Cass Sunstein: evaluation

Transcript context

…You’re there for a while. The courts are overclogged. The people who work for the immigration service are not always the highest quality government employees. If it’s Europe, there’s maybe in the future an electronic fence. You’re in a very cheap boat; you might drown. It still seems you end up with a lot of unintended brutality. I’m writing a book now about animal welfare, and there are trade-offs to be made between the well-being of nonhuman animals and human beings. Those trade-offs are less searing, the better our innovation. As we innovate so as to be able to house, let’s say, chickens in less cruel ways, the trade-off gets better. As we innovate to have Impossible Burgers — which I like — or other meat-free alternatives, then the option of overcoming the trade-off grows. I’m hopeful that in the era of immigration, where walls and technology are just one example, and the wall isn’t especially Silicon Valley — it’s old-style technology — I’m hopeful that technology will make these trade-offs less difficult. Of course, you’re right that there are forms of unpleasantness and worse that are essential for deterring and responding to unlawful entry. I think the liberal view is — this is something that some liberal thinkers, including Martha Nussbaum, have written about — there’s tragedy, and to recognize that tragedy is inevitable is a way of keeping an incentive to reduce the number and ferocity. Now, there was a tweet you had today or yesterday, where you mentioned some liberal thinkers, where you’re going to be talking about them at some other event. I think it was Joseph Raz, Ullmann-Margalit, John Rawls, Ronald Dworkin, Jeremy Waldron, right? Great people. They’ve passed away, or they’re much older. If you look at people, say, below the age of 50, 45 — you pick the number — is liberal thought replenishing itself where there’s a new generation that will be comparable to them, to you, to many others? Or is it like an over-60 kind of thing?…

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