You Will Not Stampede Me: Essays on Non-Conformism

by Bryan Caplan, Brian Mandeville

Bryan Caplan, Professor of Economics at George Mason University, and New York Times Bestselling Author of Open Borders, The Myth of the Rational Voter, Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids, and The Case Against Education, blogged for EconLog from 2005-2022. His latest book combines the very best of his EconLog writings on non-conformism. You really will live a better life once you learn to question — and, if prudent, defy — popular opinion.

In the title essay, Caplan dissects the top mass hysterias he's experienced. The wars on terrorism, sexism, racism, disease, and war itself were all based on innumerate fear of the problems, combined with ferocious anger against naysayers. No wonder the "cures" were reliably worse than the crises. In a pinch, the people to trust are those who stay calm while others panic. Try to be one of them.

How, though, can non-conformists flourish in a conformist world? With careful strategy. When social sanctions are harsh, wise non-conformists reluctantly conform. Normally, however, they can safely keep their own council. Why? Because the majority is too emotional to competently crush crafty rebels.

Genres: Psychology, Philosophy

207 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 3, 2024

About the author

Bryan Caplan is a professor of economics at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He received his B.S. in economics from University of California, Berkeley and his Ph.D. from Princeton University. His professional work has been devoted to the philosophies of libertarianism and free-market capitalism and anarchism. (He is the author of the Anarchist Theory FAQ.) He has published in American Economic Review, Public Choice, and the Journal of Law and Economics, among others. He is a blogger at the EconLog blog along with Arnold Kling, and occasionally has been a guest blogger at Marginal Revolution with two of his colleagues at George Mason, Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok. He is an adjunct scholar of the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C.

Currently, his primary research interest is public economics. He has criticized the assumptions of rational voters that form the basis of public choice theory, but generally agrees with their conclusions based on his own model of "rational irrationality." Caplan has long disputed the efficacy of popular voter models, in a series of exchanges with Donald Wittman published by the Econ Journal Watch. Caplan outlined several major objections to popular political science and the economics sub-discipline public choice. Caplan later expanded upon this theme in his book The Myth of the Rational Voter (Princeton University Press 2007), in which he responded to the arguments put forward by Wittman in his The Myth of Democratic Failure.

He maintains a website that includes a "Museum of Communism" section, that "provides historical, economic, and philosophical analysis of the political movement known as Communism", to draw attention to human rights violations of which, despite often exceeding those of Nazi Germany, there is little public knowledge. Caplan has also written an online graphic novel called Amore Infernale.

Reviews

[Paul Sand · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Bryan Caplan's fifth book in his series of repackaged blog essays, most if not all from EconLog, a group blog where he posted between 2005 and 2022. (Previous titles: Labor Econ Versus the World; How Evil Are Politicians?; Don't Be a Feminist; Voters as Mad Scientists) The general (and very loose) theme here: how to survive, and even thrive, in a world where your political, economic, and other views are considerably out of the mainstream, while remaining honest and true to yourself. A daunting task!

Given that theme, this is probably Caplan's most "personal" book: lots of biography and personal anecdotes.

I'm not a fan of the format. Shoehorning together disparate blog posts accumulated over the years makes a less than coherent whole. As noted in my previous reports, hyperlinks in the original blog posts have been auto-converted to footnotes in the book's text; this is (to put it mildly) less than convenient if you're interested in following them. I would have, at least, included the posts' URLs as well. You can get reasonable results by Googling the footnote text, if you're willing to take the trouble. (I got the paperback; I don't know if the Kindle versions are easier in this regard.)

But that's kind of a quibble, and I don't mind kicking a few bucks into the Caplan kids' scholarship fund.

I wanted to point out one essay, "Purges and Schisms", which bemoans the sectarian strife between various flavors of libertarians. You'd think that a relatively minuscule movement wouldn't have room for such discord; you'd be wrong.

But, reader, Caplan's EconLog post was from 2015. Nine years ago.

And there, he says it was originally written in 1993! Thirty-one years ago! ("Still seems correct to me, and unfortunately it’s as relevant as ever.")

And just to note its continuing relevance here's Liz Wolfe at Reason from June of this year: How the Libertarian Party Lost Its Way.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun read, provocative, definitely stuff I disagreed with in here, but Caplan’s affability imparts lessons in its own right.