Quotation of the Day

Is from Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part VII, Section II, Chapter I, 'Of those Systems which make Virtue consist in Propriety':

"Men of letters, though, after their death, they are frequently more talked of than the greatest princes or statesmen of their times, are generally, during their life, so obscure and insignificant that their adventures are seldom recorded by co-temporary historians. Those of after-ages, in order to satisfy the public curiosity, and having no authentic documents either to support or to contradict their narratives, seem frequently to have fashioned them according to their own fancy; and almost always with a great mixture of the marvellous."

Mango Fever

1960s China:

"The workers had chartered a plane to fly a single mango to a factory in Shanghai."

"One dentist in a small village, who dared to compare a touring mango to a sweet potato was put on trial for malicious slander and executed."

(Hat tip to Scott Alexander.)

Quotation of the Day

From The History of England from the Ascension of James II by Thomas Babington Macaulay, Vol. 1, Chapter 1 (Kindle Edition):

"As we cannot, without the risk of evils from which the imagination recoils, employ physical force as a check on misgovernment, it is evidently our wisdom to keep all the constitutional checks on misgovernment in the highest state of efficiency, to watch with jealousy the first beginnings of encroachment, and never to suffer irregularities, even when harmless in themselves, to pass unchallenged, lest they acquire the force of precedents."

Quotation of the Day

From The History of England from the Ascension of James II by Thomas Babington Macaulay, Vol. 1, Chapter 1 (Kindle Edition):

"Everywhere there is a class of men who cling with fondness to whatever is ancient, and who, even when convinced by overpowering reasons that innovation would be beneficial, consent to it with many misgivings and forebodings. We find also everywhere another class of men, sanguine in hope, bold in speculation, always pressing forward, quick to discern the imperfections of whatever exists, disposed to think lightly of the risks and inconveniences which attend improvements and disposed to give every change credit for being an improvement. In the sentiments of both classes there is something to approve. But of both the best specimens will be found not far from the common frontier. The extreme section of one class consists of bigoted dotards: the extreme section of the other consists of shallow and reckless empirics."

Did Industry Cause Nations?

That is the title of an excellent post by Robin Hanson over on his Overcoming Bias blog.  A slice:

"Nation states still thrive on a widely held belief that “the world is naturally made of distinct, homogeneous national or tribal groups which occupy separate portions of the globe, and claim most people’s primary allegiance”. But anthropological research does not bear that out, he says. Even in tribal societies, ethnic and cultural pluralism has always been widespread. Multilingualism is common, cultures shade into each other, and language and cultural groups are not congruent. …"