Cognitive whiplash in a diversity of ideas
1 star
The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism was a wild ride from beginning to end.
The first section (of three) is meant to be an approximate description of the state of democratic capitalism. It is without question the most insider view of neoliberal philosophy that I have ever read. If you want to understand how neoliberalism understands itself, read the first section of this book.
The rest strikes me as an incredible example of the Gell-Mann effect. Many of Wolf's policy positions — in general, the ones in areas on which I am least well informed — sound very reasonable. But then he whip-saws into topics I know a little about and I have to check to see whether the whole book is satire. Total prohibition on truly anonymous online speech without any consideration of what it would mean to implement such a policy. Only the vaguest touch on UBI and fully …
The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism was a wild ride from beginning to end.
The first section (of three) is meant to be an approximate description of the state of democratic capitalism. It is without question the most insider view of neoliberal philosophy that I have ever read. If you want to understand how neoliberalism understands itself, read the first section of this book.
The rest strikes me as an incredible example of the Gell-Mann effect. Many of Wolf's policy positions — in general, the ones in areas on which I am least well informed — sound very reasonable. But then he whip-saws into topics I know a little about and I have to check to see whether the whole book is satire. Total prohibition on truly anonymous online speech without any consideration of what it would mean to implement such a policy. Only the vaguest touch on UBI and fully zero words on its potential positive externalities or the evidence from various small-scale studies.
And then there was this: "The Security Council should be reformed. France should surrender its permanent seat to the EU and the UK should surrender its seat to India.". What do you think permanent membership on the UN security council means, exactly? You understand that the EU does not have a significant military, let alone authority to launch France's nuclear weapons? If India joins (a totally reasonable change), why not also nuclear-armed Pakistan, Israel, and South Korea? It just… I just…
I can only conclude that Wolf has only a surface-level understanding of the things he writes about, and that all his plans and suggestions should be taken with a heaping helping of salt. It is very possible that there is wisdom buried somewhere in the second & third sections of this book. If there is, I have absolutely no way to distinguish it from things which sound plausible, but are actually nonsense I'm simply unqualified to see through.
Recommended as a quick read & an exercise training yourself to see through other places where sensible-sounding words are right up against the absolutely incomprehensible, like the output from LLMs, or mediocre partisan "news".