Sociology
Irrationality of Politics
Monday 12-250pm
Instructor: Sam Buemi
Jason Rios
Video
In the video Tedx-Michael Huemer- Irrationality of Politics (Huemer, 2012), he explains some irrationality of the War on Terror and Protectionism. He explains that more people are killed in the United States by people who are not terrorists than buy actual terrorists over the Last 50 years. He also explains that there are more people killed in war on terror (serviceman) than people killed by terrorists. He also talks about protectionism in which many political leaders and ordinary people support protectionism, virtually every economist is against it and that protectionism harms our own economy.
Michael Huemer states that political information is costly and voters realize that their probability of influencing public policies is at or about a 0% chance, and people will not become politically informed. Rationality is costly which prevents us from believing what we want. The problem is that people will not think rationally about political issues and to be irrational is against the interest of society. The worst social problem is human irrationality which prevents us from solving other problems.
Michael Huemer explains that there are signs of being irrational which can include becoming angry and your own strong opinions before gathering information. He mentions dogmatism which an individual sticks with their opinion as they gather information. And he explains that the last sign of being irrational is where seeking information from sources only the individual agrees with and thinks most people are evil. He concludes by providing a book and a paper he wrote about “Why people are irrational about politics.”
Topic
The topic I chose from the textbook is Power & Authority. Max Weber pointed out 3 ways of Power and authority, traditional, rational-legal, and charismatic authority. Traditional authority is also a source of strength for patriarchy, the domination...