The Daily Planet #24: On Hirschman

A.O. Hirschman is one of my favorite eclectic thinkers, but that's not the only reason why he's starring in the Daily Planet.

A.O. Hirschman acting as an interpreter for Anton Dostler at the Nuremberg trials

I believe our planetary condition is a combination of colonialism and war at planetary scale, and in that sense, is a continuation of the terrible decades that culminated in the Second World War. We don’t experience it much because that violence has mostly been directed towards the non-human world.

Anyways, Hirschman's experience of economic development after the devastation of WWII is a useful guide to the world we might want to create when we come to our planetary senses.

The Development Economist Who Wasn’t

Once dismissed from the field he helped found, Albert O. Hirschman feels newly relevant.