Is Marianne Williamson Crazy?

Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure. (Marianne Williamson)

Knowledge is power. (Sir Francis Bacon)

These are the two quotes that I put at the top of my syllabus when I taught the Masters' Macro course at San Jose State University in the spring of 2009. I find both inspiring and I wanted to inspire the students to go beyond whatever thoughts of inadequacy they might have. It might have worked for some of them; I'm not sure. I would not use the Williamson quote again because in retrospect I fear that it caused people in the bottom third of the class to think that they could be powerful without working. But I still find it inspiring.

Here's a segment from a recent National Review article, by Jim Geraghty, on Williamson:

Williamson frequently weighed in on political matters with unpredictable and unexpected views. A 1993 profile by Knight Ridder News Service declared, “If it were up to Williamson, President Clinton would have summoned a group of new-age leaders, say, even Williamson, to talk to David Koresh in spiritual terms, to encourage a peaceful solution” to the Waco standoff.

A peaceful solution to the Waco standoff is better than burning men, women, and children? Wow, she must be a nut.

I've noticed a lot of Republicans making fun of Marianne Williamson's performance in the second Democratic debate last week. Was she really that nutty? I mean compared to the others? I didn't see it. Now advocating that private health insurance be prohibited, which Kamala Harris did: now that 's nutty.

Postscript :

I notice that Tyler Cowen over at Bloomberg has highlighted Williamson too, along with Kamala Harris. Tyler writes, "I do not doubt that the values expressed are sincere and represent the actual priorities of the candidates." Really? If he doesn't doubt Kamala Harris's sincerity about her expressed values, he has not been paying attention. See here and here.

Tyler also writes:

Another out-of-tune message was when Tulsi Gabbard attempted to direct attention to war, nuclear weapons and foreign policy. Those issues also have gone nowhere, except as a possible means of attacking Trump.

I'm not sure she's out of tune. We'll see. One refreshing aspect of Rep. Gabbard, though, is how she criticizes Trump when she disagrees with him but reaches out to him when she thinks he might be persuaded to be on her side on issues of war and peace. That shows that she's more serious about war and peace than all of the front runners.

The post Is Marianne Williamson Crazy? appeared first on Econlib.

作者暂无likerid, 赞赏暂由本网站代持，当作者有likerid后会全部转账给作者（我们会尽力而为）。


Support author:
Author's Filecoin address:
Or you can use Likecoin to support author: