Everybody In
The last discussion about the resistance to a "public option" in the healthcare reform leads to some critical points. First, I believe such a two tiered plan is bound to fail because those with the greatest risk factors are statistically poorer and so will end up in the "second tier", forcing taxes to be raised and the plans popularity to diminish. Insurance companies will see to it that failure is hastened so that they can get back to business as usual and a "national health plan" is buried forever.
It is fascinating to me how the same people who insist we live in a "post-class" society see nothing contradictory in the concept of a "two tier healthcare system". My fishing clients last week were a retired doctor and radiologist and they were adamant that any government regulation of fees was unacceptable. They truly consider themselves the best and the brightest ,deserving of luxurious lifestyles and lavish rewards. They are not used to mingling with commoners socially and would have no problem flashing their Platinum Card and using a private entrance to the Health Care Center. They would not wait in line with the unwashed masses voluntarily yet would insist that a unified "We the People" exists in America, one that is "right of center" and searching for "moderation". I say any National/Universal Healthcare Plan would need to treat everyone exactly the same so that social unity can be built.
On a different note, in the last post we delved into Mind and Self a little bit and Gregrandar seemed perplexed I was unable to distinquish between reason and instinct in my own actions/reactions. I remain convinced the hegemonic power of capitalist ideological/ cultural production makes this task difficult for everyone and if he believes himself immune he is mistaken. I watched the film Into the Wild last night, which touches on some of these themes that kultur has introduced, ( our lost ecstatic/ authentic life )as this kid searches for meaning and wisdom and freedom on his own personal "ecstatic" voyage. Very Homer-esque with a dash of Freud ( parental issues) and a pinch of Huck Finn, Tom Saywer and Jack Kerouac/ London. I spent my own youth "on the road" and could relate to a point but at some point you realize Enlightened Adventure is all about Me.
Because it was the classic Modern Naval Gazer about salvation and redemption and nothing about politics or social development I thought it failed (and he failed) as an American Story. I am much more interested in the story Che Bob will have to tell when he returns from Chiapas. He took a group of students into a Zapatista caracol to learn language and a new/old way of revolutionary living. Nature and Society. Self-development and politics.
posted by troutsky @ 8:02 AM
11 comments
11 Comments:
Look Trotsky
There never will be equality (classlessness)in a 'post-primal' world without forcing it on people. The best a civilized society can do is offer equality of opportunity, which is what we Americans pride ourselves on so much. There is no problem with a public option in HC coverage. But, all doctors should be incented to participate in the program (there are capitalist ways to do that). And you will never change the attitude of those docs (your clients) until you change the mission and educational system of the state. [BTW - check out what the Cleveland Clinic is now doing on patient care (CNN); but again, it is the cadillac of service providers].
On the other issue of recovering one's instinctual ground, I think it important to quote from Paul Shepard:
"How accessible is the Pleistocene (our primal past)? We cannot join the ancestral dead in the finely tuned ecology. But because we have never left our genome and its authority, the strategic nature of the past is born with us. We have only to recognize that our genome and we ourselves are Pleistocene. The two million years (the time comprising our species, Homo sapiens, and our immediate ancestor, Homo erectus) are crucial for the definition of ourselves; the human genome is the blueprint...Guided by our genome, we can respond appropriately and consider thoughtfully the options for living in this modern world that will take us home to our primal intuitions and needs."
Paul Shepard,(Coming Home to the Pleistocene, 154-5)
best, kultur
Such nostalgia for the primitive!
...our lost ecstatic/ authentic life as this kid searches for meaning and wisdom and freedom on his own personal "ecstatic" voyage
Why is a life in the wild, or just outside the cubicle, more authentic than one inside? Is there a gold standard for human authenticity that you have unearthed somewhere?
I sympathize with and value some elements of the [mystical] quest for "ecstatic wholeness," but a bit of perspective is needed or it becomes gibberish
"the hegemonic power of capitalist ideological/ cultural production makes this task (to distinquish between reason and instinct in my own actions/reactions) difficult for everyone and if he believes himself immune he is mistaken"
So, the powers that be have become such an all consuming priority concern that you, and you suspect "everyone", can no longer distinguish between genetic memory and culturally inculcated rote obedience to the logic of the evil overlords. I can only sigh at such confusion and realize your job of giving fat cats from the cubicles a box lunch taste of "into the wild" as a means of feeding yourself demonstrates such a logical departure from the instinct to eat the fish yourself. Such a web we weave when we first ourselves deceive.
I may be mistaken according to you, but happily, thank you very much.
Yodood:
I might agree with Troutsky on this issue. Given the entrenched nature of cultural accretions through socialization, language, etc. (not just in a capitalist hegemony), it may be difficult to ascertain your more primal instinctual drives than you first imagine. I think it takes a traumatic reorganization of one's personal life-world to fully appreciate the more primal passions.
Of course Freud argued for the effective sublimation of the ID, or instinctual base, such that certain dimensions of our cultural life seem to appease those primal forces...he referred to work, politics, religion, art, etc. It may be good to look again at his book The Future of an Illusion.
kultur
Kulture Kritic,
Not sure what reading books by people who can't tell the difference between practical logic and genetic memory is supposed to accomplish other than find a larger consensus of bewilderment with which to agree, argue or feel indifferent.
Blame kultur for the metaphysical detour,Lichanos, I was happy just exposing capitalism! (just kidding , I think it's fascinating) You can perhaps give me a better standard than "authentic" but I start from the premise there exists SOME malaise that drives modern violence, depression, alienation, anxiety. But of course you may be right, people may be fine with the circus as is.
Yodood, we are at an impasse if you insist that eating the fish would somehow change the nature of our experience or social relations. As for a guru who can distinguish genetics from culture, nurture from nature, the world has been looking for some time. Is our search over?
...but I start from the premise there exists SOME malaise that drives modern violence, depression, alienation, anxiety.
An honest and interesting admission.
Yes, there is a problem. There is always a problem. Primitive man had problems...Hunger, animals, diseases, abject fear of the unknown. We have different problems.
On the other hand, there is Duchamp: "There is no solution because there is no problem."
Lichanos:
Yes there is a problem; and that problem is 'self-interest', what some might call 'natural' or 'enlightened' self-interest. But, there is nothing natural or enlightened about it. And, even if we cannot separate the chicken from the egg here, we do know that "for the greater part of humankind, self interest as we know it has been associated with madness, witchcraft, or some such grounds for ostracism, execution, or at least therapy." (Marshall Sahlins). And whether, this 'MALAISE' of 'self interest' leads to hierarchichal or democratic systems of social control, it does IN FACT lead to symptomatic violence, depression, alienation, and anxiety.
The alternative to this modern spiritual dead-end, is the notion of a transpersonal self, based upon kinship community; kinship relations extending not only to other persons in the clan or tribe, but to affiliated relations with animals and places in the natural world of the community.
The kinship alternative is WHAT we are missing today; and it is this that informed our pre-civilized ancestors. This we know for certain, but we do not know of their fear of the unknown, hunger, other animals, etc.
The model based upon kinship, and not self-interest, must be foundational for any transformational human community.
kultur
Troutsky, your search is never over if you are looking for someone to make your distinctions for you, — or are looking for someone to feed you money to buy food when you know full well how to feed yourself without the bullshit system you feel compelled to change so it will feed you money as you have become accustomed to, and oh so versed in all the literature of, making demands of it. You may never know how to tell the difference. It happens, sadly.
Kultur -
I have often wondered how soldiers do the things they do, things that result in their deaths and save their comarades, or accomplish the mission. You know what I found out? It's transpersonal self! That is EXACTLY the point of basic military training, and the point of all military culture. The individual dies, the unit lives on. The soldier dies, but the battle is won. Training to get the individual to see the group and its goals as more important than oneself.
Now...perversion of your Arcadian values? Or just another twist on the same ones? Nothing is an unalloyed good, that's my point.
Yes, the world would be a better place if we would all just love one another more, maybe more than we love ourselves. That's your program? I agree. Where do I sign. Oh, and what do I do next?
Lichanos:
You are so astute; I can't get anything by you!!
BTW: You can sign up at your local ARMY RECRUITING STATION.
And good luck with the perversion of primal kinship!!
kultur
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