Sunday, September 10, 2006

"The American Art of Whining"

In addition to being personally courageous, Virginia Postrel is one of our nation's most important thinkers.

Here's an example.

Excerpt:

"So why do we only hear bad news? Adam Smith knew.

'A continued Series of Prosperity,' he taught his rhetoric students, 'would not give us near so much pleasure in the recital as an epic poem or a tragedy which make but one continued Series of unhappy Events.'

In the rhetorical marketplace nothing succeeds like failure."


Read more about Virginia's theory of "Dynamism", and other iitems of interest at her Blog.

1 comment:

  1. Damn. the direct link won't let you in. Try this link to her blog post, and click on the Forbes column link in the post.

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