse to accept female patients, and Catholic physicians would deny care to women who have had previous abortions. This bespeaks a complete lack of intellectual engagement with Islamic medical ethics and with Catholic moral theology. Her claim that physicians “cannot act on moral beliefs that prevent them from providing referrals for standard services” is contradicted by Canadian Medical Association policy and by the 25,000 member Ontario Medical Association (OMA). A central goal of Professor McLeod’s Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) funded project is to entrench in medical practice a duty to refer for or otherwise facilitate morally contested procedures. From the perspective of many objecting physicians, this amounts to imposing a duty to do what they believe to be wrong. Two other leaders of this insist that objecting physicians also be forced to refer for euthanasia and assisted suicide. That the state can legitimately compel people to do what they believe to be wrong and punish them if they refuse is a dangerous idea that turns foundational ethical principles upside down. CMA and OMA policy on freedom of conscience safeguards the legitimate autonomy of patients and the integrity of physicians. The policy also protects the community against a particularly deadly form of authoritarianism: a demand that physicians kill their patients or help to arrange for the killing, even if they believe doing so is wrong.