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Alsadius comments on Open thread, 14-20 July 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion

3 Post author: David_Gerard 14 July 2014 11:16AM

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Comment author: Alsadius 20 July 2014 02:54:48PM 2 points [-]

That's certainly one, but there's an even easier argument to make - Burkean conservatism. Your nation's identity is built around stuff that's probably worked pretty well for it in past(or else it probably wouldn't be a nation today). As such, it's got a higher prior probability of working out in your local circumstances. It's not a large effect, of course, but it's a real one, particularly for successful nations.