Civil Discourse

In a recent link, Mankiw noted an excellent piece in Forbes regarding Civil Discourse. The Forbes article comments on the loss of civil discourse amongst Economists, and also amongst many others, when it comes to opining on the Internet.

The author states:

But what I’m writing about is not Paul Ryan. I’m writing about the level of national discourse. No one, and I mean no one, deserves to be called stupid. It’s a nasty, demeaning, and incredibly elitist term. Paul, you should know better than to use your very special position to insult people. But this is a longstanding pattern with you. You go after people personally and in so doing you go after yourself. Paul, as someone who knows you, respects you, shares your values, and appreciates your marvelous academic work, knock it off. Stop calling people names. You will feel better about yourself and get people like me to take your views much more seriously.

 Indeed there are many Economists at prestige institutions who act rather childishly when it comes to commenting on their foes, foes in ideas, not in fundamentals or facts. Indeed Economists are all too often at odds and thus one really questions their advice. It is an opinion and not clarity into economic reality. Keynes understood that but many of the current band do not.

Perhaps listening to mother could help. After all, one never saw Einstein rant at his colleagues calling them dumb. But one guesses that few if any were.

And oh by the way, just read one of the snarkiest yet. QED.