WHAT SHE SAID: “I SMOKE BECAUSE I’M HOPING FOR AN EARLY DEATH/AND I NEED TO CLING TO SOMETHING….” Out of all the songs on Meat Is Murder this is probably the one with the soundest political philosophy. It is anti-rationalist and it acknowledges that if someone does things you wouldn’t do, she probably doesn’t do them for the reasons you think she does. A surprisingly rare insight.

In an extension of my previous post about evo-psych fear of praising gender, I’d like to add that in general the reasons professors come up with for the things we do don’t match up very well to our real reasons for doing them. A political philosophy based on rationalism will a) always place experts over subjects, placing those who can articulate their desires in contemporary jargon over those who insist on speaking like poor people or weirdos; and b) always turn mere experts into Pharisees, who believe that because they lead the lives their culture supports they are morally-equipped to tell the rest of us who we are. Or, as the current “nudge” political-philosophy fad would have it, they’re equipped to structure our incentives.

Don’t expect them to thank or forgive you.