I'm talking about books. Which political intellectual do you find admirable enough to read everything he or she writes?
Well, I have to say I enjoy Ann Coulter's columns, but her books while well documented tend to get stale with her cutting edge wit fully unleashed (Of course I agree with her about 95% of the time). I had the fortunate chance to meet William F Buckley when I was an undergrad. He came and gave a witty and erudite lecture on civics and morals. I was duly impressed, but didn't really know who he was for years. My loss...
Richard Posner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia I received his new book "A Failure of Capitalism" and I find his thoughts very agreeable.
Joseph Stiglitz - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Making Globalization Work - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Since he is an influential economist, I'm going to read his book when I get to it in the future even though I haven't found any modern and active left wing writers to be worth taking seriously (yet).
John Stuart Mill isn't left wing, he is a liberal, a proper British liberal, take a look at On Liberty or another of his works, fantastic stuff.
Yes, I know that Mill is a classical liberal. I was talking about modern left-wing writers, though, since my interest is in their take on current issues.
Isn't that a bit, well, narrow? I mean what is the point in only reading stuff that will re-enforce the views you already hold and ultimately learn nothing?
Strict social/security (crime-oriented) conservatism and many left wing values simply depart strongly from my psychology. I prefer reading materials by moderates if possible because they generally present both sides of an issue in varying degrees. I do, however, read libertarian materials (which is a given due to my disposition).
Form your own opinion or your own agenda? I think both are closely related, since a set of political beliefs must be the base of a structure of a political programme. Otherwise, it's just bla, bla, bla... I actually do not have a favourite political writer... I love reading them all, including Marx and Lenin (their books are fantastically cheap! ) Of course, I do tend to agree with the XVIII century Liberals (not to mention a huge list of Christian authors, from Saint Paul to Joseph Raztinger), but I tend to conciliate between many visions and, always, always question the authors, no matter how good the text may sound to me. Well, I do have a favourite (and only because I chose her for my philosophy thesis): Hannah Arendt.
