In The New Criterion, Wilfred M. McClay suggests that a genuine commitment to freedom of speech requires choosing a “regime” (i.e., legal and social framework) of constant trial, one marked by two-way dialogue rather than a self-referential repetition of one’s own views, and one oriented to attaining a social end rather than merely making noise for its own sake.
At Least He Paid his Losing Bet
Paul Ehrlich, author of the spectacularly incorrect 1968 best-seller The Population Bomb, recently died at 93. Despite his longevity, Ronald Bailey points out in Reason, Ehrlich did not live to see even one of his numerous apocalyptic predictions come true. The world’s population certainly grew, but not merely larger, richer and fatter too. Most famously, Ehrlich once bet economist Julian Simon that the world was approaching economic collapse – but in 1990 had to mail Simon a cheque.
