Tuesday, September 6, 2011

When You Haven't The Time to Sort Out The Data and Do Some Thinking, Fall Back on Ideology.







Bruce Bartlett, former adviser to Republican Presidents, explains that the time demands of daily living make it easier, for everyone, including politicians, to avoid sorting through facts and simply default to ideological positions.  He takes on Eric Cantor and the Democrats in this piece from his Economix blog on the New York Times website.

Money Quotes:
For those who lack the time, knowledge or education to think deeply about events as they happen, political parties and movements provide predigested ideas, perspectives and remedies.

Unfortunately, people are sometimes led astray by those they trust for insights, information and solutions to problems. This may result from corruption or mendacity, rigidity of thought, simple error or ignorance. And it’s human nature for people and organizations to be reluctant to acknowledge mistakes and to have an almost unlimited capacity to rationalize and force facts and theories to conform to their self-interest.

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