{"id":459,"date":"2012-08-03T16:05:31","date_gmt":"2012-08-03T16:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/?p=459"},"modified":"2012-08-03T16:05:31","modified_gmt":"2012-08-03T16:05:31","slug":"unconventional-pluralistic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/blog\/2012\/08\/unconventional-pluralistic\/","title":{"rendered":"Unconventional Thinking and Pluralistic Societies – Post by G. Stolyarov II"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"The<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
G. Stolyarov II
\n<\/big><\/big><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
August 3, 2012<\/span>
\n<\/big><\/div>\n
Recommend this page<\/a>.<\/strong><\/div>\n
******************************<\/div>\n

I was recently asked whether, with respect to those of us in today’s Western world who think unconventionally, \u201ceven if we wouldn’t be physically persecuted, aren’t there certain \u2018sacred cows\u2019 that must be respected even to get a hearing in today’s society?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

This is somewhat true, though increasingly less so as there come to be more diverse outlets for intellectual expression. This is where a pluralistic society actually greatly benefits individual creativity and freedom: if one outlet is closed (because one\u2019s views are deemed \u201cpolitically incorrect\u201d or some other variant of \u201cincorrect\u201d), others may still welcome one\u2019s ideas. I have seen this a lot with economics in recent years, as alternatives to the conventional Keynesian and Neoclassical schools are becoming more prominent and respected.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, different thinkers may be deterred by \u201csoft\u201d censure to different degrees. Some people could not care less and would be content to be pariahs, as long as they were permitted to pursue their work in peace. Others will try to be more diplomatic and tiptoe around the \u201csacred cows\u201d while subtly injecting their own ideas into public discussion. Others still will try to obtain independent sources of support, outside the paradigm they are trying to influence, and in this way \u201cbuy\u201d themselves time and influence. It is true that being outside of the \u201cmainstream\u201d today will probably deny one certain opportunities \u2013 but virtually every major intellectual or career choice will do the same. One trades some possibilities for others; the important question is whether those tradeoffs are palatable in the sense of achieving one\u2019s own goals while enabling one to lead a reasonably comfortable life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

G. Stolyarov II August 3, 2012 Recommend this page. ****************************** I was recently asked whether, with respect to those of us in today’s Western world who think unconventionally, \u201ceven if we wouldn’t be physically persecuted, aren’t there certain \u2018sacred cows\u2019 that must be respected even to get a hearing in today’s society?\u201d This is somewhat true, though increasingly less so as there come to be more diverse outlets for intellectual expression. This is where a pluralistic society actually greatly benefits…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87,41],"tags":[94,1128,84,40,1125,1126,116,59,1132,1131,1135,1130,1127,1129,1133,1134],"class_list":["post-459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-philosophy","tag-creativity","tag-diversity","tag-freedom","tag-g-stolyarov-ii","tag-independence","tag-independent-thought","tag-innovation","tag-liberty","tag-non-conformist","tag-non-conformity","tag-opportunity-cost","tag-persecution","tag-pluralism","tag-political-correctness","tag-sacred-cows","tag-tradeoffs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":461,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions\/461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}