Mr. Shaman
Senior Member
- May 4, 2010
- 23,892
- 822
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....Those "weeds" (of course) being $uper-capitali$t$/"conservatives"/Tea Party.
"Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer want to change the way Americans think about politics, and they want to do this with a new metaphor to describe how governance should work. This is the premise behind their new book, The Gardens of Democracy: that Americans politics can be greatly improved if we can agree that the country is like a garden.
Real gardens need to be tended to and cared for, but they are also alive and must be left alone to actually grow. Liu and Hanauer see a similar way to govern America: tend to the big objectives (for example, creating a green energy industry) and make sure the garden has no weeds, but don't try to micromanage each individual.
Liu and Hanauer write their book from the left-hand side of politics but are the arguments in this book applicable to both sides of the spectrum? Or will the right find this view completely objectionable? While the book makes its argument from a strong liberal and progressive background, this does not mean conservatives and the center-right have no claim to these ideas.
The metaphor that America is like a garden is not a gimmick, but powerful refutation of neoclassical economics. If you think that human beings are atomized individuals who only make rational decisions in a marketplace with the goal of maximizing their utility, Liu and Hanauer will not only disagree, they will argue that science has proven that view to be wrong.
Liu and Hanauer have proposed a powerful new way to think about how society works and there is a lot here for conservatives to work with and debate. It will be to the detriment of the American right's ability to govern if rigid ideology means it can't even engage with these ideas."
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[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7v7bxWUixQ]Charlie Rose Part 1: authors Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer talk about their new book. - YouTube[/ame]
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[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEPeATCy58]Charlie Rose Part 2: Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer talk about their new book. - YouTube[/ame]
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[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xKGgv_Fjg0]Charlie Rose Part 3: Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer about their new book. - YouTube[/ame]
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7v7bxWUixQ]Charlie Rose Part 1: authors Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer talk about their new book. - YouTube[/ame]
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[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEPeATCy58]Charlie Rose Part 2: Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer talk about their new book. - YouTube[/ame]
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[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xKGgv_Fjg0]Charlie Rose Part 3: Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer about their new book. - YouTube[/ame]