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Conflicts of interest: Difference between revisions
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{{a|g|}}In which we find our intrepid [[Jolly contrarian|contrarian]] once again standing alone, among the crumbs, crusts of bread and crossfire hurricanes. | {{a|g|}}In which we find our intrepid [[Jolly contrarian|contrarian]] once again standing alone, among the crumbs, crusts of bread and crossfire hurricanes. | ||
[[Conflicts of interest]] aren’t some kind of ''regrettable'' externality of life: they ''are'' life. For if one adopts the dystopian view — well, you might call it dystopian; some of us find it strangely comforting — that if left alone, all human beings will instinctively feather their own nests at every opportunity they get — we should see [[conflicts of interest]] not as some kind of canker, to be identified and expunged wherever we find | [[Conflicts of interest]] aren’t some kind of ''regrettable'' [[externality]] of life: they ''are'' life. For if one adopts the dystopian view — well, you might call it dystopian; some of us find it strangely comforting — that if left alone, all human beings will instinctively feather their own nests at every opportunity they get — we should see [[conflicts of interest]] not as some kind of canker, to be identified and expunged wherever we find them, but as a fundamental part of the operating system — as inevitable as getting grease on your hands when you handle a bike-chain. | ||
There is an argument — one I suppose I just made up, but others may have beaten me to it — that the difference between a ''practical'' philosophy and an ''idiotic'' one is the degree to which it encodes as its starting assumption, that all men — ''and'' women, though in our times it’s easy to forget that — are ''jerks'', and have to physically restrain themselves from scoffing all the biscuits, and even then only do so if they think they’ll get busted if they don’t. | There is an argument — one I suppose I just made up, but others may have beaten me to it — that the difference between a ''practical'' philosophy and an ''idiotic'' one is the degree to which it encodes as its starting assumption, that all men — ''and'' women, though in our times it’s easy to forget that — are ''jerks'', and have to physically restrain themselves from scoffing all the biscuits, and even then only do so if they think they’ll get busted if they don’t. | ||