Economists Search For Equilibrium

BICKLEIGH CASTLE

A constant theme in economic thought has been that of equilibrium. But, the search for equilibrium was always elusive. Even Karl Marx in his Das Kapital was under the illusion that an economic system would at some time reach an equilibrium. Others knew better, and it was Joseph Schumpeter, a Harvard professor and economic historian, who was studying business cycles, concluded that the capitalist economic system, and for that matter any economic system did not linger in an equilibrium. He even felt that there was no dynamic equilibrium, and pointed to new commodities as the reason. Economies are constantly subject to innovation he wrote.

The most famous macro economist of all time John Maynard Keynes also concluded that economies rarely reached an equilibrium. This did not stop classical and neoclassical economists from assuming equilibrium in their models. What resulted was the great schism between those that assumed economies would attain equilibrium and those who in face of severe criticism maintained that economics were constantly adjusting and generally were to be found in a state of moving disequilibrium, albeit dynamic.

What amazes one after reading all this history of thought is that the economists who proposed equilibrium did not seem very sophisticated at political science, and after all the field had been named political economy. The reason is obvious. For if you shared one view of politics and wanted to maintain the status quo, whether you were communist, liberal, or conservative, you would want to view the economic world as being in equilibrium.

That you were totally wrong did not matter. You wished to believe in the myth of economic equilibrium. So entrenched were the ideas of the equilibrium people that they would stop students from getting post graduate degrees if they viewed the economic world as in disequilibrium. The left wingers and the right wingers would select leaders and they would agree amongst themselves to maintain an equilibrium of graduates who exposed there respective views of the economy and indirectly political philosophy.

Thus in return for two PhD graduates of equilibrium there would be in return two PhD graduates of disequilibrium. So the result was a state of equilibrium, you might think. But no! The problem was that no matter how much you avoided reality by allowing only mathematical models of equilibrium to pass a PhD, you would end up in disequilibrium because more students wanted to show that economies were in disequilibrium. So to solve the problem, PhD graduates proposing dissertations that exceeded the number of those producing theses of equilibrium were stopped from getting PhDs by being failed, or discouraged, or told to do more work so that they waited five years or more in a queue before attaining their PhDs. Such was the state of disequilibrium at the best British universities in the world when I was a post graduate student.

What is it like now?

The Impact on my Reading and Writing of JK Rowling's Harry Potter Series

As a book writer, I can quite proudly say that my desire to writing and subsequent writing was tremendously influenced by JK Rowling's success with the Harry Potter series of books. I came across Harry quite by accident. Many times, I would visit Borders Books or Barnes and Noble at lunch time in Washington, DC. Books are my passion, and I like all kinds of books, fiction or non-fiction. I am aware that I was aware that he was being promoted. However, my interest was in series of books because I loved to read on the metro, and when I did read I would read a whole series. This was over a period of a decade, at least. There may have been three or more Harry Potter books out there before I really became aware of them.

For several months, Harry would be staring at me from the store book shelves, but I must have missed him many times before I made the plunge and bought the first Harry Potter book in my life. It has had a profound influence on my perspectives in every sense of the word. I bought the book because there was a Harry Potter series of books. This made sense to me since the Harry Potter books require an investment in learning characters. I am not very good in remembering all the different characters in books before losing interest, so I have to think there is a payoff from all the effort.

One of the comments on my own book series of Wuh Lax has been that there are so many characters. To be honest, I don't really care, and to be frank its because I can remember them and I think young people reading my books will remember them. It may be now because they play computer games and in such games one has a host of different characters. It may be easier for kids to remember a larger number of characters. If one invests the time to learn the characters in the Wuh Lax series you will be rewarded. I don't really expect you to buy the first in the series until I have about three or four of the series in print and on the books shelves.

If you have read the first Wuh Lax book, you will know that some of my characters are based on real people who have influenced my life and have passed on to the other side. In my book, they come back as actors within an ethereal realm interacting with our matereal world. The ghosts of the past people are what drives events in our present day life experiences. That I am sure of, so it is not very difficult for me to imagine my mother or my cousin, or former friends and relatives visiting me and my characters in the here and now or in the past. Another thing that you will know is that my book is very philosophical at its roots and has a lot of science in it. The first book is only an introduction to these aspects. My writing will be educational as well as entertaining and will contain all sorts of discoveries.

What the Harry Potter series did for me was show me how to develop a world using words and then populate that world with information and mystery that will ultimately provide entertainment while it educates. The reaction of many people to the Harry Potter series was that it was evil in some ways because it took kids minds away from Jesus Christ or religion. Many churches wanted to ban the book. Of course, this is absolutely against what I felt about the book, the series, and the author. I could relate to Harry as a closet boy, bullied and deprived. Immediately, I wanted him to rise up and be somebody important. What Rowling did was give him a destiny and for that I was eternally grateful because harry Potter really came alive as a being within my mind. He is as real as Captain Aubrey in the Patrick O'brien series, or Hornblower in the Forrester series.

My favorite author, as you may know is Captain Frederick Marryat. He is one of the few writers to satisfy my yearning to read within a single book. Marryat's book, 'Children of the New Forest' was transforming. Another writer, who is stupendous in building a story is Sir Walter Scott, the author of Ivanhoe.

The Processes and Regions of Discovery - 1. The Self

BEAUTIFUL DARTMOOR

The processes of discovery require a sense of personal awareness that we might not realize. We discover things in many ways at many times. Often, we don't realize that we have made a discovery. Then, suddenly our brain kicks in and says, "Wake Up! You have discovered something new. Be aware! Be conscious of what it is that you are perceiving!"

I often meet people who say that they never read fiction, that they are grounded in the real world and don't need the rubbish of imagination to cope with the real world. This is, in my opinion, the gravest of mistakes. It is like saying I do not believe that humour is good for me. Humour is the operation of the imaginary component, when we see logical constructs come in conflict with each other, and we make a discovery about the truth of our reality. It is that we are not real, and we are not part of a real world. We need to understand this fact before we can make any progress in the world of invention and innovation.

I have determined four broad areas or types of personal discovery, which can actually include scientific discovery and invention. I would recommend that you develop your skills in each of these groups moving to the next level as you progress. Unlike the discovery process in some teachings, I see the discovery of the world as the last stage and do not put primacy on self discovery as the end of the process. But, I do see self discovery as essential before world discovery.

1. The Self
2. The Group
3. The Roots of Being
4. The World

The greatest discovery region is that of world discovery. That is why you exist, not self discovery. Self discovery is only a pre-condition for finding and then be enabled to make true discoveries about the world, to invent new technologies and understandings. Ever wonder why those who are too religious or self centered don't invent useful things for the world, don't make things that enable real progress in the world! They are too wrapped up in themselves.

Most people get the sequence of discovery wrong and end the processes of discovery within themselves. This is not correct. Discover yourself first then the world. You will find that as you enter the last process and make discoveries about your world, you will be strengthening the processes of self discovery automatically without effort, but initially you need to engage in self discovery:

These types of discovery are related to how we process information that forms the basis of our discoveries. They do not tell us what we discover, but direct us towards the processing that goes on and the motivation behind discovery. What we don't often realize is that we discover things about ourselves and our world because our psychology enables us to or we don't discover things because our psychology disables us from discovery.

Discovery associated with yourself or the self

What you need to discover in the self-discovery process is what your brain is willing to let you discover. You brain is a very fast component of your being so you may not be aware that it is even an enabler or dis-abler of your desire and directions of discovery. You may not even be aware that you need to tune into what your brain is actually doing. If you don't you are captive to your brain and all the limitations that it places on you to keep you from discovering yourself.

Some people go to the point of disabling the brain through drugs. But while these methods may work for a time they are addictive in that they are very unreliable after repeat attempts and more of the drug is required. No! Don't use drugs to discover yourself. They are very bad. Use your own will to discover yourself.

Better still there are some writers that help in the self discovery enabling process. Authors such as Norman Vincent Peale very quickly draw you into methods that target your inner self discovery mechanisms. Alternative, you will find that some fiction writers are very strong stimulants of inner self discovery mechanisms. Tolkien, in particular, is extremely helpful. I am not referring to the films that were based on his books, which fall into the group discovery process, but on your reading the books of Tolkien alone and seeking to comprehend what he is saying to you about how you can discover who you are.

Read the Hobbit and then the Lord of the Rings. When you have finished these books you will have discovered yourself, I assure you. But, you must read the books. It is not the visual presentation of Tolkien's ideas from outside that will help you discover yourself, but your own mental images of the what he writes, which will trigger mechanisms within your mind that will enable your to begin to discover yourself, perhaps deeply, for the first time.

Another writer that I can recommend for self discovery is Mark Twain. His books about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn are particularly good at helping one to discover oneself. The thing is though that you must read the books for yourself quietly and privately.

When you read, find a comfortable place that is very quiet. Turn off the radio, music, turn the light down to soft, have something to drink beside you and a few treats to munch as you read. Prepare yourself for a long trip into the worlds these authors create. As you enter these worlds you will discover many things about yourself.

Think about what Tolkien or Twain are saying. Try to get inside the characters and build mental images of the worlds in which the characters live. As you do, you will develop skills needed to discover yourself, awareness's that you will find valuable in your self discovery process.