https://vegasharmon.com/authors/bennets-phylactery/ Recent content in Bennet's Phylactery on Vegas Harmon Hugo en Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://vegasharmon.com/commonplace/goodhart-s-law-civilizational-scale/ Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://vegasharmon.com/commonplace/goodhart-s-law-civilizational-scale/ Boomers and spiritual boomers love to pull up charts and graphs that “show” that today’s young people are “objectively” better off. But the charts look that way because we have burned priceless (but invisible and illegible) goods in exchange for the goods that show up in metrics dashboards: Goodhart’s Law, at civilizational scale. https://vegasharmon.com/commonplace/managerial-liberalism-can-price-everything-but-covenant/ Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://vegasharmon.com/commonplace/managerial-liberalism-can-price-everything-but-covenant/ Managerial liberalism is defined by its rejection of illegible human bonds. Everything must have a price, so that anyone is free to buy it, and the state can judge the transaction to be transparent and fair. What we would call “loyalty” or “honor” or “covenant” can only exist in a managerial society as meaningless ideals — the kind of thing that you are free to daydream about at church.