Truck and Barter
Adam Smith held that it is our natural proclivity to "truck and barter" but of course there is no "natural" human. Instead, the connection between material flow and social relations is reciprocal. Trading makes traders.The economy produces people as well as goods. A constitutive theory of the economy must address not only the question of who gets what and why, it must also ask who gets to become what and why. I would also argue that the market arena of self-interested and anonymous interaction reduces not only the need for compassion, but the sentiment itself.Now if I could only figure out how capitalism destroys brain cells I could develop a full explanation of Michelle Bachman.
Speaking of ignorant, I saw the old Vietnam war documentary Hearts and Minds again the other night. From General Westmoreland to the farm boys who bought his racist bullshit, there were lots of Americans in that film with nothing but empty space between their ears. What happened to their minds? Domino theory? Really? I appreciated the college football and parade sequences mixed in with the mass graves and napalmed children but had to keep laughing to keep from crying.
It has been a little scary in the "intervention" debate over at Znet to see the acolytes and sycophants who couldn't form an opinion until Noam Chomsky weighed in. Not what you would call a ton of original thinking. Zizek said the best indicator of the lefts lack of trust in itself is it's fear of crisis. Everyone is trying to put the global order BACK TOGETHER! Ask Congress for war powers! Follow the UN resolution strictly! Respect state sovereignty! They so love the RULES.
'Everything under heaven is in utter chaos; the situation is excellent!"
posted by troutsky @ 6:47 PM
11 comments
11 Comments:
"The economy produces people as well as goods".
??????
Yes, Pagan, you are what you purchase and what blitz advertising tells you that you need. You have been alienated from production.
Meanwhile, trout, is there anything in this government worth saving? Triangulate just to the left of the Baggers and they still call him a communist. No reasoning with those folks. Do we have any means to make progress other than the doctrine of logical consequences?
It's a recession and they're lining up for Charlie Sheen's, "My Violent Torpedo of Truth/Defeat is Not an Option" tour and Snooki received 30,000 dollars to speak at Rutgers. More proof it's almost over.
Pagan: Ducky is correct.But it goes to production as well as consumption. The experience of individuals as economic actors is a major determinant of their personal capacities, attitudes, choices, interpersonal relations and social philosophies. The fact that this comes as a surprise is telling.
Since the economy is actually a public sphere ( not private) unaccountable to it's participants, the participants do not have the social power to control their own development either as workers or, as citizens and family members.
Hence the stunted humans unable to link their Hummers to the War on Terror.
Ducky: Nothing. Bachman in 2012! Let's get it over with and done so we can move on.A Montana state legislator stood on the House floor and defended drunk driving as "a way of life here". Refreshing in it's honesty.
Advertising? All it can do is convince me to try something, once. If I don't like it, that's the end of it.
As for Hummers, that's a different matter, but even there, the market fixed its own problem. When the price of gas went through the roof, people either traded in their Hummers for models that got better mileage, or they reduced their driving. People with other gas guzzling cars did as much, and even many people who already had smaller cars cut back on their driving.
Voila, the price of gas went down partly as a result of this new reflection of the new reality of supply and demand.
Face it, the market worked. And it keeps on working. It would work much, much better if our national socialist style government would back the fuck off of it.
Ducky, what is your hang-up with Snooki anyway. You are always going on about how she'd make a good running mate for Palin, and now you're bitching about her speaking fees. What gives?
She comes from a colorful aspect of American culture, and as such she is interesting in that regard as a person who rose to notoriety through her participation in it.
You just make yourself look small-minded, elitist, and arrogant with such statements. What, you think you are that much above a little ol' Jersey girl from the Italian-American sub-culture. Or maybe you just think that culture should be swept under the rug?
Would it make her a more worthy subject for a speaking engagement if she were a Mafia goomah, or a union thug marching and breaking storefront windows and busting the heads of union scabs? If she were to hit Chris Christie in the face with a lemon meringue?
Did it ever occur to you the people you celebrate might leave a lot to be desired their own selves?
It fascinates me that Snooki is in the public eye. She's kind of the thinking man's Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann.
Just a theory of mine that a lot of the populace has been rewired to be incapable of complicated thought. It all fits. Blitz advertising, inane celebrities, action film editing, one bar hooks that pass as a melody. People literally have trouble with anything but quick soundbites.
By the way Troutsky, you might not be so happy with a Bachman presidency, as it might turn out much differently than you think. Just think, all it would take would be another thumping of the Democrats in the polls, enough to give the Republicans a good solid majority in both houses of Congress.
Then we need a President like Bachman, or Palin, or maybe Herman Cain, Gary Johnson, or possibly even a Alan West or Marco Rubio, anybody really who's not a fucking RINO like Bush or McCain, and then you might actually see this country turned around so much you'd suddenly think this socialist blogging was a waste of time.
You could start making other plans then, maybe teach your grandkids how to make good money as a trout guide courtesy of those Wall Street types that help you with the mortgage. Ducky could polish up his artistic skills and write an award winning symphony and retire in luxury, again courtesy of the patronage of the captains of industry he so despises.
The elephant in the room here is under a truly federalist system like the Tea Party represents, you are closer to the time when the government withers, though admittedly not completely away, just by being smaller and much more limited in scope, than your socialist fantasies would ever achieve.
You just don't like it because federalism if properly implemented would accomplish that while not doing away with free enterprise and property rights, and you just can't stand that.
A wise man once said, the poor you will have with you always. The logical extension of that infers that the rich will always be with us as well. And you know something? I'm fine with that.
Of course you are Pagan. We would never try to change you. A Wise Man once said "Pig in shit, very happy!"
There seemed to be a lot of that pig in shit thing going around in the old Soviet Union, and just think, nobody was rich. Well, at least no private citizens were.
Pagan, we've probably been through it but Marx thought Russia was absolutely the wrong place to form a socialist state. Trying to redistribute little is not a useful exercise.
Lenin knew that socialism in one country was dubious (especially in a poor country) and hoped there would be others that joined, especially Germany. Well, we know what happened there (read your Doblin).
Then came Stalin and that was the end of it.
Why does the right try to hammer us with factoids that the left has dealt with in depth?
Because, Ducky, its not just the Soviet Union, its everywhere else its ever been tried. That is always-ALWAYS-the end result, and you have never-NEVER-explained the phenomenon to a satisfactory extent.
Also, its just common sense. You don't empower one group of people with bureaucratic power, set a bunch of rules which make it plain that no one is ever going to prosper beyond basic needs at best (if that), and tell people with a straight face-and expect them to believe it-that after so long the state is going to "wither away". It's a perfect example of comic opera bullshit.
It's a perfect recipe-and a perfect storm-for bureaucratic entrenchment, stagnation, corruption, and eventually, brutality and repression.
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