Tyler Cowen: belief

Transcript context

…It is also where the two of the most intellectual parts, the few places where a lot of the highest paid people choose to gather. San Francisco’s streets are full of syringes. The transportation really does not work so well. I am critical of major aspects of China, because I am an outsider within China. I am critical of major aspects of the United States, because I’m an outsider in the US as well. Now, one of the things I struggle with Scott, and I was at Yale University, but I regret that I never had a chance to chat with Scott before he passed away. Something that I’ve wanted to ask him is something that I try to grapple with myself. You can accuse me of enjoying elite cultural products like the opera and Mozart, as well as great books like Buddenbrooks. I am sure that Scott is an extremely intellectual person, and he is not some sort of illiterate farmer walking bare feet among the mountains of Myanmar. He was a professor at Yale University, which is also a quite elite place. Something that I grapple with, and I wonder how he grapples with is, how do you embrace some aspects of elite culture, while also prizing running away from the state? I don’t have a good answer here. Can you supply one for me, please? I’m not sure there’s an answer to a question like that, but I think you can simply do it. A lot of elite culture is quite revolutionary. Maybe it’s rebelling against things that no longer existed. You mentioned Mozart and Beethoven. They were revolutionaries in their time. Beethoven, in particular, a classical liberal. Mozart, some kind of Freemason, which was also a classical liberal view. There’s something about the music that is quite life-affirming. Even when with Beethoven, it’s stormy, or pessimistic, or can get you down. Our current ruling elites are not exactly enamored of such things for the most part. I think it’s easy to just do both. Yes. Well, Donald Trump doesn’t like the ballet?…

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