tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21674624.post2560199180798863553..comments2024-02-21T05:16:22.788-05:00Comments on Two Weeks Notice: A Latin American Politics Blog: Ideas are scaryGreg Weekshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15765114859595124082noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21674624.post-77217486318130990282012-11-09T14:34:25.601-05:002012-11-09T14:34:25.601-05:00Sure.Sure.Greg Weekshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15765114859595124082noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21674624.post-3453777259068058072012-11-09T14:31:37.948-05:002012-11-09T14:31:37.948-05:00Oh, and it looks like Munger has a "BEFORE TH...Oh, and it looks like Munger has a "BEFORE THE JUMP UPDATE" now. <br /><br />Munger wrote:<br /><br />"Got an email saying that the letter is a hoax. So, don't go saying 'I read this on the internet, so it must be true!' It may not be. I'm going to leave it up, though for its truthiness value..."<br /><br />It might be worthwhile to let your readers know that there's no verification that this actually happened.Justin Delacourhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01343303383195336825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21674624.post-31693426554806754002012-11-09T08:41:58.382-05:002012-11-09T08:41:58.382-05:00"The odd part of all this is that we're t..."The odd part of all this is that we're talking about suppression of academics whose views are likely not terribly controversial to begin with."<br /><br />First off, it's completely counter-productive for Venezuela to deny any academic the ability to travel to a conference. What I'm wondering, though, is if your point is really that academics in general don't hold views that are "terribly controversial." If so, I'd say that's a pretty positivistic conception of academia. The reality is that academics --including many leading ones-- offer "terribly controversial" viewpoints all the time. For example, while Milton Friedman was hugely influential within American economics departments, his views have always been viewed as very controversial outside his discipline and outside the United States. In fact, many views that are seen as mainstream within American economics departments are seen as quite controversial outside of it. So, for example, the standard economics textbook in the United States will present something about what's wrong with a minimum wage, despite the fact that most societies --including our own-- view the notion of getting rid of a minimum wage as a pretty controversial proposition. <br /><br />And we could find plenty of leading political scientists whose views have been "terribly controversial" as well (independently of what you or I may think of their views). Many of the views of Samuel Huntington were clearly controversial. So to too were some of the views of, say, Jeanne Kirkpatrick. So too are those of, say, Kenneth Waltz or John Mearsheimer in the international relations sub-field. There's plenty of controversy in the views of academics. Justin Delacourhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01343303383195336825noreply@blogger.com