It was a little difficult for me to imagine that when disavows reason as one’s primary source of knowledge, he ends, admittedly or not, counting on emotion as his guide to action. But the more I see, the clearer it becomes.

Great post!

C. August:
After re-reading that paragraph, I agree with your interpratation of it. Thanks for that elucidation.

Richard:
“Pathetic. Two groups holding hands while walking the same plank.” They just won’t question the plank. What is amazing to me is how utterly concrete bound all three groups, businessmen, political leaders like Steele and Stabenow and media folk like Finley are. They treat everything as the given. For example, we used to worship productivity, now we don’t. Why? No answer. The world is upside down. Why? No answer. They don’t want to question anything. Like sheep they all walk to their enslavement.

“[An]off the hook” public relations offensive to attract younger voters, especially blacks and Hispanics, by applying the party’s principles to “urban-suburban hip-hop settings.” -Michael Steele

Pathetic. Two groups holding hands while walking the same plank.

—————–
“Business doesn’t matter in the upside-down world in which we live. Government has all the answers, all the money and all the muscle. Critical decisions are being made about the future of industry without the input of industrialists.

In a heartbeat we’ve moved from a nation that worships entrepreneurship, innovation and the freedom to succeed to one that craves the false security of an economy carefully contained by the government.”
—————

And you responded that Finley was wrong in that “The government doesn’t have all the answers. ”

Well, you’re right that they don’t, but I don’t think that’s what Finley was saying. As mixed up as he is, I think he was recognizing there that the world is “upside-down” and the people who don’t have the answers — govt. — are the ones looked to as having answers. Then of course he despairs that government has all the muscle… what? Does HE want some of that muscle? If he’s wishing that business could do some of the forcing, then he’s _really_ got his signals crossed.

However, his next paragraph was truly, historically wrong. He said that the nation has flashed from entrepreneurial to statist in a heartbeat. This of course ignores the slow decline that happened all throughout the 20th century, and that conservatives and businessmen have been clamoring for as much statism as everyone else. Which of course you covered when mentioned that they’ve been saying some regulations are virtuous, but we don’t want to be too virtuous.