Sheldon Whitehouse doesn't think so. This week we had the extraordinary spectacle of a United States Senator -- Whitehouse -- all but calling a conservative economist a liar during a hearing.The word he used was "meretricious," which when used on the Senate floor is worse than anything Jay-Z or Nas ever said about each other. Among the meanings given for "meretricious" by Merriam-Webster is "having the nature of prostitution" and "tawdrily and falsely attractive."
Color me impressed with Sen. Whitehouse's command of language.
Was he uncivil? Arguably. But I'd say it's even less "civil," under multiple definitions of that word, to mislead policymakers and the public on behalf of counter-productive (and literally deadly) austerity.
As I've said, I prefer civility too. But sometimes people idealize their own personal preferences rather than facing the situation -- and the tough battles -- at hand. (See "Obama, Barack.") The ancient Greeks understood that a virtue employed in the wrong context becomes a vice. They even invented a dramatic form to illustrate that: tragedy.
The truth is, economics is neither "dismal" nor a "science." It's a heated, highly ideological and frequently unscientific enterprise. True, I hate the tone of the debates sometimes. I hate my own tone sometimes. I'll continue to struggle with it and try to improve it.
But there's a war on. Corporate interests are killing the middle class and depriving poorer people of hope, opportunity, and basic human needs, and they're using economics as a weapon They say truth is the first casualty in any war, and maybe so. But can't we give it a decent funeral, or is that too "uncivil" to mention?
(UPDATE: I see that Krugman addressed this question today too.)
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