{"id":3858,"date":"2005-05-23T19:51:33","date_gmt":"2005-05-23T23:51:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/formerlyknownas\/2005\/05\/23\/luck-or-individual-effort\/"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:57:42","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:57:42","slug":"luck-or-individual-effort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2005\/05\/23\/luck-or-individual-effort\/","title":{"rendered":"luck or individual effort?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

     potluck<\/FONT><\/EM><\/STRONG><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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Matt Miller asks whether “luck” or “individual effort” matters most “in determining <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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where people end up in life.”  He notes that both Democrats and Independents <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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overwhelming said luck in a survey he commissioned, while Republicans said it’s <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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effort.  (NYT<\/EM>, <\/FONT>Taking Luck Seriously<\/A><\/FONT>, May 21, 2005).  Miller states:<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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“Try too hard to wipe out the inequities spawned by luck, and you <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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banish luck’s societal benefits and go down the road of communism. <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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But harness a healthy awe for luck, and you expand the bounds of <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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empathy in ways that make a living wage for poor workers and great <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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schools for poor children national imperatives. What we’re led to is the <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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public agenda missing today, built around passionate commitments – <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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by both liberals and conservatives – to (1) equal opportunity and (2) a <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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minimally decent life, achieved in ways that harness market forces for <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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public purposes.” <\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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\"dice\"  If Republicans won’t act on these moral imperatives, Miller thinks Democrats <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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should take luck seriously — making America more just by forging a victory <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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based on “values that can win.” <\/FONT>  <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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horseflies’ and bees’
big lucky day…
blossom-filled temple<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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<\/FONT><\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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donning my umbrella-hat–
cherry blossoms portend
a lucky day<\/EM><\/FONT><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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 <\/DIV>
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Kobayashi ISSA<\/STRONG><\/FONT><\/A>, <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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translated by <\/FONT>David G. Lanoue<\/STRONG><\/FONT><\/A>  <\/DIV>
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 <\/DIV><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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\"tiny  Your editor apologizes for all the webserver problems that have made<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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accessing f\/k\/a<\/EM> so difficult the past few days.  I’m afraid that no amount of effort on <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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my part will solve the problem.  Pray to the great Webmaster in the sky.<\/FONT><\/DIV><\/FONT><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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<\/FONT>
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\"tiny supplemental<\/STRONG><\/EM> (midnight, May 24):  Sarni at Infernality<\/EM> chewed over and posted her Stick<\/A>.<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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She has some interesting choices and — being into fanstasy literature — alternative  <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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Stick universes.  Talk about generation gap: not one of our choices matched.  Not one <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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of our genres, either.  I’m again <\/FONT>surprised that so many people re-read books.  Has there <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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been a study about personalities <\/FONT>that re-read books or watch particular movies or tv <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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episodes repeatedly (as adults reading for themselves, and not for children) as <\/FONT>compared <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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to <\/FONT>those who are one-off-ers?  [Note my <\/FONT>Britsy idiom.]   I spent years recording <\/FONT>hundreds <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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of movies (for personal use, of <\/FONT>course) <\/FONT>and have not watched even one of them <\/FONT>in the <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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past five years.  I’m glad to see that Sarni <\/FONT>feels no need for lugging a How-to-Survive-in-<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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the-Wilderness book.  That’s probably <\/FONT>part of the basic curriculum in Aussie elementary <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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school — Walkabout Ed.   Stop over to Infernality<\/A><\/EM> and see Sarni’s Stick and shtick.  Thanks <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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for shaking and <\/FONT>sharing your <\/FONT>Stick, Ms. S!!  <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT>  <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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“tinyredcheck”  I feel lucky today: two of my favorite haiku poets agreed over the <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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weekend to be Honored <\/FONT>Guests here at f\/k\/a:  Tom Clausen<\/A> of Ithaca, NY, and <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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Yu Chang<\/A> of <\/FONT>Schenectady, NY.   I will be formally introducing each of them this <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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week, but <\/FONT>you’ve worked hard (or are just lucky) and deserve a double sneak <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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preview — with haiku and <\/FONT>senryu by Tom <\/FONT>and Yu from the latest issue of frogpond,<\/EM><\/A> <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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the Journal of the Haiku <\/FONT>Society of <\/FONT>America.<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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from Tom Clausen<\/STRONG>:<\/FONT><\/EM><\/DIV>
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just oatmeal<\/DIV>
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the waitress says<\/DIV>
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“enjoy”<\/DIV>
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 <\/DIV>
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 <\/DIV>
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 <\/DIV>
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 <\/DIV>
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out of its reflecting pool<\/DIV>
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      the windblown<\/DIV>
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          fountain<\/DIV>
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 <\/DIV>
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 <\/DIV>
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 <\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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from Yu Chang<\/STRONG>:<\/EM><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT><\/EM> <\/DIV>
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pumpkin patch<\/DIV>
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this one is big enough<\/DIV>
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for my son<\/DIV>
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 <\/DIV>
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 <\/DIV>
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 <\/DIV>
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 <\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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taking turns<\/DIV>
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to stretch their necks<\/DIV>
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a pair of herons<\/DIV>
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 <\/DIV>
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“THNLogoF” “THNLogoG”<\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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 <\/DIV>
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from <\/EM><\/FONT>dagosan<\/EM><\/STRONG><\/FONT><\/A>  <\/EM><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT><\/EM> <\/DIV>
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<\/FONT><\/EM> <\/DIV>
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last week of May<\/DIV>
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un<\/EM>packing<\/DIV>
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the winter quilt<\/DIV>
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 <\/DIV>
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     [May 23, 2005]<\/FONT><\/EM><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT><\/EM> <\/DIV>
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 <\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/FONT><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

     potluck Matt Miller asks whether “luck” or “individual effort” matters most “in determining where people end up in life.”  He notes that both Democrats and Independents overwhelming said luck in a survey he commissioned, while Republicans said it’s effort.  (NYT, Taking Luck Seriously, May 21, 2005).  Miller states: “Try too hard to wipe out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2926],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pre-06-2006"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-10e","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3858"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13206,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3858\/revisions\/13206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}