Theory, Properly Misunderstood

The worst part was the hypocrisy.

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19

Jonah completes his American Enterprise Institute hat trick on today’s Remnant with Yuval Levin, AEI’s director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies. The two start with some hesitant media criticism of the reaction to Harvard President Claudine Gay’s resignation before turning to the novelty, or lack thereof, of the oppressor-oppressed paradigm, the usefulness of horseshoe theory, and the need for strong institutions. Prepare your bingo cards.

Show notes:
– Yuval’s AEI page

– Conservatism as an Ideology by Samuel Huntington

– Jonah’s LA Times column on horseshoe theory

– AEI Summer Honors Program

– Watch this episode on YouTube

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Comments (19)
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  1. Dave Pattie

    A little behind and listened to this one this morning. Yuval Levin is one of my favorite guests and thinkers and I really appreciate his ability to understand the "other side" while remaining a consistent conservative.

    Note: Jonah and Yuval spend time on the AEI Summer Honors Program; our son was in the Program last summer and it's as advertised. According to our son, it's a fantastic Program with engaged undergrads of all political stripes who love to geek out on philosophy and policy.

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  2. Meg E

    When Yuval Levin said that we lack a coherent economic theory it made me think about how much the economy has changed as a result of data collection and online shopping/ targeted advertising. I'm currently reading Surveillance Capitalism which has been very interesting and eye-opening so far. It got me thinking about the articles that I've read (some on the Dispatch) which have detailed how consumer spending has not gone down that much despite the inflationary trend. Could this largely be attributed to targeted advertising and the ease of online shopping? I would love to hear you and an economist explore this topic more. I have concerns that it may be creating a 1920s style bubble. Or is this a good thing because it's keeping us out of a recession?

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    Ben Connelly

    This was so good. I could have listened to another five hours of it. Horseshoe theory doesn’t make much sense to me and I think it has more to do with the fact that extremists are often drawn to certain styles of arguments and tactics rather than to close adherence to ideological doctrine.

    I, too, had noticed the “strength vs. weakness” thing in left-wing thought. Oppressor vs. oppressed isn’t really that dissimilar from rich vs. poor, especially since both are by definition a continuum you can move up and down.

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    Ben Connelly

    Boy, Yuval makes so much sense! At 28 minutes he says that theories begin as ways of understanding the world and succeed if they describe the way things actually are. Of course, this is how it works in physics and science more generally.

    Naturally, there are theories which succeed for other reasons and DISTORT the way we see the world, making it harder to see things the way they actually are. But this, too, happens in science, as any history of science will show you.

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    Jus769

    More theory please. I tune into Jonah more than other podcasts for the horseshoe, Adorno, thoughts on fascism and the like.

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  6. James.Morphew

    FOUR MORE HOURS!!! FOUR MORE HOURS!!!

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  7. Jwtibma

    I think Jonah nails it when he talks about college protests as a right of passage. Graduating from Indiana University in 1990, our commencement speaker was Jane Pauley, who essentially berated us because unlike her generation, we hadn't protested anything.

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    Kevin Johnson

    Excellent and fun. I am interested in your comments about some worried about the danger of too many “Zionist” doctors for “equity medicine.” The main danger from this is not anti-semitism, although that is a danger. The big problem is the broad, dangerous ideology that holds that doctors should be chosen for their identities rather than their merit and that patients should be treated based on their identities rather than their medical condition and intrinsic human value. “DEI” is like the Holy Roman Empire, neither diverse, equitable, nor inclusive. But it is much more dangerous for holding sway over so many institutions and indoctrinated citizens. Thanks.

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    Jake

    I'd love to hear Jonah talk to Hyrum and Verlan Lewis about their recent book The Myth of Left and Right. I feel like they would contradict a lot of this conversation.

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    Dusty

    Towards the end Yuval said that both sides are unable to articulate what their vision is for America in 2040 or 2050. This was said as a point related to coalition building and how such a vision would give people a reason to vote for you and grow that coalition - but that coalitions are now seen as bad things.

    I think this is true, but I also think that failure to articulate a vision allows the other side to project what that vision is. Obviously both the left and the right are made up of a broad spectrum of views, so the failure of a unified vision for the country gives people - with plenty of legitimate reasons - to project that what the left/right wants is an extreme vision of the future, which then drives fear, Flight 93 analogies, and further polarization.

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