Congratulations to Kevin Carson, who has just won the Foundation for Economic Education’s Hoffman Prize for his Freeman article on transportation subsidies.
I wonder which response will come first: left-conflationist attacks on Kevin or right-conflationist attacks on FEE?
Huzzah! Congratulations to Mr. Carson. I especially like FEE’s description: “Carson is an independent scholar—what used to be called a public intellectual”. Seems like something we need more of these days.
Though “independent scholar” and “public intellectual” don’t actually mean the same thing. The first essentially means he’s not on a university faculty while the second means he’s not read solely by an academic audience. (So Noam Chomsky is a public intellectual but not an independent scholar.)
I would very much like Kevin- and a lot more Lib-Left writers besides- to be public intellectuals. I think the c4ss is doing a good job at this, what with their increasing number of media pick ups, but I can’t help but think there’s lot of work to be done for the left-lib position to even be distinguished from other branches of libertarianism, yet alone be accepted in its own right.
Fixed!
I was relying on my memory of Russell Jacoby’s book The Last Intellectuals, which apparently conflates the two terms. (It’s been years since I’ve read it.)
Thanks a lot, Roderick. And thanks for that “Huzzah,” Mr. Sapper.
Hey Brandon, could you add a “like” feature, so folks can express their appreciation for certain posts, without feeling like they need to make an in depth comment?
Might have been a good idea when the blog started, but in practice it would only apply to new posts. Besides, I’d rather have the comment. If you like or hate the post explain why. Don’t hide behind a thumbs-up/down.
Fair enough.
I doubt there will be any attacks, conflationists of all types can agree with Carson on this.
I have just finished reading all the Carson articles I could find on the subject of privatization in state capitalism so I look forward to reading this one as well. The more I read his work the more I find I am in agreement with his ideas.