The Absurd American Dialogue

John Adams presumably won his historical discussion (vigorous but respectful dialogue), with Jefferson. The French philosophers and France, the nation with which Jefferson identified, devolved into the violence of the guillotine, the French Revolution and the autocracy of Napoleon. 

Adams, on the other hand, admired the pragmatic philosophy of the Scots. David Hume and Adam Smith explained that government like markets, are subject to emotions and the subconscious. “Reason holds the helm but the gales of emotion prevail.” 

The Absurdity

Adams’ proposition is absurd. It is true that the denouement of the French philosophers of the Enlightenment was bloodshed and autocracy. The outcome of U.S. slavery and native American removal was the U.S. Civil War, unprecedented internecine bloodshed, uncivil warfare and a denigration of the earth's physical environment that continues to this day. 

How do we create the Noosphere when we are destroying the biosphere?

Dialogue?

Can economic development and the building of wealth proceed without bloodshed and without “market incentives that result in taking wealth from others” rather than in creating new wealth? Can we create the noosphere before destroying the biosphere?

We’ll see.