I wrote this back in 2010. Every now and again I like to point it out to people who ask me what I think journalism is for. I dont really know what journalism is for. But I know what Im up to. If that interests you, read on. I do not believe that my writing is likely to improve the world or change public policy. I certainly do not write with a goal to improve the human condition or government behavior. In fact, I’m pretty doubtful that the human condition or the public policies of our government are likely to be improved very much at all. I do hope to demonstrate, every now and again, that most of the schemes hatched by improvers will likely make things worse, and that much of what people mistake for the accumulation of knowledge is simply the piling up of myths on top of biases on top of self-dealing ideologies. But I don’t hold up much hope that this demonstration will do much to rescue us from goose-stepping to auditory hallucinations we take for the marching song of progress. And, also, I want to tell stories about what is happening on Wall Street and take a shot at explaining what those stories mean for the rest of us. To paraphrase a great journalist, Im convinced that the world is down with at least a score of painful diseases, all of them chronic and incurable; nevertheless, I cling to the notion that human existence remains predominantly charming. And that telling stories about the follies of our fellow man is a fine way to pass the time.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 14:54:25 +0000
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