Rise of Insanity

Economics is a social science, which makes it dependent on human behavior.  As human behavior can be wildly divergent, hard scientists look askance at the 'dismal science.'  To provide a foundation economics, the economist assumes that man is rational.  Given the choice between two goods of equal quality, the rational man will choose the one that costs less.  From here, we can graph a demand curve.  Likewise, a rational man will sell his product for as much as someone will pay: a supply curve.  The rational man theory carries into other social sciences as well.  But is man rational?

Lately, it is getting harder to accept that humans are rational.  Or, perhaps, a growing number of them are becoming irrational.

1. Gender identity.  Men claim to be women and women claim to be men.  Those making the claims are rarely those who possess biological markers of both sexes.  Nope, they are physically one sex while claiming to be the other.  Rather than view this as a psychological issue - gender dysphoria - to be treated, an alarming number of people are treating it as something that requires medical intervention, whether that be puberty blockers or even gender reassignment surgery.

2. Lindsay Clancy.  In 2023, this Massachusetts woman strangled her three children to death, all aged 5 and younger.  The trial is currently in progress.  Many women have come to her support with online videos claiming they have been close to strangling their kids.  Nearly a million dollars has been raised for Lindsay while many are pointing at the husband as the true villain.  What?  When Susan Smith drove her kids into a lake in 1994, she received no sympathy.  When Andrea Yates drowned her five children in 2001, there wasn't a fundraiser and a Conga line of women saying they could relate.  Today, Clancy has a fan club and astrologists who claim her husband is the true killer.

3. Jason Arday.  This Cambridge professor committed suicide after his life story was revealed to be fraudulent and his academic work plagiarized.  Rather than blame those who lifted an unqualified man to a position beyond his demonstrable skills, there are calls to outlaw an excess of stories on any one person.  Moreover, the professor who got the ball rolling on Arday's lack of qualifications has been suspended.  Thus, there are moves to protect the gatekeepers who should never have allowed Arday to rise so high, and instead to effort to punish the whistleblower who exposed it.  That sounds like exactly the prescription to produce more unqualified professors.

4. Celebrating Criminals.  George Floyd was a career criminal.  Today, he is viewed by many as the sainted victim of police brutality, the first martyr of BLM.  Carmelo Anthony stabbed a student to death and hundreds of thousands of dollars were donated to him and his family.  Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant with gang affiliations and accused human smuggler, was glorified as a 'Maryland father' and an example of ICE overreach.

None of this is rational.  What has led to this degradation of society?  Mental illness is now to be validated, criminals are to be excused or celebrated, and academia shall promote the incompetent.  This is no way to maintain civilization.  In fact, it is unlikely that this is accidental, as the madness seems to focus on Western countries.

Good Intentions and Racism

In 2003, Rush Limbaugh had a guest analyst post on an ESPN show.  Limbaugh was a huge football fan, and was thrilled to have the role.  During one appearance, he noted that a certain quarterback was getting more credit than the numbers indicated he should be getting.  He said the league and sports press was so desirous of having a successful black quarterback that it was promoting him beyond his talents.  This immediately led to accusations of racism on Limbaugh's part and he was removed from the show.

In 2008, a first term senator with only 2 years on the job ran for president.  Obama was championed despite a thin resume.  As with the quarterback, the media and the country in general had high hopes for a black politician.  Opposition to him or his policies was declared racist throughout his two terms in office.

Jason Arday, who plagiarized his PhD thesis and told the most outlandish stories was nevertheless awarded a doctorate and rose to be the youngest black professor ever at Cambridge.  Academics had high hopes for him and allowed him to bypass obstacles that no other candidate would be allowed to ignore.  His rocket rise was followed by an inevitable meteoric fall.  His tragic fall was enabled by those who wished him the best, misguided cheerleaders who allowed an unqualified man to assume a post to which he was almost certain to fail.

This has been an ongoing problem.  Colleges have given black students an advantage in enrollment - as demonstrated by the recent Harvard lawsuit settlement - where they find themselves in settings beyond their abilities.  A student who would excel and graduate from a state university is instead thrust into an elite institution where he falls behind and often drops out.  This 'benefit' to make up for past wrongs only sets the student for failure.  Such partly explains the fall of Jason Arday.

One must stick to merit alone.  By taking race into account to either benefit or penalize a candidate is harmful.  It is a misallocation of talent.  It is better to be a successful plumber than a drop out burdened by student loan debt.  One must be allowed to honestly assess an individual's abilities and accomplishments without being called a racist.  On the other side, one must hold all candidates to the requirements, regardless of how eagerly it is hoped for the candidate's success.