I think that every now and then that someone comes along who is what we might call a ‘thorny’ character. De Soto, might be put in that class by some people but for me… I admire his practical attitudes and courage, even though I may not agree 100% with his politicals. I would urge you to watch this… there are some interesting points made about global politics and the way in which we can make a difference. That and you can learn about this interesting man.
Powered by MightyAdsense
Should say thanks to Mike for sending me this!
Luke,
Thanks for responding to the work of this clearly remarkable man- Hernando de Soto. I was browsing through The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, where I ran into some remarkable stuff, ala – The scientific community has generally felt that it deserved
more funding and that, rather than setting priorities, it should be possible to do everything. There is certainly a point where that is not a conceivable argument and that time may be now. More to come:
As one American
scholar observed,”None of us predicted these events, and all of us could explain why they were inevitable.” Would it not be wiser
to stick with R.G. Collingwood’s injunction that the historians task is only to show how the present has come into existence? History
says Collingwood bluntly, ends with the present.
Somehow I remembered poor old De Soto and his controversial book on-The Mystery of Capital. So I decided to give it another thought and study the matter more deeply and seriously. He is no panacea,but at least he formulates some important questions
that are tough to answer, in a turbulent situation where we began to run out of serious answers full of dignity as we used to at least pretend.-”Reality is that which,
when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.”;”A painting in a museum hears more ridiculous opinions than anything else in the world.”;”You are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.”;”You judge me but you don’t know me.You will drown in your own hypocrisy before you realize I speak the truth.”;None are mare hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” -Quotes I love. And a few questions:
- Do countries have true moral obligations? -Starting with world poverty and overpopulation? WOW, that was cool!
Our dear Luke has the privilege to answer.
Luke,
Maybe I am just stupid, but I couldn’t,find
anything definite by De Soto, that could indicate what exactly impressed you from the pile that was written by him, his followers,
sympathizers and his opponents? Give me a
lift on these issues, Ala – 7 signs of a failing relationship, etc.
Your humble fan -Mike.
Hi Mike,
The main thing I admire about him is his pragmatism. He is willing to stick in on the line to push forward on issues that he believes in. So I may not agree with his politics but you have admire that practical approach. So many academics lock themselves away… never to be heard from again and yet regularly find themselves in Sloan or Academy of Management (or to a lesser extent MISQ!). But, the question I have had for sometime is what about practical relevance? What about impact? What kind of impact does the research have, is it making a change? Or is has it helped. I know for a fact that most very theoretical, highly statistical pieces may hold some interest, but who reads and uses those kinds of things? Does it help? So in that way I admire De Soto, same way as I might admire Richard Rorty too!
He does formulate the questions that are tough to answer, but his critics might argue that he hasn’t answered them. But, we could hope by raising them that people begin to answer them and move on to explain better ways to fix thngs. Such is the case we our hereos in the systems movement! I recently read the work Werner Ulrich and he was talking about getting people to make critical decisions and to argue for change as the starting point (and possibily the end point). If we can begin to challenge these boundaries we may eventually see change emerge.
As for his work, I am not sure, but I can say he has shaped my understanding of policy somewhat? I think he has… maybe he hasn’t!!!
Hi Luke,
Interesting! I tend to agree with most of the things you reflect upon. Unfortunately, “WE” are not very pragmatic,most of the time we don’t have the solutions, but at least we do try sometimes to ask some important questions.Nobody says that we must answer them. At least we can ask popping out of some polished academic journal. Ha,ha,ha! you made me laugh when you mentioned the heroes that are constantly perishing in the system’s movement battle field. They are the true believers. So let us start challenging the boundaries,invent things,so that we can understand them and gradually see change emerge. but please remember, as I argued
in The Harvard Business J., there are unfortunately only about 3 persons per 10,000,000-people in the world that can qualify as top class minds, bouncing around
on our mad planet.I am in the middle of an important article coordinated with some of the best Chinese and Russian minds, that will spell out quite a lot of things, that obstruct humanity, but with no immediate impact guarantied.Life can be a
little disappointing sometimes.
Hi Mike,
I cannot wait to read this. You must send it… if you haven’t already. Your comment about Harvard Business Jounral made me laugh, I am seeing a lot of that at the moment. People catch on to other people’s ideas but they don’t take them forward… and yes I need to stop being so shameful in my generalisations! Yes let’s challenge the boundaries… it will be fun to do so and reinvent some things…
Especially those things that can change other things!