Is it bad that the president of the United States is a demented lunatic?

I would tend to say yes, but the reporters and editors at the New York Times apparently do not agree,  as Marcy Wheeler explains. Why the corporate media has this compulsion to translate his words from total gibberish and utterly depraved narcissism into coherent ideas that they imagine he is trying to express is a deep mystery. In fact, as Marcy demonstrates, they actually translate a lot of it into the exact opposite of the true content.

 

And no, sorry, I do not know why they do this. Maybe you can tell me. 

Sunday Sermonette: Family Values

 Luke 14 contains some ideas that I can get behind. Although I do not believe that Jesus in fact could miraculously heal people, I'm glad that the ER is open on the sabbath. (Try getting a non-emergency appointment on a night or weekend, however. Most people have to take time off from work.) JC also preaches humility, and giving to the poor. However, he then preaches, quite clearly, that in order to follow him you have to repudiate -- literally hate -- your family. I do not think this is consistent with contemporary Christian belief. However, verses 25 et seq appear to be total gibberish. Maybe you can figure out what it's supposed to mean.

 

 

14 One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. ² There in front of him was a man suffering from abnormal swelling of his body. ³ Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” ⁴ But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him on his way.

⁵ Then he asked them, “If one of you has a child^[a] or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull it out?” ⁶ And they had nothing to say.

⁷ When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: ⁸ “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. ⁹ If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. ¹⁰ But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests. ¹¹ For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

¹² Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. ¹³ But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴ and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

The Parable of the Great Banquet

¹⁵ When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”

¹⁶ Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. ¹⁷ At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’

¹⁸ “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’

¹⁹ “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’

²⁰ “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’

²¹ “The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’

²² “‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’

²³ “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. ²⁴ I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’”

The Cost of Being a Disciple

²⁵ Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: ²⁶ “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. ²⁷ And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

²⁸ “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? ²⁹ For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, ³⁰ saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

³¹ “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? ³² If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. ³³ In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

³⁴ “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? ³⁵ It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.

“Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

Footnotes

1. Luke 14:5 Some manuscripts donkey

 

The most ridiculous assumption

To continue our series on the pseudoscience of economics, there are a few other assumptions required by the theory, but I’ll end this exercise with one of the most important. In order for transactions to make the world a better place, all of the benefits and costs of the transaction have to be experienced by the parties. If a transaction somehow affects other people, that’s called an “externality,” and it’s the best known example of a so-called market failure. But it is difficult to imagine a transaction that does not have externalities. They aren’t an occasional problem that needs a special fix, they are pervasive and inevitable.

When you drive to the store for your tomatoes, you spew pollutants out of your tailpipe and you clog the road for other drivers. You also risk crashing and killing or injuring yourself or others. (Riding in a motor vehicle is mostly likely the most dangerous thing you will ever do.) The tomatoes were grown on farmland that was created by destroying a beautiful wilderness, sprayed with pesticides that indiscriminately kill beneficial insects as well as pests, fertilized with synthetic nitrogen that runs off into the river and ultimately causes a dead zone in the estuary. When you buy them you put them in a plastic bag that winds up in a landfill or maybe the ocean . . . I could go on.

As Polanyi wrote in The Great Transformation, referring to the origins of laissez faire in the 19th Century:

[T]he idea of a self-adjusting market implied a stark utopia. Such an institution could not exist for any length of time without annihilating the human and natural substance of society; it would have physically destroyed man and transformed his surroundings into a wilderness.

That sounds bad. We have learned a few things since the 19th Century but nowadays many people seem to want to return to it.

Wednesday Bible Study: More blather

Luke 13 is very puzzling.  The introductory passage references two events which are mentioned nowhere else in the Bible and are otherwise unknown to history. The meaning of verse 1 is a bit obscure but evidently Pilate had killed some Galileans while they were sacrificing, for unknown reasons. And are Galileans in general sinners, as JC seems to imply? The further implication is that they died because they did not repent, but of what we are not told. The deadly collapse of the tower of Siloam is also mentioned nowhere else in the Bible, otherwise unknown to history, and in fact we don't even know what the tower was. And again, of what did the victims fail to repent?

Then there is the parable of the fig tree. I have no idea what it is supposed to mean. Regarding the parable of the mustard seed, there is no such thing as a mustard tree. All species in the mustard family are herbs. What does it mean that no prophet can die outside of Jerusalem? In the Tanakh, many did so. This is all just plain weird. 

 

 

13 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. ² Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? ³ I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. ⁴ Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? ⁵ I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

⁶ Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. ⁷ So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’

⁸ “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. ⁹ If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

Jesus Heals a Crippled Woman on the Sabbath

¹⁰ On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, ¹¹ and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. ¹² When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” ¹³ Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

¹⁴ Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”

¹⁵ The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? ¹⁶ Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

¹⁷ When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.

The Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast

¹⁸ Then Jesus asked, “What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? ¹⁹ It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds perched in its branches.”

²⁰ Again he asked, “What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? ²¹ It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds^[a] of flour until it worked all through the dough.”

The Narrow Door

²² Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. ²³ Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?”

He said to them, ²⁴ “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. ²⁵ Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’

“But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’

²⁶ “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’

²⁷ “But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’

²⁸ “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. ²⁹ People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. ³⁰ Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.”

Jesus’ Sorrow for Jerusalem

³¹ At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, “Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.”

³² He replied, “Go tell that fox, ‘I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’ ³³ In any case, I must press on today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!

³⁴ “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. ³⁵ Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’^[b]”

Footnotes

1. Luke 13:21 Or about 27 kilograms
2. Luke 13:35 Psalm 118:26

 

Sunday Sermonette: Blather

Luke 12 shares a lot of material with Matthew.  It contains a lot of well-known sayings, some of which ought to be deeply embarrassing to the people who call themselves Christians in the U.S. today, and some of which don't make a whole lot of sense. It does threaten people with hell, but mostly for blasphemy, not for any other kind of sin. What God wants most of all is to be worshiped. Once again, he predicts that the apocalypse is imminent.

Anyway, I don't have much to say about this. I will comment on current events anon. 

 

12 Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: “Be^[a] on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. ² There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. ³ What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.

⁴ “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. ⁵ But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. ⁶ Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. ⁷ Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

⁸ “I tell you, whoever publicly acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God. ⁹ But whoever disowns me before others will be disowned before the angels of God. ¹⁰ And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

¹¹ “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, ¹² for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”

The Parable of the Rich Fool

¹³ Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

¹⁴ Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” ¹⁵ Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

¹⁶ And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. ¹⁷ He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

¹⁸ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. ¹⁹ And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

²⁰ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

²¹ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

Do Not Worry

²² Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. ²³ For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. ²⁴ Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! ²⁵ Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life^[b]? ²⁶ Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

²⁷ “Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ²⁸ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! ²⁹ And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. ³⁰ For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. ³¹ But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

³² “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. ³³ Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. ³⁴ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Watchfulness

³⁵ “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, ³⁶ like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. ³⁷ It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. ³⁸ It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. ³⁹ But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁰ You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

⁴¹ Peter asked, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?”

⁴² The Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? ⁴³ It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. ⁴⁴ Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. ⁴⁵ But suppose the servant says to himself, ‘My master is taking a long time in coming,’ and he then begins to beat the other servants, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk. ⁴⁶ The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.

⁴⁷ “The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. ⁴⁸ But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

Not Peace but Division

⁴⁹ “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! ⁵⁰ But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! ⁵¹ Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. ⁵² From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. ⁵³ They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

Interpreting the Times

⁵⁴ He said to the crowd: “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does. ⁵⁵ And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is. ⁵⁶ Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?

⁵⁷ “Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right? ⁵⁸ As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled on the way, or your adversary may drag you off to the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. ⁵⁹ I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.”

Footnotes

1. Luke 12:1 Or speak to his disciples, saying: “First of all, be
2. Luke 12:25 Or single cubit to your height

 

More on bounded rationality

I said last time that  people do not go through life coldly calculating how to maximize their utility, that instead we rely on heuristics,” cognitive shortcuts, and we often act impulsively. The cognitive biases and logical fallacies to which people are subject came up as I discussed science vs. theology and the pseudo-science of economics, but they're important in every aspect of life. 


Work, most notably begun by the psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, empirically explored the decision heuristics people actually use, and uncovered many so-called biases, that is ways in which people’s decision making differs from earlier assumptions of what is “rational.” They wrote many papers. One of their best known and seminal contributions is called Prospect Theory, the main idea of which is that people tend to be more risk averse than they are acquisitive, in other words losing fifty bucks hurts more than gaining fifty bucks feels good. (This obviously doesn’t work with gambling addicts, however.)

Subsequent work by them and others has revealed many ways in which people’s spending and investing behavior deviates from what was previously considered “rational.” Not all of it is highly relevant to how people make medical decisions, so I won’t belabor it here. For now, I’ll just say that you wouldn’t see all that advertising if it didn’t work, and corporations aren’t spending the money to support your rational choice. Keep that in mind as you see what seems like 50% of all advertising being for drugs, Medicare Advantage plans, and medical provider corporations.

I should mention a component of the classical theory called “declining marginal utility.” This means that the first two or three tomatoes you buy are worth more to you than the next three, and by the time you have more than you can possibly eat before the next one goes bad, they’re basically worthless. (We’ll leave aside that the seller, probably a corporation, would like to sell as many tomatoes as possible and does not experience declining marginal utility of money.)

This idea seems basically to make sense for groceries or movie tickets,[1] but it doesn’t make much sense for medical services. Either you need something once, and you’re done; or you need it continuously, for the rest of your life. I’m not going to get a second right hemicolectomy no matter how cheap it is, and I would have been no more inclined to get the first one if it were free or even if they paid me to take it. On the other hand I’m not going to stop taking my blood pressure medications because I’ve gone long enough without a heart attack that I’m now satisfied.

We'll move on to more of the empirically ridiculous scriptural bases of economics next time. 

---

[1] It’s actually not so simple. As I consume tomatoes or movies, I might acquire a taste for them and end up buying more rather than less. People might praise my tomato sauce so much that I end up bottling gallons of it and selling it, and buying all the tomatoes I can get my hands on. Then there are the cases of collectors and addicts. In other words these assumptions are generally intuitively appealing, but empirically half-truths at best.

 

Wednesday Bible Study: Epistemological reflections

I'm far from done with economics but before I finish, I hope to convince you that economics, as it is commonly taught and practiced, is a pseudoscience, akin to theology. The essence of science is to make careful, systematic observations of reality, commonly using methods and instruments that overcome the limitations of human senses, and systematic procedures that combat the cognitive biases and logical fallacies to which human cognition is subject. Then, scientists systematically analyze the results of their observations to discover relationships among the entities they have observed, which are called theories.*

Economists and theologians, in contrast, begin with a set of revealed truths, which theologians call Holy Scripture and economists call assumptions. They then spin out elaborate tales of how reality works derived from these revelations. Since these tales do not correspond to reality, a great deal of effort is expended on trying to torture reality to make it fit. Since scripture, and the assumptions, are also internally contradictory the task is actually easier since you can pick and choose the pieces that are convenient for your current purposes and pretend the rest do not exist. You might pick a different set of revealed truths for other purposes.†

 Anyway, moving on to Luke 11, there are two different versions of the prayer presented in Verses 2-4. The version in Matthew 6 is part of the sermon on the mount, but here it is offered only to the disciples. The version in Matthew is used by protestants, who call it "The Lord's Prayer." It concludes with "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen." Luke's version omits this conclusion. It is the version that Catholics use. They call "The Our Father." There are other, more minor differences in wording. I suppose you can take your pick.

 *The word "theory" does not mean an idea that may or may not be true and needs to be tested. That's called a hypothesis. Rather, a theory is a systematic description of reality. We can have varying degrees of confidence in a theory. Einstein's theory of gravity, called general relativity, is as certain as anything can ever be. String theory, an attempt at unifying relativity with quantum theory, is highly speculative. Biological evolution is on a par with general relativity in our degree of certainty about it. When creationists say that evolution is "only a theory," that just proves they don't know what the word means.

†For my doctorate, I had to pass qualifying exams in politics, sociology and economics. On my economics exam I wrote that economics is a vast edifice of bullshit erected on a foundation of sand. For what it's worth, they passed me. 

 

11 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

² He said to them, “When you pray, say:

“‘Father,^[a]
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.^[b]
3 Give us each day our daily bread.
⁴ Forgive us our sins,
    for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.^[c]
And lead us not into temptation.^[d]’”

⁵ Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; ⁶ a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ ⁷ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ ⁸ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity^[e] he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

⁹ “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

¹¹ “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for^[f] a fish, will give him a snake instead? ¹² Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? ¹³ If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Jesus and Beelzebul

¹⁴ Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed. ¹⁵ But some of them said, “By Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.” ¹⁶ Others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven.

¹⁷ Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them: “Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. ¹⁸ If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebul. ¹⁹ Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. ²⁰ But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

²¹ “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. ²² But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up his plunder.

²³ “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

²⁴ “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ ²⁵ When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. ²⁶ Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first.”

²⁷ As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.”

²⁸ He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

The Sign of Jonah

²⁹ As the crowds increased, Jesus said, “This is a wicked generation. It asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. ³⁰ For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation. ³¹ The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom; and now something greater than Solomon is here. ³² The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now something greater than Jonah is here.

The Lamp of the Body

³³ “No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. ³⁴ Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy,^[g] your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy,^[h] your body also is full of darkness. ³⁵ See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. ³⁶ Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.”

Woes on the Pharisees and the Experts in the Law

³⁷ When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. ³⁸ But the Pharisee was surprised when he noticed that Jesus did not first wash before the meal.

³⁹ Then the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. ⁴⁰ You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? ⁴¹ But now as for what is inside you—be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.

⁴² “Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.

⁴³ “Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces.

⁴⁴ “Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which people walk over without knowing it.”

⁴⁵ One of the experts in the law answered him, “Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also.”

⁴⁶ Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.

⁴⁷ “Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your ancestors who killed them. ⁴⁸ So you testify that you approve of what your ancestors did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs. ⁴⁹ Because of this, God in his wisdom said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute.’ ⁵⁰ Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world, ⁵¹ from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all.

⁵² “Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”

⁵³ When Jesus went outside, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely and to besiege him with questions, ⁵⁴ waiting to catch him in something he might say.

Footnotes

1. Luke 11:2 Some manuscripts Our Father in heaven
2. Luke 11:2 Some manuscripts come. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
3. Luke 11:4 Greek everyone who is indebted to us
4. Luke 11:4 Some manuscripts temptation, but deliver us from the evil one
5. Luke 11:8 Or yet to preserve his good name
6. Luke 11:11 Some manuscripts for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for
7. Luke 11:34 The Greek for healthy here implies generous.
8. Luke 11:34 The Greek for unhealthy here implies stingy.

 

"Rational Choice"

I began to write last time about the assumption underlying a lot of economic theorizing that people are "rational actors," that they calculate exactly how to allocate their monetary resources, and their acquisitive strategies such as work and investment, to acquire the maximum number of utiles. Utiles are a slightly mysterious concept that corresponds to the satisfaction of desires as measured in dollars.  Based on this assumption the prominent economist Mancur Olson wrote an entire book, The Logic of Collective Action, in which he proved using calculus that many of the most notable events in world history were impossible. 

The so-called economic theory of crime, propounded by the Nobel prize-winning economist Gary S. Becker, holds that people will violate the law if the expected value of the gains from crime, minus the cost of possible punishment multiplied by its risk, exceeds the rewards of legal economic activity. The policy prescription is to make sure crime doesn’t pay by ramping up the punishments. I suppose this might actually roughly apply to some potential white collar criminals, but as a theory of blue collar crime, it’s ridiculous. The proceeds of purse snatching or hold ups are typically paltry. The “wages” for, say, burglary, are pennies per hour. People who shoplift or rob liquor stores aren’t thinking 5 years ahead. Often, they aren’t thinking past their next bag of smack or the rent payment. And, obviously, much crime has no financial reward at all. Most violent crimes aren’t instrumental. They are personal disputes that escalate, or impulsive acts.

 So, obviously, people do not go through life coldly calculating how to maximize their utility. Most fundamentally, we just don’t have the time or energy. There isn’t room in people’s lives or brains to thoroughly or even cursorily research every product on offer, deeply and honestly ponder our short- and long-term desires, calculate the probabilities of a purchase making us happy or disappointing us (people are very bad at probabilistic intuitions anyway), and accurately allocate our resources so as to maximize our utility or happiness or whatever you want to call it.

Instead, we rely on “heuristics,” cognitive shortcuts, and we often act impulsively. The term “bounded rationality” was used by Herbert Simon in the 1950s to capture the idea that we put limited cognitive resources into decision making, enough that our choices are usually good enough to feel satisfying, even if they could be even better if we worked harder at it. I'll go into more detail next time.

 

 

Sunday Sermonette: Seventy (or seventy two) guys you never heard of before

As we've noted before, Luke is a strange amalgamation of material based on Mark or a common source, and completely contradictory or unique material. Chapter 10, in which Jesus sends forth either 70 or 72 additional apostles (it's 70 in the KJV, but the NIV quoted here makes it 72), only happens in Luke. It never caught on with Christians for some reason -- even if, like me, you grew up in a church going family and went to Sunday school, I'll bet you've never heard of it before. The twelve apostles are the whole story. But these additional dudes have all the powers of the twelve -- driving out demons and what not -- so they're the real deal. 

The parable of the good Samaritan is also unique to Luke. That's one Bible passage I'll endorse. You might want to remind your Christian friends about it, because most of them have forgotten it. 

 

10 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two^[a] others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. ² He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. ³ Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. ⁴ Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.

⁵ “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ ⁶ If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. ⁷ Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.

⁸ “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. ⁹ Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ ¹⁰ But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ¹¹ ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’ ¹² I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

¹³ “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. ¹⁴ But it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. ¹⁵ And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades.^[b]

¹⁶ “Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.”

¹⁷ The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”

¹⁸ He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. ¹⁹ I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. ²⁰ However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

²¹ At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.

²² “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

²³ Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. ²⁴ For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

²⁵ On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

²⁶ “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

²⁷ He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’^[c]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^[d]”

²⁸ “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

²⁹ But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

³⁰ In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. ³¹ A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. ³² So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³ But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. ³⁴ He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵ The next day he took out two denarii^[e] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

³⁶ “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

³⁷ The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

At the Home of Martha and Mary

³⁸ As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. ³⁹ She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. ⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

⁴¹ “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, ⁴² but few things are needed—or indeed only one.^[f] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Footnotes

1. Luke 10:1 Some manuscripts seventy; also in verse 17
2. Luke 10:15 That is, the realm of the dead
3. Luke 10:27 Deut. 6:5
4. Luke 10:27 Lev. 19:18
5. Luke 10:35 A denarius was the usual daily wage of a day laborer (see Matt. 20:2).
6. Luke 10:42 Some manuscripts but only one thing is needed

 

Back in the Saddle

Sorry for the interruption in blogging -- I know I've just mostly been doing the Bible study thing for a while, I've been distracted. Anyway, where I left off with the Economics 101, I promised to talk about money. So here goes.

 

Let us return briefly to the lonesome world of Alice and Bob. For transactions to truly benefit both of them, it should be obvious that they both have to know exactly what they are getting – that’s called the assumption of perfect information. If Alice’s chickens turn out to be diseased and inedible, Bob is not happier after all. Asymmetric information is common throughout the economy– generally, sellers know more about the product than buyers – but it’s obviously an inherent feature of Medicine. After all, the product for sale is expertise.

Another assumption is that Alice and Bob both enter into this transaction freely and willingly. That’s actually hard to define. If Bob’s crop fails and he’s starving, is Bob really free to take or leave Alice’s chicken? You might argue that even if Bob gives Alice everything he possesses, and binds himself to her in servitude for life, he’s still better off because at least he isn’t dead. That may be so, but obviously this isn’t a world Bob wants to live in.

At the very least, to protect Bob in this situation, there have to be a lot of people selling food, they have to be competing with each other and not colluding to hold up the price, and Bob has to know what each of them has on offer at what price, and be able to choose among them. That way he’ll get the best possible deal. If Alice controlled all of the food in town, she’d be the dictator, and you could hardly getting away with calling that a Free Market. But that’s actually the case if Alice has a patent and exclusive marketing rights to a medication Bob needs to survive – a situation that exists for many people in the U.S. today.

If Bob does have choices, in order to make all these comparisons, prices need to be in common, measurable units, which is where money comes in. If Bob was exchanging, say, baseball cards for food they would be worth wildly different amounts to different food sellers, and trying to find the best deal would be nearly impossible. Bob would have to haggle with each of them individually before he could figure it out, and he might be dead by then.

I won’t go into the deep philosophical weeds about what money really is. Karl Polanyi calls it a “fictitious commodity.”(7) It’s worth something because we pretend it is. For money to work properly in the economists’ magical world, its value for each person has to be equivalent to a quantity of an imaginary entity called “utility.” Supposedly we go through life trying to maximize our utility, a mysterious psychological property, something like the satisfaction of our desires measured in standard units, so that $1 can be equal to 1 utile. People are presumed to be “rational actors” – they calculate exactly how to allocate their monetary resources to acquire the maximum number of utiles. I won’t keep you in suspense: people do not actually do this.

 I'll tell you what we actually do next time, but for now I'll must mention that this comes up, believe it or not, in the debates about crime, which I've been writing about in a recent project. So I'll mix that into the discussion as well.