Comments on: Finnish Line

By: Donklephant » Blog Archive » Donklephant Roundup

Donklephant » Blog Archive » Donklephant Roundup — Sat, 27 Aug 2005 16:30:38 +0000

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By: Callimachus

Callimachus — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 20:15:47 +0000

Paul, right on.

By: Paul Brinkley

Paul Brinkley — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 15:54:13 +0000

Much of America’s homicide rate is also attributed to diversity, according to a few experts. In the context of gun rights issues, one argument I hear gun control advocates cite is Japan’s high level of gun control, coupled with its very low homicide rate. Gun rights advocates then respond, saying if you transplanted 50,000 of those Japanese into American society, the homicide rate among them would still be low – but the cross-community homicide rates would still be nice and high. Diversity breeds difference, which breeds disagreement, which breeds violence.

So why do we still like diversity? Because it’s also breeding debate, competition, evolution, strength, productivity, innovation, and quality of life. I find it mildly amusing how not only do liberals shoot themselves in the foot by advocating diversity of ethnicity but also total sameness of mindset with regard to communal action, so does the conservative half of our country appear to wrinkle its nose to the idea of biological evolution, while totally thriving on the societal evolution that underlies our very successful brand of capitalism.

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 15:48:38 +0000

“Ours is a society driven by money, blessed by huge private philanthropy, cursed by endemic corruption and saddled with deep mistrust of government and other public institutions.”

It’s telling that he thinks that distrust of government is a burden. In that he is more Scandinavian than American. Distrust is the sensible response in a country with “endemic corruption”, wouldn’t you think?

We do have areas of the country with the same homogeneity and degree of consensus as Finland. Utah comes to mind. Arkansas is another. This points to a flaw in his analysis – comparing the US as a “nation” to Finland as a “nation” is a little weak. A more sensible comparison might be with the Navajo nation.