John le Carre: Interview And Portrait

There are no heroes in John le Carre's novels. At least no heroic ones. Just human beings. Survivors, for the most part, dissembling when necessary. Faithful to the truth when convenient.

Today's New York Times Magazine on line publishes an interview and portrait of le Carre by Dwight Garner.

I won't try to summarize. The whole article is well worth reading.

After The Spy Who Came In From The Cold appeared as a movie, I read the book. Complex characters. Moral ambiguity. Le Carre's world wasn't divided into "good guys" and "bad guy," but his novels exude an old fashioned morality where personal loyalties override patriotism. And there is no treason more invidious than the violation of that loyalty.

I was hooked on le Carre's books with that first reading.

Messing With The Wrong City

Dennis Lehane, writing in today's New York Times, explains in detail why Boston won't be terrorized.

"Trust me," he says, "we won’t be giving up any civil liberties to keep ourselves safe because of this. We won’t cancel next year’s marathon. We won’t drive to New Hampshire and stockpile weapons. When the authorities find the weak and terminally maladjusted culprit or culprits, we’ll roll our eyes at whatever backward ideology they embrace and move on with our lives."

That's what it means to not be terrorized.

Lehane continues: "The little man or men who did this will, I have faith, be arrested, jailed and forgotten. Whatever hate movement they belong to will ultimately go the way of the anarchist assassination movements of the early 20th century or the Symbionese Liberation Army of the 1970s."  

"Boston took a punch on Monday," Lehane closes " — that left it staggering for a bit. Flesh proved vulnerable, as flesh is wont to do, but the spirit merely trembled before recasting itself into something stronger than any bomb or rage."

We're Really In This Together

It's hard to watch the scenes from Boston. Hard to imagine why. What one or more people wanted to accomplish by setting the bombs. Them against everyone else.

But in Boston we see the antidote at work: people rushing into the face of danger to help others. People who don't stop to think about it - they know: we're all in this together!

Think about it! It isn't rational. It's human!

Thank God for humans!

What Is To Be Done?

A lovely day for a marathon. A lovely place for a race.

When Donald Rumsfeld explained that "the purpose of terrorists is to terrorize," he failed to identify where the words came from. They are the words of Lenin.

If Lenin is right, the best response to terrorists is to refuse to be terrorized.

I think that's what the people of Boston will do.

Patriot's Day, 2013.

April Is The Cruelest Month

I. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain. T.S. Eliot: The Waste Land

Who Benefits - Who Pays?

As I have said before, this is the central question of politics. It is also a central question of economics. The issue is not "is the system fair?" it is "does the system work for the prosperity of everyone?"

The answer right now is "no."

In fact, that has been the answer for about four decades.

Economist Joe Stiglitz has some ideas about how to make it better.

The central purpose of our national economy should not be to make the already wealthy wealthier or to replicate Downton Abbey.

Seventy Years Ago: Jefferson Memorial

President Franklin Roosevelt had a few words to say about Thomas Jefferson at the opening of the Jefferson Memorial, April 13, 1943. The full statement is here.

Roosevelt on Jefferson:

"He faced the fact that men who will not fight for liberty can lose it. We, too, have faced that fact.

"He lived in a world in which freedom of conscience and freedom of mind were battles still to be fought through—not principles already accepted of all men. We, too, have lived in such a world.

"He loved peace and loved liberty—yet on more than one occasion he was forced to choose between them. We, too, have been compelled to make that choice.

"Jefferson was no dreamer-for half a century he led his State and his Nation in fact and in deed. I like to think that this was so because he thought in terms of the morrow as well as the day—and this was why he was hated or feared by those who thought in terms of the day and the yesterday.

"The words which we have chosen for this Memorial speak Jefferson's noblest and most urgent meaning; and we are proud indeed to understand it and share it:

"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

The Anecdote Gap

Brad DeLong posts a comment by economist Evan Soltas from this week's conference of economic bloggers.

Soltas bemoans the fact that politicians extol anecdotes, often untrue anecdotes, in preference to data. He is right, but there may be no way to fix the problem.

Humans seem favorably disposed to storytelling. In every sense of the word. Many, if not most, on the other hand, have difficulty getting their head around statistics. Even when the statistics are graphically displayed.

Not even Presidential Candidate Ross Perot succeeded in combining the two skills.

Unfortunately, skill with anecdote leads to bad policy.

As we used to say in the Pentagon: "figures don't lie, but liars figure." Even worse, if a problem can't be described by anecdote, it all too often isn't addressed at all.