Last week Charles Murray delivered the 2009 Irving Kristol Lecture at the American Enterprise Institute’s annual dinner. His lecture, entitled “The Happiness of the People,” is filled with insight. (Here is Peter Wehner’s celebration of Murray.) Murray’s argument is that America is moving toward a European vision of the polity, but that scientific discoveries in biology and neuroscience will upend our confidence in European-style public policies. Like Ross Douthat, I’m a little skeptical towards the second idea. Ideology has never let “science” get in the way of its own policy agenda. The egalitarian idea is powerful. It will likely withstand the latest findings of sociobiology. What ideas have more trouble dealing with is other ideas. To confront the ideology of egalitarianism, you have to put forward an ideology of individualism. Social science might help to fight inappropriate interventions in the market. But a set of ideas preferring a society shaped by individual consumer preferences rather than government social planners helps, too. And to fight a dimunition of virtue, you have to hold up a positive conception of virtue. Here is my favorite part of Murray’s lecture:
Print subscriber? Click here to login/register your account
Digital subscriber? Click here to login/register your account.