« ATMs in casinos | Main | *A Happy Marriage* »
Assorted links
1. The slide toward protectionism in the Great Depression, by Irwin and Eichengreen.
2. BookGlutton.com: write in a collective virtual margin for your books.
3. More on Marilyn vos Savant.
4. Newsweek Q&A about Create Your Own Economy.
5. Cultural snobbery and the Kindle.
6. Time magazine on homosexuality, circa 1966.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on July 12, 2009 at 06:51 AM in Web/Tech | Permalink
Comments
What's with the Smollet quote in the Time article? The word 'homosexuality' isn't recorded till 1869.
Imagine! An error in a lengthy homophobic rant from 1966!
Posted by: Steve Reilly at Jul 12, 2009 9:10:12 AM
It was an interesting article - written at a time when society was poised to turn a corner in terms of how sexual minorities are viewed. While a lot of the specific text of the article are seen as homophobic, even bigoted today, the article also extended feelers towards the day when homosexuality would be an accepted and normal way to live. In this way the article serves as a great cultural milestone - what a ways we've come in 43 years.
Posted by: Edward at Jul 12, 2009 10:11:55 AM
Time always was intolerably boring.
Posted by: dearieme at Jul 12, 2009 10:42:58 AM
I thought the October 31, 1969 TIME cover story, "Homosexuality in America," was more interesting.
Posted by: RW Rogers at Jul 12, 2009 12:12:06 PM
The other error in the Smollet quote is that it should be "simple fornication."
Posted by: Douglas Knight at Jul 12, 2009 2:06:07 PM
Extremely interesting Time article. In 2052, when people read of today's widely held views, which ones will seem beyond the pale?
Posted by: Sunset Shazz at Jul 12, 2009 4:29:06 PM
I thought the most interesting quote was:
"The homosexuality that Socrates and Plato knew rose only with the development of a slave culture and the downgrading of women to the level of uneducated domestics. This resulted in a romantic cult of the beautiful young boy—but not to the exclusion of heterosexual relations--much as the restriction of women to purdah led to a high incidence of pederasty in the Middle East, which is now abating with the growing emancipation of Moslem women."
Wrong on that prediction. Pederasty is still a cultural norm in most of the Middle East.
Posted by: Rob at Jul 12, 2009 5:59:36 PM
In 2052, when people read of today's widely held views, which ones will seem beyond the pale?
With demographic collapse in full swing by then, particularly in Europe, Western attitudes about teenage pregnancy might reverse completely. Instead of today's Teach for America program, there might be a government-sponsored "Breed for America", encouraging young women to give birth as early as their teens and then go on to have a college education and a career, instead of doing it in the opposite order. If it ever happens, Russia seems the mostly likely candidate to try something like this first.
Posted by: anonymous at Jul 12, 2009 6:21:03 PM
Rob:
The material problem with that prediction probably lies in the assumption that women's suffrage in the Middle East would continue. The Iranian Revolution of '79 really shut down liberalisation in much of the Muslim world.
Posted by: johnleemk at Jul 13, 2009 4:01:09 AM
Time was already liberal in 1966...
Posted by: michael at Jul 13, 2009 8:51:05 AM
Time was already liberal in 1966...
Posted by: michael at Jul 13, 2009 8:51:17 AM
