No new article today. Just a bit of light housekeeping in response to some queries. (I do offer a fun little treat in the “Lagniappe” section at the end.) The relevant queries are (paraphrasing):
“I replied to one of your posts, so how come you never wrote back?”
“So what’s up with this Substack Notes?”
“I’m new to Bastiat’s Window. Which older posts should I read?”
BTW, I’m hoping to get to 2,000 subscribers before too long. If you tell one friend to subscribe (free or paid), I’d appreciate it greatly. (You can also ask five friends to subscribe, but I’m not greedy enough to ask you to do that. 😁)
[1] I almost always respond to emails from BW readers
If you’ve ever replied to a Bastiat’s Window email but never heard back from me, please email me to let me know. In all likelihood, I just didn’t receive your reply. Two or three people have said they read a BW article, replied, and never heard back from me—and in each case, it was because I hadn’t received it. Might be a Substack problem. If you’re wondering why I rudely failed to answer any such reply from you, please let me know (at rfg.counterpoint@gmail.com).
[2] Let me know if Substack Notes becomes a nuisance
I’ve posted a couple of things to the new Twitter-like Substack Notes feature. I believe it was supposed to send out exactly one email to all of my subscribers when I posted my first Note and, after that, to leave you alone. If you start receiving emails informing you that “Bastiat’s Window just posted something new on Substack Notes,” please let me know at rfg.counterpoint@gmail.com. You already receive between 2 and 4 articles from me a week. I don’t want Substack spamming you with more emails. (I’m not sure it’ll actually be a problem. So far, I don’t find Notes to be very helpful, and I probably won’t use it much.)
[3] Bastiat’s Window’s Golden Oldies
I’ve posted around 90 articles on Bastiat’s Window since opening the site in mid-August. A high percentage of my subscribers have signed up in the last 2-3 months. A couple have asked, “If I want to go back and read a few older pieces, which ones would you recommend?” In response, here’s a baker’s dozen of posts that have brought me lots of comments and correspondence:
“1,600 Years of Medical Hubris: Humorism, Miasmism, and More.” From Ancient Rome till the early 1800s, doctors who dared to challenge conventional wisdom were excoriated, and even executed. Since then, things have gotten better, but the medical establishment still rails against doctors who offer legitimate critiques of conventional wisdom on subjects like genetics, autism, prions, and COVID.
“1,200 Years of British Royalty in 5 Charts: English, Scots, Brits, plus Nordics, Germans, Slavs, Italians, French, and lots of blood.” In four compact charts, I trace the current British royal family’s ancestry through England, Scotland, and Continental Europe. A fifth chart shows how every Scottish monarch died, and raises the question of why the hell anyone wanted to be king or queen of Scotland.
“Lessons from the Tuskegee Study: There will never be another Tuskegee. There will always be another Tuskegee.” The “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male” is “arguably the most infamous biomedical research study in U.S. history.” The biggest error one can make is to view this sordid tale as bygone history. It is a cautionary tale for our own time.
“A Nobel Prize for Vince Gilligan?: Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and El Camino are the pinnacle of contemporary literature.” Long before I was an economist, a was a literature major. Vince Gilligan is as deserving of the Nobel Prize in Literature (perhaps shared with some of his colleagues) as any past recipients. Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and El Camino comprise our era’s most powerful, coherent, and celebrated work of fiction in a medium that has rarely achieved, or even aspired to, such literary heights.
“The Briar and the Rose: The Common Origins of Eugenics and Mathematical Statistics.” The core of every college statistics course, applied probability theory, grew out of eugenicists’ insistence on breeding people like vegetables and neutering them like dogs or cattle. Across half the 20th century, 70,000 Americans had their reproductive organs butchered by the states in the name of eugenics—backed by statistics. At the same time, the same statistical tools enabled us to develop rocketry, nuclear physics, pharmaceutical testing, electronic telecommunications, quality control, genomics, epidemiology, and artificial intelligence.
“Experts with Statistics: Chimps with Machine Guns.” Five examples show how grossly misleading statistics can be—even in the hands of people who ought to know better.
“Impossible Things before Breakfast: Why Rarities are a Dime a Dozen.” How mathematical statistics, when used properly, can illuminate the world.
“Shockley versus Shockley: Don’t Cut the Rattle off the Rattlesnake.” The virtues of free speech. Why it is so important to allow awful people to say terrible things, and why silencing them is so dangerous.
“Do Not Go Gentle: J. Sargeant Reynolds Against the Dying of the Light.” In the early 1970s, Virginia’s most promising young politician died of a brain tumor. In his final speech, he spoke to the state’s ruling segregationists at their annual bacchanalia. While they expected a routine political speech, he delivered a thundering jeremiad—telling them in clear terms that they must abandon the racism that had guided the state’s government since its inception. The historical context of the speech makes it all the more courageous.
“Beware the Woozle-Hunters: Tales of Expertise and Disinformation.” How experts can be unreliable in areas beyond statistics.
“Mother at 100: Halfway back to the Founding Fathers.” My mother died at 93. On her 100th birthday, I recalled how dramatically medicine had changed during that century and during the century before that.
“O, Mendacious Inflation: Why inflation screws up our perception of the past.” Specifically, contrary to popular belief, Uriah Levy didn’t buy Monticello for pennies, Chinese workers in Death Valley were probably pretty well paid, and Ray Kroc didn’t bamboozle the McDonald brothers.
“Transience of Aesthetics: Musings on “Theme from ‘A Summer Place.’”” In addition to economics and journalism, I’ve also worked as a musician and have been composing songs since 1962. (My performances and composition are on my YouTube channel.) Occasionally, I do lectures and mini-lectures on musicology. Last summer, I explored the history and nature of a song that a friend described as “one of the sillier/cheesier tunes ever recorded.” I used his comments to explore the way in which public tastes change. The song was composed by one of the greatest composers in the history of cinema, it was performed by the only musician to have a #1 hit during the era of swing singers and the era of rock, and countless performers recorded their own versions of the song. I think the fact that such a blockbuster can fall so fast and hard offers insights on music and art, but also on politics and other social relationships.
Lagniappe
Joshua Bell Busking
In 2007, Joshua Bell, one of the world’s greatest violinists, did a little experiment. He dressed in street clothes (including a baseball cap) and busked on the platform of one of Washington D.C.’s busy Metro stops. A camera captured the comings and goings of commuters as Bell played—his violin case open for spare change. The hypothesis was simple: “How many people would stop and listen, and how many would realize who they were listening to?” The results are great fun.
Robert F. Graboyes publishes Bastiat’s Window, a Substack journal of economics, science, and culture—with an emphasis on healthcare. He is a health economist, journalist, and musician in Alexandria, Virginia, and holds five degrees, including a PhD in economics from Columbia University. In 2014, he received the Reason Foundation’s Bastiat Prize for Journalism. His music compositions are at YouTube.com/@RFGraboyes/videos.
Sloan Wilson is best known for his novel "The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit." Three years later, he published "A Summer Place", on which the movie is based. The movie is largely though not completely faithful to the book but the movie is worth watching and the novel worth reading. I also have a recording of Percy Faith's performance of the theme which I frequently listen to, consistent with my saccharine taste in music. Professor, it will not disturb me at all if you neither offer me a like or a reply. I'm content to look forward to your next Substack column.
Guess this shows how busy I am. Substack notes aren't a nuisance unless you are already oversubscribed - then they are.
The video about Joshua Bell was really interesting. The result was not what I expected. Compressing the video to a couple of minutes made it watchable. But pasting the audio of one piece over the compressed video was really distracting. It made it impossible to judge what the travelers were ignoring. So, the producers made their point, and yes I probably wouldn't have watched the unedited video.
I'm reminded of an interview with a famous singer/composer (whose name, like a lot of things, escapes me). The reporter asked if he was still writing and performing. His answer was "Yes, but no one wants to hear it." Music, after all, is a performance art, and timing is everything.
Thanks for the housekeeping.
Have a blessed day.