The Noonan Award

In the fine tradition started by Andrew Sullivan, I've decided to establish a new award. It's called the Noonan Award, and it goes to pundits/commentators/bloggers who resort to an argument or line of reasoning to make a relatively minor point without realizing that the argument or line of reasoning actually undermines virtually everything that particular pundit/commentator/blogger believes in. Why call it the Noonan award? Well, it's named after Wall Street Journal columnist and former Reagan speech-writer Peggy Noonan, who seems to fall into this logical trap with impressive regularity.

Her latest column contains a real doozy. Indeed it's hard to imagine that someone like Noonan actually wrote the following sentences:

When people have complete professional security
they are more likely in time to show a new
conceit. I don't know why this is, but I think it's
connected to the fact that they're lucky, and it
seems somehow hardwired in human nature
that when people are lucky they come to think
they deserve it: It's not luck, it's virtue.

Where is Noonan going with this? Is she about to renounce her long-held beliefs regarding tax policy, welfare, social security, health care, etc.? Of course not. She's actually using this argument to make a minor (and nonsensical) point about the Supreme Court's recent Kelo decision. She continues (pretending to be a "liberal" Supreme Court Justice):

And since it's virtue my decisions are by their
nature virtuous. I think I'll decree that local
government, if it judges it necessary, can
throw grandma out of the house and turn
her tired little neighborhood into a box store
that will yield higher tax revenues. Thus
Kelo v. New London is born. I decree it.

For reasons that hardly need explication, Noonan's characterization of the Kelo case is beyond stupid. But for the purposes of this post, that's neither here nor there (if you want to know why it's stupid, see these previous posts).

Let's instead focus on the premise of Noonan's argument, her observation that it is "somehow hardwired in human nature that when people are lucky they come to think they deserve it." I completely agree, though I highly doubt that Noonan has truly internalized the implications of her own words. Why? Because I think the very phenomenon she describes goes a long way toward explaining why conservatives support the economic policies that they do. In fact, I think that recognition of the role that luck plays in life inevitably leads one to adopt "liberal" positions on most major issues of economic policy (with the possible exception of free trade).

I think that, generally speaking, conservatives have a tendency to underestimate the role that luck plays in separating the haves from the have- nots in life. There's a tendency to believe that the wealthy deserve every penny they've earned and that the poor can pull themselves up by their own bootstraps if they so choose. Everything is a function of hard work and determination. There is often very little appreciation of how unlevel the playing field is or the fact that all success stories involve not just hard work, but a lot of other things going right (for example, avoiding illness or injury).

I think that people who fully appreciate the role that luck plays in life tend to be more supportive of policies that help protect people against misfortune and that help level the playing field, policies such a universal healthcare, a social safety net, greater funding for public education, etc. In short, they tend to be liberals.

Anyway, long story short, I find it incredibly ironic that Peggy Noonan, of all people, would comment that people who are lucky tend to think they deserve it. I think her observation about human nature goes a long way toward explaining (and discrediting) a wide range of Republican economic policies which I'm positive that she whole-heartedly supports. For that particular bit of cognitive dissonance, Peggy Noonan becomes the first ever recipient of the aptly-named Noonan Award.

If you come across any other nominees for the Noonan Award--from either side of the political spectrum--feel free to send them in.