Jonathan Haidt came along a few years later and conducted a similar study within both America and Brazil. He found, in both countries, that the less educated and more destitute had a higher propensity to be sociocentric and thus moralise more (like claiming that cutting up the American flag is universally wrong). Whereas the more educated and more prosperous people were more individualist, and permissive of actions which violated social convention, but didn't harm anyone.

He's an unoriginal, narrowly focused and arrogant one-trick pony.

These Negroes, they‘re getting pretty uppity these days and that‘s a problem for us since they‘ve got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we‘ve got to do something about this, we‘ve got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference.

Let me guess, Chomsky?

In the United States, the political system is a very marginal affair. There are two parties, so-called, but they're really factions of the same party, the Business Party. Both represent some range of business interests. In fact, they can change their positions 180 degrees, and nobody even notices. In the 1984 election, for example, there was actually an issue, which often there isn't. The issue was Keynesian growth versus fiscal conservatism. The Republicans were the party of Keynesian growth: big spending, deficits, and so on. The Democrats were the party of fiscal conservatism: watch the money supply, worry about the deficits, et cetera. Now, I didn't see a single comment pointing out that the two parties had completely reversed their traditional positions. Traditionally, the Democrats are the party of Keynesian growth, and the Republicans the party of fiscal conservatism. So doesn't it strike you that something must have happened? Well, actually, it makes sense. Both parties are essentially the same party. The only question is how coalitions of investors have shifted around on tactical issues now and then. As they do, the parties shift to opposite positions, within a narrow spectrum.

Getting rid of bad media or inheritance tax?

As for the media? Oh well, first amendment. There's a broad range of information available from a number of sources, if you don't like it then you're perfectly free to look elsewhere for information.

Inheritance tax should be abolished; it hurts the middle-class the most. Countries like Sweden have done fine without it.

I've said on many occasions I'm not a straight-up liberty-or-death libertarian.

The point is that the more you transfer powers and abilities into government structures, the more you will need representatives to be accountable and the more convoluted it'll be. All I'm advocating is divorcing the political structure from the social one, and just allowing people to get the fuck on with their lives.

Considering you anti-Statist persuasions, I'm sure you can at least concede to that.

The way I think about it is that the best person to represent you is you. If you leave it that way you don't need representatives to be fully accountable in the first place.

I'm rather fond of entropy. You know, chaos, collapse, deterioration, and all that jazz. Just as the English novelist Thomas Hardy said " My argument is that War makes rattling good history; but Peace is poor reading." Seriously, would you rather learn about The Pig War

(started when a British infantryman shot a pig that was wandering on American soil. The local American militia responded by gathering at the border and waiting for the British to make a move. Eventually the British apologized and the brief war ended, leaving the pig as the only casualty. Lasted for 4 months in 1859)

and the The War Of The Oaken Bucket

(a rivalry between the independent city states of Modena and Bologna spiraled out of control over the most unlikely of things: a wooden bucket. The trouble started when a band of Modena soldiers raided Bologna and stole a large wooden bucket. The raid was successful, but Bologna, wishing to secure both its bucket and its pride, declared war on Modena. The war raged on for twelve whole years but Bologna never did manage to get its bucket back. To this day the bucket is still stored in Modena’s bell tower.)

or something boring like the history of women rights or the Harlem Renaissance?