free-market extremism

Today's New York Times contains a well-written piece that dissects the fantasies of free-market extremists quite handily. The author is Peter Goodman, one of my favorite reporters at the Times.

As we move into the year ahead, the tension between proponents of the so-called "invisible hand" and those of us who prefer to deal with reality will escalate, and the divisions will sharpen, especially around health care issues, where the "invisible hand" mostly picks taxpayers' pockets so the money can be transferred to the corporate elite.

But now the invisible hand is being asked to account for what it has wrought. In this country, many economic complaints — from the widening gap between rich and poor to the expense of higher education — are being dusted for its fingerprints.

One of my favorite thinkers and writers in the world is Edward O. Wilson. Today I came across this very well-crafted column about the inherent conflicts between religion and science. I thought you might enjoy it.

IT IS surpassingly strange that half of Americans recently polled (2004) not only do not believe in evolution by natural selection but do not believe in evolution at all. Americans are certainly capable of belief, and with rock-like conviction if it originates in religious dogma. In evidence is the 60 per cent that accept the prophecies of the Bible's Book of Revelation as truth, and in yet more evidence is the weight that faith-based positions hold in political life. Most of the religious right opposes the teaching of evolution in public schools, either by an outright ban on the subject or, at the least, by insisting that it be treated as "only a theory" rather than a "fact".