lunedì 17 ottobre 2016

8 Avoiding the Seven Deadly Sins - cowen your inner economist

8 Avoiding the Seven Deadly Sins (or Not)Read more at location 2602
Note: il mercato moltiplica le possibilità e quindi i capricci il peccato nn è sempre un brutto segno... + opportunità => + peccato fidanzata immaginaria il cusino/braccio del ragazzoEdit
Note: 8@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Edit
Knowledge is only part of the problem—there is also willpower. Not everything we want is good for us. And I’m not just talking about French fries at McDonald’s. I’m talking about sin. Thou shalt not . . .Read more at location 2605
Note: SAPERE E VOLERE. PREDICARE E RAZZOLARE Edit
The logic of markets has been with humankind since the dawn of recorded history and probably much further back. In a laboratory setting, even monkeys will engage in reciprocal cooperative behavior, if such conduct brings more food. Monkeys are also willing to trade Jell-O for grapes amongst each other. One Yale researcher is convinced that one of his monkeys traded sex (to another monkey) for a money token, which was then converted into a grape. Some monkeys are willing to give up food, just so they can gaze upon photos of other, high-status monkeys.Read more at location 2610
Note: IL MERCATO È OVUNQUE Edit
The proliferation and broader span of markets encourages many kinds of sin, and indeed sin seems to be more popular than ever before.Read more at location 2616
Note: IL PECCATO È SEMPRE PIÙ POPOLARE Edit
The modern world brings a baroque multiplication of the possible,Read more at location 2619
Note: x Edit
Of course sin is not always a sign of a bad life. If there is more sin in the world, it is in part because we have more opportunities, more wealth, and also more chances to (sometimes) make the right decisions.Read more at location 2620
Note: PIÙ PECCATO PIÙ CATTIVI? NO. Edit
Living standards would rise and fall, but Europeans in the early eighteenth century were not much better off than Europeans under the Roman Empire,Read more at location 2623
Note: IL GRAFICO PIÙ IMPORTANTE DEL MONDO Edit
During the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, 50 to 75 percent of the typical European family budget was spent on food. Economist Robert Fogel reports that: ... the energy value of the typical diet in France at the start of the eighteenth century was as low as that of Rwanda in 1965, the most malnourished nation for that year in the tables of the World Bank. . . . As late as 1850, the English availability of calories hardly matched the current Indian level. One implication of these low-level diets needs to be stressed: Even prime-age males had only a meager amount of energy available for work . . . the average efficiency of the human engine in Britain increased by about 53 percent between 1790 and 1980.Read more at location 2626
Note: TUTTO IN CIBO Edit
Instead of courting a real woman, some men prefer “imaginary girlfriends.”Read more at location 2638
Note: FINTO FIDAMZAMRNTO. PEVCATO DI BOLLA Edit
Once a week these imaginary girlfriends—played by real women— will send you cards, e-mail, letters, or whatever else is needed to establish proof of a long-distance relationship. The idea started when a twenty-two-year-old named Judy, from Wichita Falls, Texas, posted her “imaginary” services on eBay; since then the idea has spread. At Imaginarygirlfriends.com, after the period of hire has ended, the customer is responsible for splitting up with the imaginary girlfriend. The girlfriend will write a letter expressing her sorrow and begging to be taken back.Read more at location 2641
Note: LONG DISTANCE Edit
The very beautiful Erica, from Vancouver, offers: Services: Letters, e-mail, custom photos with letters, custom digital photos with e-mail, video chats via Yahoo webcam if possible. Price $45 per two month period.Read more at location 2649
Note: OFFERTA Edit
Some Japanese women are content with less than a full man. Such women can buy a “Boyfriend’s Arm Pillow” to embrace their necks while they sleep at night.Read more at location 2653
Note: L UOMO A PEZZI Edit
Dante’s Divine Comedy(part II, “Purgatorio”)Read more at location 2658
Note: x I SETTE PECCATI Edit
Pope Gregory in the sixth century A.D.,Read more at location 2659
Note: x Edit
I. Superbia (hubris/pride)Read more at location 2661
Note: T Edit
Top executives can take a class for $10,000 or more to learn how to cope with life in prison. The class teaches the following: 1. Meditation and physical-exercise routines. 2. Getting used to the fact that nothing changes and everything is outside your control. 3. Discarding addictions and vices. 4. Bringing a cheap watch. 5. Not making eye contact 6. “If you are going to hurt somebody, drag them into your cell, because then you have an excuse that they invaded your privacy.” The entrepreneurs claim they have had twelve clients a year for the last two years.Read more at location 2665
Note: METTERE LA GALERA IN CONTO SENTEMDOSI SUPERIORI Edit
Note: MANAGER IN GALERA Edit
II. Avaritia (luxury/greed)Read more at location 2675
Note: come le assicurazioni hanno trasformato il mercato dei rapimenti cercare aste con errori di ortografia su ebay... ci sono meno concorrenti ragazze ommaginarie x relazioni simulate Edit
Note: T Edit
Kidnappers in the Philippines demand the names of two other likely victims and an estimate of their net worth, before releasing children kidnapped from wealthy families.Read more at location 2677
Note: IL BUSINESS DEI RAPIMENTI Edit
Until the recent rise in safety, $1 million worth of Colombian kidnapping insurance cost $20,000 to $25,000 a year. Many people and companies buy much larger policies, for fear that the local kidnappers consider a ransom of less than a million to be a joke.Read more at location 2679
Note: ASSICIRAZIONI SUI RAPIMENTI Edit
A victim is most likely to win a safe release when kidnapping is done in conjunction with the police. This minimizes the chance of misunderstandings and makes sure that everyone is on the same page.Read more at location 2682
Note: POLIZIA CORROTTA Edit
In Mexico the kidnappers and the insurance companies have a close working relationship.Read more at location 2685
Note: ANCORA ASS Edit
chopped-off earRead more at location 2687
kidnappers prefer to grab someone with insurance. That is their incentive, since the transaction runs more smoothly and everyone behaves professionally,Read more at location 2687
Note: c Edit
The company “regularizes” the kidnapping experience, but at the same time this makes many kidnappings more likely and thus brings more sin.Read more at location 2692
Note: PRO E CONTRO Edit
Alert arbitrageurs search eBay for misspelled and thus misplaced items. So if the lister made a mistake in the item description there will be few opposing bidders.Read more at location 2695
Note: A CACCIA D AFFARI. ERRORI ORTOGRAFICI SU E BAY Edit
One searcher bought Hubbell electrical cords for a tenth of their usual cost by searching for “Hubell” and “Hubbel” electrical cords. That same individual bought Compaq computers by looking for “Compacts” instead. One reporter’s hour-long search turned up dozens of items, including “bycicles,” “telefones,” “mother of perl,” “cuttlery,” “bedroom suits,” and “antiks.”Read more at location 2696
Note: Es Edit
There is now a Web site, eBooboos.com, devoted solely to finding and publicizing spelling mistakes on eBay.Read more at location 2703
Note: L AFFARE Edit
III. Luxuria (extravagance, later lust)Read more at location 2705
Note: T Edit
In Mexico City there are hundreds of prostitutes in their sixties, seventies, and even eighties; eighty-five is the oldest age cited. One woman claims that: “an antique can be more valuable than something new.” Usually the price is $5 or less.Read more at location 2706
Note: CINQUE EURO Edit
For a $34 minimum a Russian company will provide an alibi for the absence of an adulterer.Read more at location 2709
Note: ALIBI Edit
SounderCoverRead more at location 2710
Note: x SUPRA Edit
The service can mimic traffic, construction noises, the circus, or the drill of a dentist.Read more at location 2711
Note: c Edit
Celebrities, athletes, and others can buy consent forms for their casual sex partners. The form vouches that the other party agreed to the sex, thereby avoiding subsequent charges of rapeRead more at location 2713
Note: FIRME PRIMA DEL RAPPORTO Edit
lawyer Evan Spencer, who drafted the “pre-sexual agreement” form for Protect Condoms, Inc. According to the president of the company, they rapidly sold more than 4,000 forms at $7.99 per form. Each package comes with two condoms.Read more at location 2715
Note: c Edit
Lust and drunkennessRead more at location 2718
Note: x Edit
We have all known people who make phone calls when they shouldn’t, especially when they are drunk. A survey of 409 people by Virgin Mobile found that 95 percent had made drunk calls, mostly to ex-partners (30 percent), 19 percent to current partners, and 36 percent to others, including their bosses.Read more at location 2718
Note: ESEMPI Edit
To alleviate the drinking-and-dialing problem, a phone company in Australia started offering customers blocked “blacklist” numbers, which they select before going out to drink. In Japan they sell a mobile phone with a breathalyzer, to see if you are really fit to drive home, or for that matter to make a phone call.Read more at location 2722
Note: RIMEDI Edit
IV. Invidia (envy)Read more at location 2726
Note: T Edit
Many market purchases—from a Mercedes to a $5,000 purse—are motivated by envy, usually of our immediate peers or neighbors. My professorial colleagues are upset by the raises given to people down the hall, but they don’t much seem to mind the wealth of Bill Gates or the Sultan of Brunei.Read more at location 2727
Note: IL VICINO PROSSOMO Edit
PartyBuddys, the creation of two New Jersey entrepreneurs, promises to “make normal people feel fabulous for the night.”Read more at location 2730
Note: OFFERTA Edit
the one-night package offers a special “party buddy” guide to bring clients past “crowds of jealous bystanders,” limousine transportation, and special treatment at six fashionable Manhattan nightclubs, including free drinks. One night costs $350 a person and up; the maximum package goes for $1,200 per person. A personal bodyguard runs an extra $45 an hour.Read more at location 2732
Note: c Edit
at least 60 percent of their business comes from middle-aged professionals who are visiting New York but have never been to the city’s nightclubs.Read more at location 2735
Note: CLASSE MEDIA Edit
imagine themselves as one of “the cool people” they see on TV. New Yorkers, of course, consider this the epitome of uncool.Read more at location 2737
Note: c Edit
A report from India tells of a firm that rents out wedding guests,Read more at location 2738
Note: OSPIYI INTERINALI Edit
They are told to dance and make small talk, and show a knowledge of the marrying couple,Read more at location 2740
Note: c Edit
“The breaking up of joint families and lack of affection among relatives also creates a demand for paid guests.”Read more at location 2741
Note: c Edit
V. Gula (gluttony)Read more at location 2744
Note: T Edit
there is a restaurant in China that specializes in serving different kinds of animal penises, braised, fried, and steamed.Read more at location 2745
Note: RISTO PENIS Edit
The World Grilled Cheese Eating Championship offers a $3,500 prize to the contestant who can down the greatest number of grilled-cheese sandwiches in ten minutes. The 103-pound Korean-American Sonya (“The Black Widow”) Thomas won with twenty-three.Read more at location 2747
Note: PANINO GIGANTI Edit
Jason Fagone’s 302-page study of eating competitions, Horsemen of the Esophagus, used the words “violent” and “assault” to describe the contestants’ methods of consumption.Read more at location 2749
Note: STUDIO Edit
She worked at Burger King and would like to own a fast-food restaurant some day.Read more at location 2753
Note: SONIA Edit
VI. Ira (wrath)Read more at location 2756
Note: T Edit
Markets in murder, arms sales, and terrorist killings can be found on the news virtually every day.Read more at location 2756
Note: AFFITTARE IL KILLER Edit
VII. Acedia (sloth)Read more at location 2758
Note: t Edit
David Beckham and his wife hired a £1,000-a-day butler to open their Christmas presents.Read more at location 2762
Note: REGALI DI NATALE Edit
Charles had a full-time valet at the age of two and he still has his butler apply toothpaste to his toothbrush.Read more at location 2763
Note: CARLO Edit
Some people purchase software to play online computer games for them. Why bother? If “you” have played the game, you can wear certain badges attesting to that fact, which leads to prestige in some on-line communities.Read more at location 2764
Note: GIOCHI ON LINE Edit
Some Ritz-Carltons offer their guests constant e-mail contact with their butlers, who carry around handheld wireless devices.Read more at location 2767
Note: SEMPRE IN CONTATTO Edit
Of course the seven deadly sins are hardly an exclusive list. The modern world comes up with new and more enticing ways to sin,Read more at location 2770
Note: x Edit
Greek and Roman moral codeRead more at location 2772
Note: x Edit
we can find markets in overcoming cowardice.Read more at location 2772
Note: CODARDIA Edit
The company BSR offers a two-day antiterrorist driving school, which includes surveillance and 180-degree spins. Gift certificates are available.Read more at location 2772
Note: CERTIFICATI ANTI TERRORISMO Edit
Sometimes we are too cowardly to face those we have loved and maybe even still love. At www.breakupservice.com, founded in 2002, the writers pen a Dear John or Dear Jane letter designed to end the relationship.Read more at location 2779
Note: PAUROSI IN AMORE? Edit
But if a letter is too impersonal, better to hire the service for a fifteen-minute breakup phone call, called a “counseling call” by the service.Read more at location 2781
Note: CONSULENZA SULLE TELEFONATE Edit
Another of these companies also performs furniture and pet retrieval, for fees ranging up to $400.Read more at location 2789
Note: RIAVERE INDIETRO I REGALI Edit
The now-defunct LadyLoveWriter.com—and its male-oriented counterpart LoveWriter.com—offered to compose “The Gentle Breakup Letter”Read more at location 2790
Note: ANCORA Edit
It also had to be specified whether the style should be “Light and Casual,” “Straightforward but from the Heart,” or “Super-Romantic.” Erica Klein, the founder of the service, noted, “We’re good at caring and compassion.”Read more at location 2795
Note: STILI Edit
Taphephobia (or “taphophobia,” depending which spelling convention you follow) is the fear of being buried alive. A Chilean cemetery will build an alarm into a coffin for only $462.Read more at location 2798
Note: TAPEFOBIA Edit
vanity,Read more at location 2802
Note: x Edit
we can buy testicular implants for our pets. Apparently some pet owners feel their dogs have lost that manly feeling or that dangerous look. To date at least 50,000 people have purchased this product.Read more at location 2802
Note: PROTESI TESTICOLARI Edit
For her 17th wedding anniversary Jeanette Yarborough wanted to do something special for her husband. In addition to planning a hotel getaway for the weekend, Ms. Yarborough paid a surgeon $5,000 to reattach her hymen, making her appear to be a virgin again. “It’s the ultimate gift for the man who has everything,” says Ms. Yarborough.Read more at location 2805
Note: ANNIVERSARIO Edit
Transaction costsRead more at location 2814
Note: x CALO Edit
For $430 a square foot, a person can buy the air rights for an unfettered view of Central Park. That means no one can build to block the current view. This transaction operates through the standard real estate brokers of Manhattan.Read more at location 2819
Note: Inoltre BILIARE Edit
men who wish to buy paintings made by women’s breasts (N.B.: not paintings of women’s breasts, these are paintings by the breasts) must transact outside the mainstream. The idea, which started on the Internet, allows a small number of buyers to get in touch with the willing but regionally dispersed artistic suppliers.Read more at location 2821
Note: QUADRI PARTICOLARI Edit
Some of today’s newest and most innovative markets exist in online computer games. In these “synthetic worlds” it is possible to buy, sell, lend, own property, or for that matter steal. Rewards depend upon performance, and the game prizes are convertible into real-world cash. It has been estimated that all the synthetic economies put together, with about 10 million players, are in value terms about equal to the size of the economies of Bosnia and Herzegovina.Read more at location 2825
Note: MERCATI SINTETICI Edit
Fixed costs are the reason why we don’t see many walk-in, quirky bohemian bookshops in rural Nebraska.Read more at location 2830
Note: x Edit
Laws curtail voluntary exchange in ecstasy, sexual intercourse, kidneys for transplant, betting on numbers, and many supposed cures for cancer. It is very difficult to find the best unpasteurized French cheeses in the United States; the FDA has decided they are not good for us.Read more at location 2834
Note: MERCATI ANCORA PROIBITI Edit
(If the customers can find these prostitutes, surely the police can, too.)Read more at location 2838
Note: AGGIRAMENTO. PROST. Edit
If you want to move to the front of the queue for a kidney, donate a large sum of money to the hospital.Read more at location 2838
Note: ELUSIONE. RENI Edit
Many markets are designed to help people avoid or circumvent lawful regulations.Read more at location 2843
Note: MERCATO DELL ELUSIONE Edit
One British entrepreneur sells squirt bottles of spray-on mud for license plates. It is ostensibly so the buyer’s vehicle can “look rugged,” but more realistically it is used so police cameras cannot record the license plates of speeding vehicles. The mud is from Shropshire, and it contains secret ingredients so that it sticks to the license plate longer.Read more at location 2843
Note: TARGHE SPORCHE Edit
Felix Oberholzer-Gee, a professor at Harvard Business School, conducted some field experiments about whether a market might develop for places in line. Some economists might think that buying a place in line is a natural thing to do.Read more at location 2849
Note: MERCATO X IL POSTO IN CODA. CASI ON CUI IL MERCATO NN FUNZOONA Edit
Oberholzer-Gee and a team of experimentersRead more at location 2855
Note: x Edit
They went to long lines and offered cash payments of up to $10 if they could cut in line, jumping ahead of some of the others.Read more at location 2856
Note: L ESPERIMENTO Edit
most people would not take the money. They took a high offer as a signal of desperation and thus felt sorry for the interloper and let him cut in for nothing. (Students and women were more likely to take the cash; men were more likely to “act magnanimously.”)Read more at location 2858
Note: ESITO Edit
people felt it was not right to receive cash for an early spot in line.Read more at location 2860
Note: c Edit
people in the queue felt only limited generosity. When a second experimenter—this time the professor himself rather than his assistant—tried to buy his way into the line, those in the queue grew upset.Read more at location 2862
Note: GENEROSITÀ LIMITATA Edit
Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman—based on intensive time diaries—looked at which activities make us happiest. It turns out that sex and time spent with friends (not spouses, unless perhaps we are having sex) are our favorite and most enjoyable ways of spending time.Read more at location 2867
Note: IL SESSO CI RENDE FELICI Edit
in the moment, although arguably they bring long-term satisfaction with life.Read more at location 2870
Note: FELCITÀ DI KAHNEMAN Edit
A second study, by economists David Blanchflower and Andrew Oswald, supports the view of a connection between sex and happiness.Read more at location 2870
Note: c Edit
If sex is so much more fun than the alternatives, why don’t we have more of it?Read more at location 2877
Note: DUBBIO Edit
Maybe the potential partner is not interested right now but, hey, is that not what trade is for?Read more at location 2879
Note: IL MERVATO ESISTE Edit
1. The long-term lifestyle costs of being “more open to trading sex” involve a loss of integrity and control.Read more at location 2881
Note: RISPOSTE Edit
2. We have enough sex, and more sex would be much less funRead more at location 2882
Note: c Edit
3. Freud was right and we are repressed.Read more at location 2885
Note: c Edit
4. Sex stops being enjoyable when we do it “to close a gap between marginal utilities.” It requires spontaneityRead more at location 2886
Note: c Edit
5. Sex isn’t as much fun as the studies indicate.Read more at location 2890
Note: c Edit
6. People want their sex to consist of peaks, rather than seeking to maximize lifetime pleasure. Thomas Schelling once told me he does not always listen to Bach, even when he feels like doing so. He wants to keep it as a special experience.Read more at location 2891
Note: c Edit
people feel shame about paying or receiving money in too explicit a fashion (see also #4). We therefore spend our time competing for social status, rather than just trading for more sex.Read more at location 2895
Note: C. VIE ALTERNATIVSX AVERE PIÙ DONNE Edit
8. During and after marital fights, we often “stick to our guns.” Some of our stubbornness is for purposes of deterrence and precedent-setting. If we give in too easily, we will find it harder to win a good bargain the next time around.Read more at location 2897
Note: c. DETERRENZA Edit
I’ve heard of plenty of tricks to encourage self-control. Many of these tricks use markets, typically markets in preventive devices of some kind.Read more at location 2909
Note: C È IOL MERCATO DELLA TENTAZIONE MA ANCHE QUELLO DELL AUTOCONTROLLO Edit
One device, called the DDS System, resembles a small retainer that you put into your mouth before mealtime. It fills much of the upper cavity of the mouth and forces the wearer to eat more slowly and take smaller bites. The product is marketed by Scientific Intake of AtlantaRead more at location 2911
Note: DDS PER I PECCATI DI GOLA Edit
The makers claim the effect on speech is “minor”; the effect on your pocketbook is $400 to $500.Read more at location 2913
Note: c Edit
Other gimmicks come from digital culture. For instance, pornography addicts can download free “accountability software” known as X3. Once installed, X3 sends an e-mail every fourteen days to a chosen recipient or recipients. That e-mail lists every Web site that the person has visited on the computer.Read more at location 2917
Note: DIPENDENZA DA WEB E PORNO Edit
The technology or the trick distracts us from strengthening our will.Read more at location 2921
Note: CONTROINDIVAZIONE Edit
adviceRead more at location 2923
Note: x Edit
First, cultivate a healthy self-image and a set of narratives about who you are and why it is important to contribute to society, rather than yielding to every temptation.Read more at location 2924
Note: IMMAGIME Edit
Forget about the imaginary girlfriend, the Russian alibi for adultery, and the Mexican prostitutes. Just go out and look for some sweet, old-fashioned romance. Yes, virtue is its own reward, but virtue also should be fun. Go out and use markets to make virtue fun. Buy a nice home for you and your family.Read more at location 2929
Note: ANCORARSI SLLA REALTÁ Edit
if you make the wrong decisions, well, there is a new market that you might want to turn to.Read more at location 2935
Note: CHIODO SVACCIA VHIODO Edit
The truly regretful in the Chinese city of Nanjing can visit a “crying bar.” There’s a sofa, some tables, and a great deal of tissue paper. For about $6 an hour, customers can sit and cry. The owner, one Luo Jun, claimed he hit upon the idea from customers of a previous bar. They wanted to cry, but they had no venue for this desire. The crying bar solves their problem by making the show of maudlin emotion socially respectable and indeed socially expected.Read more at location 2935
Note: SE VI SBAGLIATE C È IOL BAR DEI PIANTI Edit
there.Read more at location 2939

Il calcolo del consenso di James Buchanan e Gordon Tullock

  • Approccio razionale alla politica.
  • Individualismo metodologico
  • Contro Arrow: approccio illuminista. Soluzione ideale. Buchanan: approccio realista. Realismo contrattualista.
  • Contro Hayek: società nn come contratto ma come esito nn intenzionale
  • Patto sociale regola unanimità. Costituzione come patto sociale.
  • Teoria dei comitati. Due costi:  1 costo decisionale (rischio ingovernabilità) 2 costo esterno (rischio tirannia)
  • Scambio dei voti: auspicabile in paesi ad alta governabilità.
  • Scambio dei voti: auspicabile nelle democrazie rappresentative dove la maggioranza nn è mai a maggioranza dei cittadini.
  • Il voto coi piedi soluzione sempre valida. Tiebaud A Survey of empirical literature Dowding Binge.
  • Tenere a bada il mostro. Divisione dei poteri entro un forte federalismo. Una camera federale e una nazionale. Potere di veto del Presidente. Sistema proporionale. No ai colpi di maggioranza.
  • Il diritto di secessione. Da normare senza escluderlo.
  • Per la riforma meglio un assemblea costituzionale. Piú incline al piano razionale disinteressato.
  • Il postulato individualistico. Il punto di partenza del contrattualismo di BeT
  • Il nesso tra economia e politica. Signori non ho nessuna fiducia in voi Gunning Bedford Delaawere. Un governo libero si basa sul sospetto nn sulla fiducia. Thomas Jefferson.
  • L assunto x il quale il cittadino cambia d abito quando passa dalla sfera privata a quella pubblica. Poco credibile. Knight: l uomo a due facce. Qui l economia con l i dividualismo metodologico colma le lacune della sociologia che hanno aperto la strada alla crescita dei governi nel XX secolo.
  • Il disprezzo x l economia. Gli scolastici disprezzavano il commerciante come noi facciamo con il lobbista. Una parte di qs disprezzo si è esteso al metodo economico nelle scienze sociali.
  • La scienza politica assume che l operatore accresca il proprio potare anzichè la propria utilità. Vedi robert dahl. La differenza è fondamentale. Nel primo caso i conflitti sono sempre a somma zero. Gli americani -i Padri fondatori - mutarono l approccio in senso economicista.
  • Equivoco di Beard: la mancata disginzione di due approcci economicisgici alla politica. Il primo è l individualismo metodologico come lo abbiamo descritto(homo economicus anzichè uomo a due facce). Il secondo è il determinismo marxista che assume l uomo come uomo di classe che sponsorizza gli interessi della sua classe. Beard dà un interpretazione marxista della costituzione americana. L utilità dipende dal gusto. L appartenenza ad una classe è solo un fattore, peraltro marginale, nella formazione del gusto...
  • L economicista ha una visione scettica della natura umana. Le sue giustificazioni saranno prevalentemenge empiriche. La capacità previsionale prevarrà sul realismo delle ipotesi.
  • Razionalità individuale e scelga collettiva. È difficile parlare di efficienza sociale poichè la società nn ha obbiettivi da perseguire.
  • Le restrizioni poste alle prefefenzd per poter parlare di razionalità: preferenze ordinabili per composizione di beni. Preferenze durature (coerenti). Preferenze certe.
  • Il logrolling come propulsore democratico. Con lo scambio di voto la spesa pubblica esplode. La regola della maggioranza semplice più il logrolling creano una spesa pubblica eccessiva rispetto agli standard di efficienza paretiana

sabato 15 ottobre 2016

Leggere i romanzi ci rende persone migliori?

Una domanda eterna alla quale cerca di rispondere in modo compiuto Gary Saul Morson nel saggio “Can Reading Literature Make Us Moral?”.
Alcuni suoi illustri predecessori si sono pronunciati recisamente per il “no”: il libro, come del resto l’arte in generale, cela pericoli. Platone (contro i poeti), i riformatori protestanti (contro i cattolici), i governanti comunisti (contro i borghesi)… tutti uniti nel lanciare un grido d’allarme:
… Plato thought fiction dangerous and regretted, for instance, the depiction of the gods as given to laughter… During the Reformation, much Catholic art was destroyed…  the Chinese Cultural Revolution sought to rid the world of reactionary artworks; and the Soviets, when they took power, were faced with the choice of banning pre-revolutionary literature or, as they eventually decided, reinterpreting it…
In realtà l’opera letteraria spesso allarga i nostri orizzonti e apre la mente verso il “diverso”
…reading literature will seem like a way of acquiring wisdom; it gets us off our little island in time and place and shows us how our own values might appear to others. We no longer accept our own values as the only possible ones for a decent, intelligent person to hold…
Se “il diverso” ci assedia con le sue idee per noi scorrette, proviamo un moto di repulsa. Ma se invece lo percepiamo vivere in un romanzo siamo disposti, non dico a sposare la sua diversità, ma a simpatizzare con lui per un attimo.
Per capire il nazismo meglio leggere Celine o Drieu de la Rochelle più che festeggiare il 25 aprile. Per capire chi era un partigiano meglio leggere Fenoglio che frequentare l’ ANPI.
Ma molti non ci stanno. Per molti l’altro ha torto e lì il discorso deve chiudersi. Nel momento in cui la diversità s’insinua nel nostro mondo appellandosi all’empatia cio’ costituisce un pericolo da fugare…
… Some view such broadening as potentially dangerous. The more one regards differing perspectives as necessarily evil or stupid, the less one wants others to practice seeing the world from such perspectives…
Facciamo un esempio concreto: i regimi comunisti e la tragedia greca
… Tragedy, for example, was considered pernicious for at least two reasons. First, it contradicted the official optimism of Communist philosophy, which held that it was inevitable that people would reach universal happiness. Second, tragedy affirms that the human mind is inadequate to understand the strange universe, whereas Communist philosophy held that, guided by Marxism-Leninism, people could not only understand the laws of nature and society, but also change them at will…
Ma è un bene per una persona mettersi temporaneamente nei panni del “nemico”? In parte sì, inoltre esistono delle modalità letterarie per ridurre i rischi di fascinazione del male.
Se restiamo sul romanzo realista dell’ottocento, fu Jane Austen a realizzare in modo prudenziale questo transfert attraverso la tecnica delle due voci
… Jane Austen invented a technique for allowing us to enter into the process of another person’s thoughts, and in so doing she in effect invented the realist psychological novel… The Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin called this technique “double-voiced words.” Here’s how it works: The author paraphrases the sequence of a hero’s or heroine’s thoughts from within. The paraphrase assumes the tone, manner, and typical choice of words of the character, and we hear how she speaks to herself. Thus, when she needs to justify herself to herself, we hear her address an invisible judge. When she wants to do something she feels she shouldn’t, we witness her talking herself into it, banishing contrary arguments, veering away at the first sign she is about to stumble onto a consideration too strong to evade…
Con le “due voci” noi possiamo contemporaneamente metterci nei panni del “nemico” e prenderne le distanze
… there is all the difference between simply not thinking of something and avoiding the thought of that thing. That difference is visible only to someone who can follow the process of her thoughts…
Jane Austen, George Eliot, Leo Tolstoy, e Henry James sono scrittori che hanno fatto ampio uso della doppia voce.
Facciamo un esempio tratto da una pagina di “Anna Karenina”, in cui Anna nel leggere un romanzo ripensa a sè con indulgenza...
“… L’eroe del romanzo aveva già cominciato a raggiungere la sua felicità inglese: il titolo di baronetto e un possedimento, e Anna desiderava andare con lui in quel possedimento, quando a un tratto sentì che lui avrebbe dovuto vergognarsi e che lei si vergognava proprio di questo. Ma di che cosa lui doveva vergognarsi? «Di che cosa mi vergogno io?» si domandò con offeso stupore. Lasciò il libro e si distese sullo schienale della poltrona, stringendo con forza con entrambe le mani il tagliacarte. Non c’era nulla di cui vergognarsi. Riandò a tutti i suoi ricordi di Mosca. Erano tutti belli, gradevoli. Ricordò il ballo, ricordò Vrònskij e il suo viso innamorato e sottomesso, ricordò tutti i propri rapporti con lui: non c’era nulla di cui vergognarsi. E tuttavia proprio a questo punto dei ricordi la sensazione di vergogna si faceva più forte, come se una voce interna, proprio a questo punto, quando lei si ricordava di Vrònskij, le dicesse: «Caldo, caldissimo, bruciante.» «E con questo?» si disse risolutamente, cambiando posizione nella poltrona. «Che vuol dire questo? Perché, io ho forse paura di guardare in faccia a questo? E allora? Possibile che fra me e quest’ufficiale ancora ragazzo esistano e possano esistere altri rapporti che non quelli che si hanno con qualsiasi conoscente?» Sorrise con disprezzo e riprese nuovamente il libro, ma ormai non riusciva più, veramente, a capire quel che leggeva. Fece passare il tagliacarte sul vetro, poi ne avvicinò la liscia e fredda superficie a una guancia e per poco non scoppiò a ridere forte dalla gioia che l’aveva presa a un tratto senza motivo. Sentiva che i suoi nervi si tendevano sempre di più come corde su cavicchi che si avvitavano. Sentiva che i suoi occhi si aprivano sempre più, che le dita delle mani e dei piedi si muovevano nervosamente, che dentro qualcosa le soffocava il respiro, e che tutte le immagini e i suoni in quella penombra vacillante la colpivano con straordinaria intensità.”
La verità trapela e il modo in cui il protagonista la elude è molto umano.
Nella lettura di Anna Karenina il senso di giustizia e il senso di umanità convivono anche se sono in apparente contraddizione tra loro.
Chi potrebbe approvare la sua condotta? Nessuno. Ma chi potrebbe non simpatizzare con lei? Nessuno. E’ il miracolo della letteratura quando scaturisce da un genio come Tolstoj.
E’ questo obiettivo che caratterizza la doppia voce rispetto al flusso di coscienza
… Another reason we need double-voicing, rather than stream of consciousness, is that the moral complexity of the sequence of thoughts depends on hearing simultaneously both the character’s thoughts and the perspective of another who might listen in…
Nel romanzo riusciamo ad amare chi deploriamo. Amare il peccatore è una missione impossibile che l’arte spesso porta a termine felicemente…
… Readers often feel that Anna Karenina and Lily Bart (in The House of Mirth), for instance, represent values they deplore. And yet those same readers— if I am an example— still feel deep compassion as Anna and Lily descend into suicide…
Oltre a metterci in contatto con persone “diverse”, la letteratura ci puo’ far abitare mondi con valori “diversi”. Se riusciamo a starci e a comprenderli, forse riusciremo a convivere meglio anche con l’avversario politico o sportivo nella vita di tutti i giorni…
… to read The Iliad or Paradise Lost is to share, however briefly, an epic perspective on events, as well as to adopt the values taken for granted by ancient Greek or English Renaissance culture. The more alien the culture, the more we are likely to encounter authors or protagonists who do not share our values. If we learn to empathize with them, and regard them as holding their views for motives no less sincere than our own, could we perhaps learn to do the same for people in our own culture, for example, who do not share our political party or social class?
Purtroppo, oggi il potere empatico della letteratura va scemando. Il libro diventa sempre più una macchina da costruire e decostruire. Oppure un contenitore di messaggi da estrarre e giudicare con relativa sentenza di condanna o assoluzione…
… Some literary critics and teachers have tried to “de-literize” literature. They try to remove the essential literary act of experiencing other points of view by treating literature as propaganda that endorses what one already believes, or by only assigning works by approved authors with an approved message…
Al punto che gli studenti di lettere si chiedono perché mai sobbarcarsi libri tanto ponderosi come i romanzi ottocenteschi quando il nocciolo non sta più nell’atmosfera incantatrice necessaria a produrre un transfert verso i protagonisti, anche i più bizzarri. Il meccanismo, in effetti, richiede molto meno per essere realizzato…
… students are bound to wonder why they should put in the hard work to read long books only to learn what they already knew….
Una cultura paternalista a tutela del regime oppure ossessionata dall’università come “safe space” vede questo transfert valoriale come rischioso, meglio limitarsi all’esercizio sulle regole, meglio dedicarsi all’esperimento decostruttivo e strutturalista…
… The more a culture wants to protect its citizens from potentially harmful viewpoints, the more it will de-literize the literary. For totalitarian regimes, intolerant religions, and morally superior social-justice warriors, the way literature can make us moral may seem like a threat to all they hold sacred…
COMMENTO PERSONALE
L’ultimo libro ponderoso che ho letto è stato quello di David Foster WallaceInfinite Jest. In effetti l’ho trovato “inutilmente ponderoso”. Tutto era fermo, non scorreva, non evolveva. Era un meccanismo, non un organismo. Un esercizio, non una creazione. La lettura non ne soffriva nemmeno aprendo casualmente, lo stile sembrava tutto. Se è possibile rintracciarvi delle “atmosfere”, allora bisogna concludere che ce n’era solo una: quella legata ad al degrado, alla decomposizione. Una sola, dall’inizio alla fine tutto era “malato” e destinato a disfarsi. In questo senso mi ritrovo nella disamina di Morson.
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