The Power of Decent Is Decision Making

5min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

The power of decent is decision making, generally, from bottom up. We often forget about the dynamic nature of voluntary association. To develop institutions and norms that allow that to happen are not things whe want, i think, to sign in advance. It's a miracle that there's any co operation, that there're any trust.

Traditions and norms can seem at best out-of-touch and at worst offensive to many a modern mind. But Israeli computer scientist and Talmud scholar Moshe Koppel argues that traditions and norms--if they evolve slowly--create trust, develop our capacity for deferred gratification, and even, in the case of how we prepare cassava, protect us from poisoning. Listen as the author of Judaism Straight Up: Why Real Religion Endures talks with EconTalk Russ Roberts about tradition, religion, tribalism, resilience, and emergent order.