I assume the "misinformation" you are referring to must be WesBurt’s
claim that "The people of Israel never laid eyes on either the first
two, or the second two, tables of the Law".
I wasn’t really claiming this information was no longer available. I
was responding to WesBurt’s arrogant citations of all the economic
experts he had read and the implication that everyone else should do
the same or else grovel silently at his feet.
Some people like to cite references (I’m guilty) while others (like
Lee Crocker and Anders Sandberg) are more adept at condensing complex
subjects into their own words. Both approaches can add value.
However, I think that suggestions for *everyone* to read the
‘classics’ *as a first step* (not that YOU made such a suggestion),
ignoring principles of comparative advantage and division of labor,
are counter-productive in today’s rapidly changing memetic milieu.
The recently discussed ‘Flynn effect’ probably results from the
pressure of explosive accumulations of information and the development
of tools such as FAQs and search engines (recently), along with media
such as broadcast news and documentaries, reader’s digests and
encyclopedias (in the more recent past). As a child (in the Sixties)
I recall *devouring* magazines and encyclopedias, almost from cover to
cover, but only *browsing* the musty volumes of the Harvard Classics
on my parent’s shelves.
Anyway, a happy New Year to you too (every day starts one for me!)
Mark Crosby
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