Saturday, November 21, 2009

An Axial Year

Isn't it a wonderful coincedence that Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, the first bestseller advocating a free-market economy, and the Declaration of Independence, which ushered in the first truly free political society on Earth, were published in the same year?

A funny postscript: a year before (in 1775) Immanuel Kant, who subsequently plunged the world into an abyss of unreason, published a paper called On the Different Races of Man. In the paper, he proposed the silly hypothesis that the entire Solar System was populated with aliens, and the closer they were to the Sun, the more stupid they were. That makes us earthlings pretty stupid, eh?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just commented on the National Fascist League and could use your feedback.

Anonymous said...

I have to read more of this Kant guy when I'm in the mood for a comedy.