Economics as a discipline profited from manufactured doubt rather than suffering from it

Evidence

It might seem that agnotological interventions in an academic discipline could be greeted as an unwelcome source of meddling; for instance, many a climate scientist might ruefully wish that he had never drawn the attentions of the NTC. But in this, as in so many other respects, economics has been the outlier, because one might argue that the corporate body of orthodox economists has actually benefited enormously from the escalation of cacophony, rendering it relatively more immune to the wrath of a disillusioned populace. Precisely because of the material and intellectual conditions identified above, economists generally are not so very offended by the gush of tainted money and dubious activity pouring into the various extremities of the professional citadel of economics since the crisis. In short, the promotion of doubt over “what orthodox economists really believe” has proven a convenient smokescreen behind which the profession can evade the pitchfork-wielding populace, all the while pursuing its conventional practice of telling its patrons what they want to hear. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 633

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The counterintuitive core: a discipline’s manufactured cacophony becomes its protective shield, inverting the usual assumption that external meddling weakens a field.
• SEED: Angles: ‘How confusion immunizes a profession’ — comparing economics’ tolerance of doubt with climate science’s vulnerability.
• XREF: connects to: Economists’ persistence in error needs institutional explanation, not just psychology — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 490; The Great Recession triggered a redoubling of deliberate ignorance production in economics — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 629; Economics functions as conflict over belief rather than objective science — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 779 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Economics functions as conflict over belief rather than objective science #expands (0.85) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 779
• Behavioral economics gets coopted to excuse rather than reform orthodox theory #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 745
• Finance escaping crisis consequences legitimated the economics profession dodging blame #corroborates (0.75) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 583