Reginald Houseman

Donnachaidh wrote:This is probably the most likely reason. Remember, Houseman grew up in a culture that consciously embraces religious toleration and has for over 500 years. There's also the cultural background of the original Manitcoran colonists, which also embraced religious toleration.

When someone doesn't look at history from a critical perspective and fails to understand the conflicts they will often assume everyone thinks like they do. This is especially true among those who live in isolated bubbles such as academia.

See Flag in Exile (I think) for a discussion where the religious background of most of the original Manticorian colonists is compared and contrasted with the religious background of most of the original Grayson colonists.

namelessfly wrote:Just because Houseman did not model his arguments on game theory one should not presume he is ignorant of game theory. His ignorance of the intensity of the religious hatred between Grayson and Masada is the problem. The fact that Manticore is such an intensely secular culture makes it extremely difficult for any Manticoran to understand the intensity of the religious animosity between Grayson and Masada and why those differences cannot be mediated. Honor Harrington did not understand the religious issues either. However; her knowledge of military history allowed her to understand that wars often occur even (usually) when war was irrational.

namelessfly wrote:Until they run into Battleships, then their screwed.

BobfromSydney wrote:I just recently re-read the Honor of the Queen.

I'm not exactly sure if Houseman is actually a good economist or people just say he is.

I mean, what kind of economist has never heard of game theory? According to the Honorverse wiki he's got a PhD and is 'renowned' and considered to be 'brilliant'. Considering the importance of game theory to economics and that the rudimental introductory example of game theory is 'Prisoner's Dilemma' (not to mention 'War') I am at a loss to understand why Houseman couldn't see that 'cooperating' when the counter-party chooses to 'defect' would lead to a unsatisfactory result. I imagine that if someone uttered the words 'Nash Equilibrium' to Houseman he would just stare blankly at them, possibly while drooling on his shirt.

Maybe in the next two thousand years economics truly lives down to its title of 'the dismal science' and is considered a lowlier profession than 'garbage technician'. Consequently the best practitioners would nevertheless constitute the dregs of society?

For me to take a villain seriously I have to at least respect some quality about them... Rob S. Pierre was intelligent, St. Just was disciplined and ruthless, even Cordelia Ransom was terrifyingly homicidal. Houseman? Maybe he is a good economist and just experiences a mental short circuit due to his political prejudices, but he just comes across as dumb to me, as well as contemptible for his conduct.

Donnachaidh wrote:This is probably the most likely reason. Remember, Houseman grew up in a culture that consciously embraces religious toleration and has for over 500 years. There's also the cultural background of the original Manitcoran colonists, which also embraced religious toleration.

When someone doesn't look at history from a critical perspective and fails to understand the conflicts they will often assume everyone thinks like they do. This is especially true among those who live in isolated bubbles such as academia.

See Flag in Exile (I think) for a discussion where the religious background of most of the original Manticorian colonists is compared and contrasted with the religious background of most of the original Grayson colonists.

namelessfly wrote:Just because Houseman did not model his arguments on game theory one should not presume he is ignorant of game theory. His ignorance of the intensity of the religious hatred between Grayson and Masada is the problem. The fact that Manticore is such an intensely secular culture makes it extremely difficult for any Manticoran to understand the intensity of the religious animosity between Grayson and Masada and why those differences cannot be mediated. Honor Harrington did not understand the religious issues either. However; her knowledge of military history allowed her to understand that wars often occur even (usually) when war was irrational.

Direwolf18 wrote:The problem with Houseman is he is the epitome of the Ivory Tower intellectual who is CLEARLY smarter then everyone else under creation, and the lesser peasants should bow down to his immensely more qualified intellect.

Oh and he has a strong case of tunnel vision.

cthia wrote:[snip - htm]
There is no way in hell that game theory can be used to predict anything to do with the outcome of one much less two religious contestants. Um, devoutly religious.

BobfromSydney wrote:[snip - htm]
Houseman would rather than taking an Aristotelian approach where he assumes he can figure it all out in his own head because he is so much smarter than everyone else.

Commodore Oakius wrote:**quote="Donnachaidh"**This is probably the most likely reason. Remember, Houseman grew up in a culture that consciously embraces religious toleration and has for over 500 years. There's also the cultural background of the original Manitcoran colonists, which also embraced religious toleration.

When someone doesn't look at history from a critical perspective and fails to understand the conflicts they will often assume everyone thinks like they do. This is especially true among those who live in isolated bubbles such as academia.

See Flag in Exile (I think) for a discussion where the religious background of most of the original Manticorian colonists is compared and contrasted with the religious background of most of the original Grayson colonists.

namelessfly wrote:Just because Houseman did not model his arguments on game theory one should not presume he is ignorant of game theory. His ignorance of the intensity of the religious hatred between Grayson and Masada is the problem. The fact that Manticore is such an intensely secular culture makes it extremely difficult for any Manticoran to understand the intensity of the religious animosity between Grayson and Masada and why those differences cannot be mediated. Honor Harrington did not understand the religious issues either. However; her knowledge of military history allowed her to understand that wars often occur even (usually) when war was irrational.

Direwolf18 wrote:The problem with Houseman is he is the epitome of the Ivory Tower intellectual who is CLEARLY smarter then everyone else under creation, and the lesser peasants should bow down to his immensely more qualified intellect.

Oh and he has a strong case of tunnel vision.**/quote**

He is also a armchair business man. Why should a little thing like religon get in the way of profits? Houseman is Capitalism with blinders. I love capitalism but it must take into account the fact that people with differences, religious and non-religious, hellbent on killing eachother dont really care about profits over death of the opposition.

He is a great classical classroom economist, White tower intellectual, but in the real world, he fails to see things that overule profit.

Direwolf18 wrote:The problem with Houseman is he is the epitome of the Ivory Tower intellectual who is CLEARLY smarter then everyone else under creation, and the lesser peasants should bow down to his immensely more qualified intellect.

Oh and he has a strong case of tunnel vision.