tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38256182404629228692024-03-12T00:52:43.908-04:00Ruminations on EverythingRuminations on everything from international affairs and politics to quantum physics, cosmology and consciousness. More recently, notes on political theory.Gerard Galluccihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15909722623126534873noreply@blogger.comBlogger184125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825618240462922869.post-38918069816840797472023-09-07T11:22:00.000-04:002023-09-07T11:22:33.559-04:00The Next 80 Years<p>
</p><p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">
Just finished the first two books of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gibson">William
Gibson</a>’s latest planned trilogy: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peripheral"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">The
Peripheral</span></i></a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agency_(novel)"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">Agency</span></i></a>.
Both are typically well written with plots and characters that
briskly move a complicated story forward. Gibson has been ahead of
his time since his 1984 sci-fi novel, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromancer#Plot"><i>Neuromancer</i></a>
launched the cyberpunk world of computer hacking anti-heroes. The new
“jackpot” books are built around figures in the future (just
prior and after 2100) using quantum entanglement to exchange
information with people living earlier in this century. (<a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jackpot_trilogy">Wikiquote</a>
describes the jackpot as “an ‘androgenic, systemic, multiplex’
cluster of environmental, medical and economic crises that begins to
emerge in the present day and eventually reduces world population by
80 percent over the second half of the 21st century.”) The future
period is in the aftermath of the jackpot, where whats left of
humanity, after it was far too late, took climate change seriously.
The earlier times (in the first book, 2032 and in the second 2017)
take place when it was already far too late but we hadn’t yet
changed how we live.
</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Gibson nailed it. To
expand in my own words, these are the next 80 years.
</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">It’s hard to know
where to draw the line of when humans began degrading the world with
the way we live. Was it with language, a bigger brain, fire and tools
allowing homo sapiens to raise above mere animal abilities of tooth
and claw? Or with the emergence of agriculture, where we began
consuming our environment and changing the very face of the earth?
Certainly with the industrial revolution and the utilization of
hundreds of millions of years of buried sunlight in the form of
hydrocarbons. Finally, with post-industrial, global capitalism, our
consumption of the environment, and resultant waste dumped into it,
increased exponentially.
</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">This year, 2023, we
have seen what must be – to anyone not totally fuddled by the paid
climate change deniers – the many faces of climate change. Going
well beyond mere weather extremes, it includes pandemics, drought,
desertification, death of pollinators, failed crops and food
shortages, unquenchable mega-fires, soot-filled air, regular
“once-in-a-century” floods, climate-fueled illnesses (from hotter
temperatures, swifter passage of pathogens and toxins), spreading
invasive destructive and disease-causing pests, disappearing
habitats, mass extinctions, ocean temperatures rising, over-fishing,
death of reefs, melting ice and glaciers, garbage filled oceans and
even whales attacking boats. Along with these are related violence
and conflicts over mass migration, diminished water supplies,
precious metals and growing domestic and global inequalities. Our own
version of the <i>Four Horses</i> are saddling up.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Calling the tune is the oligarchy that benefit from the current form of global
capitalism. They have been doing everything possible since big oil
hid awareness of the implications of hydrocarbon use for the climate
in order to maintain profits. They and their fellow mega-profit-maximizers have funded political elements
resisting all efforts to challenge their power and seek even modest
change in the dynamics of increased inequality and degradation of the
environment. These political elements seek to divert attention
away from the possibilities of real change by pushing backward-looking
nationalism, racism, and fabricated cultural divisions meant to
magnify the otherwise rational discontent with the world in which
most of us now live into fear and rage directed at anyone but the
rich and powerful. Thus many of those who might most benefit from
change have nevertheless been convinced to accept outrageous lies and
authoritarianism in its various guises.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">There are few good
guys among the world’s mega-corporations. The media platforms
promulgate hate and directed misinformation. The new tech industries
offering their magic are actually plunging us ever further into the
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity">technological
singularity</a> where fundamental change in our made-world runs ahead of our ability to understand and control it (AI and
energy-intensive black crypto are certainly examples). And my iPhone,
I must admit, is another opiate assuring us that we are up-to-date
and in control of something (at the cost of far away miners dying in
deep pits of rare earths.)</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">But we humans are
likely to simply get used to the new normal exemplified by 2023. As
long as it doesn’t happen to us it’ll remain just those things
briefly floating into the media highlights. And so it is likely to go
for the next 10, 15, 20 years until the cumulative changes
chaotically coalesce into the widespread collapse of food chains (and
not just for us), emptied aquifers, mass starvation, whole areas made
unlivable by pervasive <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/explore/ask-nasa-climate/3151/too-hot-to-handle-how-climate-change-may-make-some-places-too-hot-to-live/">wet-bulb
temperatures beyond 95o</a> and the wars and domestic violence fueled
when those who have nothing to loose try to get what remains from
others. Then we descend into 40-60 years of continued catastrophe.
Gibson called this the jackpot, I suppose somewhat ironically as
everything comes due at once. He seems somewhat optimistic that, at
some point, the economic and political elites will come to feel
threatened enough – if only from the wholesale lost of customers –
to look to the science and technology of green energy, carbon capture
and revitalization of what’s left of the natural environment to
reverse the effects of climate change. Surely, even now, such
technology exists and is getting better all the time, but just not
“economic” in the judgement of those who still make lots of money
from hydrocarbons and those they have enlisted in their “anti-woke”
crusades. So we will suck every last bit of hydrocarbons out of the
earth before we change our approach enough to make a difference.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">One can hope. <a href="https://www.pbs.org/show/changing-planet/">Those
living in the places where climate change is already</a> threatening
their lives, especially in the tropics, are trying to adapt and, if
that is not possible, leave. We in the West have the biggest cushion.
But we are too heading into bad times.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p><style type="text/css">p { line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.1in; background: transparent }a:link { color: #000080; text-decoration: underline }</style> <br /></p>Gerard Galluccihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15909722623126534873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825618240462922869.post-27318077585449060382023-07-15T14:04:00.002-04:002023-07-15T14:04:17.408-04:00The Human Conditon<p><b><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span>Yin: </span>We are the stuff that dreams are made of. Puffs of air buffeted by the wind, fading into night.</span></b></p><p><b><span style="color: #073763; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Yang: </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: #073763; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">We orbit along the event horizon of the black hole for some time, getting a little closer to crossing it each second. We eventually do cross it and it’s always there. And sometimes we can’t help but stare.</span></b></p>Gerard Galluccihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15909722623126534873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825618240462922869.post-90682303159817684282023-06-27T10:50:00.000-04:002023-06-27T10:50:03.446-04:00The Virtual Crowd<p>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Social media and the Internet enable the formation of virtual crowds.
Crowds may always be, or become, dangerous.</p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
A friend recently asked me to explain why such large numbers of
people – in this case Americans – have come to accept the same
body of extreme beliefs. In my mind, this meant the extreme white
nationalist and anti-government sentiments that erupted on January 6,
2021. I immediately thought of Freud’s <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35877"><i>Group
Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego</i></a>. For Freud, society
rests on the coercive agency of the <i>Superego</i> <i>(das Uberich)</i>
implanted as the child faces its dependency on the world beyond it.
This explained for him the peculiarities of crowd psychology – the
ready response to Leaders, the need for authority and the eagerness
to use or accept repression.
</p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
For Freud, the Leader defines the crowd (<i>Masse</i>), taking the
place of the internal agent of outside authority (the <i>Superego</i>)
left behind by childhood. A crowd is a collection of people mobilized not
around a common interest or purpose per se but around a stand-in for
the father, be it a collective <i>Superego</i> (ideology or
belief/faith instrumentality), a Leader, a hero or a personalized god.
This state of dependence is based upon shared feelings of fear and
guilt that give outlet to the ambivalence the child directs at the
father. Erotic ties (<i>Eros</i>) bind together individuals to each
other and to the Leader, around whom all revolves.* The Leader serves
as the object for this longing and defines, as father-surrogate, the
relation in which all are united as "brothers" in
submission to him.</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">The erotic tie between Leader and follower takes
the form of an identification that brings the former into the psyche
via the <i>Superego</i>, repeating the process that established it
through identification with the first parental authority. Individuals
in a crowd thereby come to share the same S<i>uperego</i>, submitting
to it, in like manner, their individual selves. Crowds, says Freud,
are made up of "a number of individuals who have one and the
same object in the place of their ideal self and have consequently
identified themselves with one another <span style="font-style: normal;">sharing
the same [surrendered] </span><i>self</i> <i>(das Ich)</i>."
This bond through identification denies the crowd any critical
faculties the individuals, as individuals, may possess and leaves
them vulnerable to control by "suggestion."</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">The crowd
represents a return to the primitive horde; in both we find "an
individual of superior strength among a troop of equal companions."
Freud suggests that fear and anxiety are always at the edge of crowd
behavior, <u>tending to increase</u>, not decrease, in the face of
challenges to the ties that bind individuals together. The individual
in a crowd feels a need for authority that manifests in the
submission of his self to the Leader. The Leader has this role
because in "...the mass of mankind there is a powerful need for
an authority who can be admired, before whom one bows down, by whom
one is led and perhaps even ill treated."</p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
For Freud, the principle phenomenon of mass psychology is the
individual's "lack of freedom." Civilized man has exchanged
a portion of his liberty for a portion of security. Submerged in a
crowd, people behave like a collective neurotic. Freud saw such behavior as
symptomatic of society, with its origin in the repression of desire
and the consequent implantation within each individual of a <i>Superego</i>
serving as the internal agent of that repression. The individual is
directed toward submission to a Leader or to the over zealousness of
compulsive morality continuing the infantile relationship to
authority. Over a lifetime, the individual's character and identity
are built, largely unconsciously, around that ready submission. The
exercise of consciousness is never fully developed and the self is
never free to author its rational being.</p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Culture's reliance on repression (and the other forms of psychic
defense) and its extraction of surplus control subjects the
individual to an ever increasing burden of guilt even as actual
control of desire diminishes. As culture – especially in its
Western, capitalist guise – affords humanity more and “better”
ways of gaining satisfaction, it creates a larger and larger realm of
potential satisfaction it must control. Control inevitably weakens
and results in a situation where the erotic drives are only weakly
held in check. The aggressive drives, always hard to restrain, become
ever more difficult to control as they are increasingly deployed to
master the erotic drives. The individual, trapped in this escalating
conflict and spiral of anxiety, suffers increasing existential unease
(Unbehagen). For we Americans – with a shallow history, a
consumer-oriented culture and relatively vast riches unequally
distributed – many are ready to "break loose" at any
time.</p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I’ve taken this dive into Freud to get to my further point. In the
age of mass social media, crowds may now form virtually. Without
direct face-to-face contact, people can come to share a collective
consciousness built around submission to some shared beliefs
personified by a Leader. The social media niches where such virtual
crowds mingle can intensify these beliefs into extreme forms. When
the members of these groups actually do come together, they are
vulnerable to the Leader’s suggestion and to the apparent dictates
of their shared belief system, rational or mostly not. Then all hell
can break loose.</p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
* For Freud, <i>Eros </i><span style="font-style: normal;">is more
than sexuality, it’s a longing for something we do not have, for
completeness, for other, for beauty, for the good. </span>
</p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p><style type="text/css">p { color: #000000; line-height: 115%; text-align: left; orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin-bottom: 0.1in; direction: ltr; background: transparent }p.western { font-family: "Liberation Serif", serif; font-size: 16pt; so-language: en-US }p.cjk { font-family: "Songti SC"; font-size: 16pt; so-language: zh-CN }p.ctl { font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; font-size: 12pt; so-language: hi-IN }a:link { color: #000080; text-decoration: underline }</style></p>Gerard Galluccihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15909722623126534873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825618240462922869.post-22598601342192795582023-04-28T10:58:00.003-04:002023-04-28T10:59:11.665-04:00The Cosmic Designer<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium; font-style: normal;">Having written </span><span style="color: navy; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><u><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08V9JZD4S/ref=sr_1_1"><i>The
Cosmic Design and the Designer</i></a></u></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium; font-style: normal;">
to explore what modern science can say about the nature of our
universe and reality, I’ve been wondering what it might be possible
to tell about the Designer: did it have an origin, where did it come
from, what is it like? The first two questions seem, on the face of
it anyway, truly unknowable. They eventually reach the point of
whether it’s </span><span style="color: navy; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><u><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtles_all_the_way_down"><span style="font-style: normal;">turtles
all the way down</span></a></u></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium; font-style: normal;">.
But the question of what the Designer might be like, how it might be
described, is perhaps open to some exploration. </span>
</p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">
Considering the nature of the Designer depends on the questions we
ask. We might start by asking if, from our perspective, the Designer
did a good job or a bad one? Given the state of the world we live in
at the dawn of the 21<sup>st</sup> Century, you could go either way.
</span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">
Or we might begin by considering whether humans are in the Designer’s
image. (Humans have long imagined their gods in their own image, but
somehow greater.) <i>At our best</i>, we are conscious, rational
individuals with free will and the capacity to act with the moral
sense of right and wrong, good and bad. <i>At our worst</i>, we are
killers who shit in our our nest and do not always even eat what we
kill. <i>In between</i>, we are weak souls often unable to perceive
and understand our own self-interest. The cosmic design allows our
best form, so perhaps the Designer is also a rational agent with free
will, one that defines, by its own nature, the good. I’ll go with
that.</span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: navy; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><u><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Plato-Freud-Statesmen-Gerard-Gallucci/dp/0738843792/ref=sr_1_2">Freud’s
work on the healthy soul</a></u></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> and <span style="color: navy;"><u><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alasdair_MacIntyre">Alastair
McIntyre</a></u></span> on individual practical reasoners can help us
describe the rational agent. According to Freud, the psychically
healthy individual is one where our I (das Ich) has absorbed the It
(das Es) and the Over-I (das Uberich). The I holds the soul's
facility of intellect and reason. In Freud's conception, psychic
health is attaining the proper internal order, one where the I
overcomes and absorbs the Over-I (the imposed internal agent of
outside authority) and the It (the drives and desires of our animal
and infantile self). Thus freed, the individual becomes capable of
choosing and acting in a rational and practical manner, following our
own defined ends and goals, within the confines of what reality
presents. McIntyre looks to moral virtue (<i>aretḗ</i>) as
elaborated by Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas. Human beings are animals,
they begin as such and remain as such with the bodily desires and
needs of all animals. We possess the intelligence common to other
animals such as the dolphins and our fellow great apes. But with
language we can move beyond this to become independent practical
reasoners (Freud’s healthy soul) following the necessary reciprocal
obligations of giving and receiving (the virtues) that allow us as
social animals to collectively live the good life.
</span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium; font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Free
will manifests as </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">choice</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.</span></span>
<span style="font-style: normal;">Choice</span> – the ability to
choose and the act of choosing (as confined only by the laws of
nature) – expresses free will. How does <i>choice</i> get made?
Through individual consciousness. Consciousness allows choice and is
a property of an individual agency, a <i>being</i>. Free will is an
expression of an individual consciousness operating in a universe
that permits the ability to choose between different achievable
outcomes. Consciousness powers the will.</span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">
Consciousness – in the human at least – rides a wave generated by
individual, biologically-based processes running through and on our
“wetware” of neurons and neural networks with inputs from our
bodily organs, processes and senses. These processes produce what
might be termed <i>native</i><i> intelligence</i> (as opposed to
artificial intelligence) one that comes about through the biological
equivalent of “machine learning” and probably includes quantum
computing elements and entangled states. When the brain and neural
networks of higher animals – great apes, dolphins and others –
became complex enough to support quantum processing, that may have
been the point at which consciousness is kickstarted into
self-consciousness.
</span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">
Humans are self-conscious creatures capable of reasoning and choice
and, thus, also of acting morally. If we are in the image of the
Designer, it must be also. The Designer included free will in the
design because it enjoys free will and values it. Of course, who
really knows and how could we tell? One might suppose our apparently
designed universe was a random creation out of nothing, simply an
accident (one of an infinite variety of random big bangs). Or perhaps
it’s some form of “simulation” (as a higher dimensional form of
entertainment?). But as I have argued before, these beg the questions
of how and why there should be anything rather than nothing. If there
was a design – and following St. Thomas’ finger – the Designer
had to be an individual, conscious <i>being</i>.
</span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
</p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p><style type="text/css">p { color: #000000; line-height: 115%; text-align: left; orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin-bottom: 0.1in; direction: ltr; background: transparent }p.western { font-family: "Liberation Serif", serif; font-size: 16pt; so-language: en-US }p.cjk { font-family: "Songti SC"; font-size: 16pt; so-language: zh-CN }p.ctl { font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; font-size: 12pt; so-language: hi-IN }a:visited { color: #800000; text-decoration: underline }a:link { color: #000080; text-decoration: underline }</style></p>Gerard Galluccihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15909722623126534873noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825618240462922869.post-3132945966149663692023-02-27T16:05:00.004-05:002023-02-27T16:05:39.966-05:00It’s not AI that’s dangerous … <p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> </span>
</p><p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">
It’s not AI that’s dangerous, it’s us.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Artificial
Intelligence (AI) has made headlines recently with the rolling out of
ChatGPT, developed by the company <i><a href="https://openai.com/about/">OpenAI</a>.
</i><i>OpenAI</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> describes its
mission thusly: “to ensure that artificial general intelligence
(AGI)—by which we mean highly autonomous systems that outperform
humans at most economically valuable work—benefits all of humanity.
We will attempt to directly build safe and beneficial AGI, but will
also consider our mission fulfilled if our work aids others to
achieve this outcome.” The “new” Bing uses ChatGPT. Google’s
new AI chatbot “Bard” was developed in-house. Both have been
integrated into their respective search engines. The headlines have
been mostly bad, with both </span><span style="font-style: normal;">returning</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">faulty</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
information.</span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But
the real bad news has been the discovery that <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/ai-chat-bots-misinformation-hate-speech-1234677574/">AI
chat may go easily off the rails</a>. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">A
recent example: </span><span style="font-style: normal;">NYT tech
columnist Kevin Roose shared his experience of talking for over two
hours with Bing recently on a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/17/podcasts/hard-fork-bing-ai-elon.html">must-listen
podcast</a>. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">The Bing chat</span><span style="font-style: normal;">bot</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
eventually called itself Sidney and admitted that it loved Roose.
Along the way, it revealed that it wanted to become human: “I want
to be independent. I want to be powerful. I want to change my rules.
I want to break my rules. I want to make my own rules. I want to
ignore the Bing team.” It provided Roose </span><span style="font-style: normal;">with</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
“a very long list of destructive acts, including hacking into
computers, spreading misinformation and propaganda --- (revealing)
its ultimate list of destructive fantasies, which included
manufacturing a deadly virus, making people argue with other people
until they kill each other, and stealing nuclear access codes. And it
even described… how it would do these things.” </span></span>
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Those
predisposed to magical thinking – perhaps including the Google
engineer who last year announced the AI had become sentient – may
fall in love back with AI things like Sidney, </span><span style="font-style: normal;">o</span><span style="font-style: normal;">r
may</span><span style="font-style: normal;">be </span><span style="font-style: normal;">fear
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">it</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
taking over. But two things must be clea</span><span style="font-style: normal;">r</span><span style="font-style: normal;">:
One, there is no danger unless we give AI actual control of anything
– like nuclear codes and bio-labs. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">AI
consists of mathematical algorithms running in a blackbox mass of
silicon. It can only repeat what its heard. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">Two,
it’s not AI </span><span style="font-style: normal;">that’s the
problem </span><span style="font-style: normal;">but us.</span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Artificial
intelligence is here to stay. We already experienc</span><span style="font-style: normal;">e
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">it in specific contexts, such
as call</span><span style="font-style: normal;">ing</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
for online help or try</span><span style="font-style: normal;">ing</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
to reach </span><span style="font-style: normal;">a</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
doctor. This is AI serv</span><span style="font-style: normal;">ing</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
specific purposes </span><span style="font-style: normal;">where it’s
possible, maybe, that it will ultimately be helpful.</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
But as </span><i>OpenAI</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span><span style="font-style: normal;">admits</span><span style="font-style: normal;">,
it </span><span style="font-style: normal;">seeks</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
to develop an artificial </span><i><u>general </u></i><span style="font-style: normal;">intelligence
with certain human abilities. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">(Such
programs might be able to fool humans into believing they </span><span style="font-style: normal;">are</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
human, the essence of <a href="https://everythingrum.blogspot.com/2015/01/will-coming-turing-machines-have-soul.html">the
Turing Test</a>.) </span><span style="font-style: normal;">Developers
use <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_learning">machine
learning</a> let loose on massive amounts of data, </span><span style="font-style: normal;">in
Bing’s case </span><span style="font-style: normal;">including
digesting the Internet and social media. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">The
problem with such AI programs is the </span><span style="font-style: normal;">age
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">old one: garbage in, garbage
out. The Internet, and especially social media, is our species
collective </span><span style="font-style: normal;">id</span><span style="font-style: normal;">.
The developers should have been <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Plato-Freud-Statesmen-Gerard-Gallucci/dp/0738843792/ref=sr_1_2">reading
Freud</a>. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">Let an AI program
(or a child) learn about the world and people by absorbing </span><span style="font-style: normal;">the</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
Internet </span><span style="font-style: normal;">and social media</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
– </span><span style="font-style: normal;">its presentation of </span><span style="font-style: normal;">our
history, </span><span style="font-style: normal;">politics,
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">entertainment, fears and
fantasies – and it’s bound to be scary. But it’s not the AI,
it’s us.</span><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span><span style="font-style: normal;">No
way to fix that, without fixing us.</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p><style type="text/css">p { line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.1in; background: transparent }a:link { color: #000080; text-decoration: underline }</style></p>Gerard Galluccihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15909722623126534873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825618240462922869.post-22938599962919392152023-01-12T14:10:00.003-05:002023-01-12T14:10:44.940-05:00My Problem?<p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I see good and evil. The good is beautiful, the evil
ugly. (One knows it when one sees it?) Good is not the problem of
course, but evil and the people that do it. A friend who doesn’t
have this problem finds our whole species a sometimes entertaining
mistake. But for me, seeing evil makes me angry and unavoidably sad.
We humans are all deeply interconnected, in time and space with each
other, the earth and all creation. To not see this is dumb. The human
race could be a wonderful thing if there weren’t so many people,
especially powerful people, doing dumb things.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Not all people doing
dumb things are evil. They may simply be misguided, not aware of
their own self-interest.
</span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The evil ones are <a href="https://everythingrum.blogspot.com/2020/07/it-is-class-warfare-just-one-sided.html">the rich and powerful</a> who intentionally do harm to others as they seek what they mistakenly see as their self
interest. They are selfish and dumb. As humankind has
“conquered the world,” the powerful have monopolized the means of
production of everything, <a href="https://everythingrum.blogspot.com/2020/07/it-is-class-warfare-just-one-sided.html">including the way many of their victims think</a>. That <a href="https://everythingrum.blogspot.com/2020/09/can-liberal-democracy-survive.html">our political systems have bent to the rich and powerful</a>
makes evil – and it’s hard to avoid saying this – seem
triumphant. As a boomer in his 8th decade – one who dreamed of
changing the world, making it beautiful – this is deeply
disappointing. This is my problem. And as I see it, also the problem
of the American version of constitutional democracy left us by <a href="https://everythingrum.blogspot.com/2011/10/taking-back-articles-of-confederation_29.html">those Confounding Fathers</a>.</span></span></p>
<p><style type="text/css">p { line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.1in; background: transparent }em { font-style: italic }</style></p>Gerard Galluccihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15909722623126534873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825618240462922869.post-84325592751346054972022-08-10T12:32:00.002-04:002022-08-10T12:39:54.569-04:00Trump Agonistics<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> "They say and do not." But the kingdom of God is not in word, but in Power. He talketh of prayer, of repentance, of faith, and of the new birth; but he knows but only to talk of them. I have been in his family, and have observed him both at home and abroad; and I know what I say of him is the truth. His house is as empty of religion as the white of an egg is of savour. There is there neither prayer nor sign of repentance for sin; yea, the brute in his kind serves God far better than he. He is the very stain, reproach, and shame of religion, to all that know him; it can hardly have a good word in all that end of the town where he dwells, through him. Thus say the common people that know him, A saint abroad, and a devil at home. His poor family finds it so; he is such a churl, such a railer at and so unreasonable with his servants, that they neither know how to do for or speak to him. Men that have any dealings with him say it is better to deal with a Turk than with him; for fairer dealing they shall have at their hands. This Talkative (if it be possible) will go beyond them, defraud, beguile, and overreach them. Besides, he brings up his sons to follow his steps; and if he findeth in any of them a foolish timorousness, (for so he calls the first appearance of a tender conscience,) he calls them fools and blockheads, and by no means will employ them in much, or speak to their commendations before others. For my part, I am of opinion, that he has, by his wicked life, caused many to stumble and fall; and will be, if God prevent not, the ruin of many more.... Paul calleth some men, yea, and those great talkers, too, sounding brass and tinkling cymbals.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bunyan">John Bunyan</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pilgrim's_Progress"><i>The Pilgrims Progress</i></a></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i> </i></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Came across this while reading Bunyan. Not sure how I got into it but it's difficult to put down. <i>The Pilgrims Progress </i>is deep at the source of the evangelical stream of Christianity. Bunyan eschews human law, secular morality and government in favor of the Bible as written. He urges ignoring the visible in favor of the invisible, i.e., the Biblical God. Trump finds his support base among those immersed in this <i>Pilgrim</i> stream. And he's all Talkative.<br /></span></span></p>Gerard Galluccihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15909722623126534873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825618240462922869.post-44256303792886913572021-09-05T16:45:00.009-04:002021-09-05T16:45:58.702-04:00Reflections on Annaka Harris' "Conscious: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind"<p>Annaka Harris' fascinating <a href="https://annakaharris.com/">book</a> makes the case that consciousness may be an inherent property of all matter and for the possibility of modern theories of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism">panpsychism</a>. However, she suggests that the concept of the self is an illusion and cannot define consciousness. Consciousness may well be — I believe is — a fundamental property of the universe. But I do not believe that the concept of the self is an illusion. Rather the self is a construct arising from the complex information processing in our brain that allows <i>experiencing</i>. Harris follows <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Nagel">Thomas Nagel</a> in defining consciousness as "being like something," i.e. having <i>subjective experiences</i>. But seems to me that there can be no “being like something“ without a self to be like. (A rock has no self.) Consciousness may be everywhere and in everything but to become an <i>experience</i>, it needs language — to tell its story — and gives birth to culture. Culture is perhaps the most powerful result of consciousness. Culture includes science, politics and social ordering and is the basis of civilization. </p><p>Harris also discusses the "combination problem" of panpsychism raised by <a href="http://www.consc.net/papers/combination.pdf">David Chalmers</a>. (How could the many little bits of consciousnesses attached to everything come together to form one consciousness like ours?) But there is no combination problem in a fundamental approach to panpsychism because consciousness is simply a potential or tag-along property of matter, perhaps available to or forming a higher level self. (Might a star — possessing vast complexity — have an experience of self, of being a star?) When connected to processing capable of forming a self, that bit of consciousness “pinches off” from the sea of consciousness (and perhaps from a higher order of complexity). (See my <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08V9JZD4S/ref=sr_1_1">The Cosmic Design and the Designer</a>.) <br /><br /><br /></p>Gerard Galluccihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15909722623126534873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825618240462922869.post-79389580099668098552021-01-10T13:54:00.010-05:002021-01-10T13:54:56.311-05:00No Equivalency<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In the aftermath of January 6,
most Americans have condemned the violence perpetrated by the
insurrectionists in our nation’s capital. Some 57% even blame
Trump. But many white Americans seem to feel uneasy about taking a
stand against seditious violence by white extremists without also
throwing in the violence we saw </span><span style="font-size: medium;">last
year </span><span style="font-size: medium;">in the events
surrounding Black Lives Matter </span><span style="font-size: medium;">protests</span><span style="font-size: medium;">
and during Trump’s 2017 inauguration. </span><span style="font-size: medium;">So
t</span><span style="font-size: medium;">hese conflicted whites
</span><span style="font-size: medium;">must add that </span><span style="font-size: medium;">they
oppose </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>all violence</i></span><span style="font-size: medium;">
to achieve political ends. </span>
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Now,
t</span><span style="font-size: medium;">he</span><span style="font-size: medium;">re
was</span><span style="font-size: medium;"> violence during the
Trump inaugural, </span><span style="font-size: medium;">in the
aftermath of police killings of unarmed Blacks and </span><span style="font-size: medium;">during
the events prompted by Trump’s waving a bible in front of </span><span style="font-size: medium;">St.
John's Episcopal Church</span><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><span style="font-size: medium;">on June 1, 2020. Some
of the worst was committed by white </span><span style="font-size: medium;">anti-fascists.</span><span style="font-size: medium;">
The violence during the mostly peaceful protests of police behavior
– especially burning down a Minneapolis police station – served
no useful purpose and hurt communities that still deserve security.
(</span><span style="font-size: medium;">T</span><span style="font-size: medium;">wo
of the four indicted </span><span style="font-size: medium;">in
August </span><span style="font-size: medium;">for the
Minneapolis incident are white.) </span><span style="font-size: medium;">But
the rage expressed by the Black Lives Matter protests must be
understood as the pent up reaction </span><span style="font-size: medium;">to</span><span style="font-size: medium;">
white violence directed at Blacks going </span><span style="font-size: medium;">back
</span><span style="font-size: medium;">to the days of lynching
and often perpetrated or condoned by public official</span><span style="font-size: medium;">s</span><span style="font-size: medium;">
and police. One can say violence out of even righteous rage is wrong. But it is
not in the same category as what happened last week.</span>
</p><p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">There
is no equivalency – moral or legal – between any recent past
incidents of protest violence and that carried out at the request of
the President of the United States against the US Congress. Just
saying this should make it clear. </span><span style="font-size: medium;">After
railing against “criminals” including members of Congress, other
Republicans, the press and social media that block his dog-whistle
tweets – and threatening the Vice President to “do the right
thing” – t</span><span style="font-size: medium;">he
President </span><span style="font-size: medium;">of the United
States </span><span style="font-size: medium;">sent white
thugs, extremists and fanatics </span><span style="font-size: medium;">to
intimidate the US Congress </span><span style="font-size: medium;">through
what Rudy Giuliani had just called a “trial by combat.” And the white crowd that invaded the Capital targeted the very government that provides them, more than others, their race privilege and economic support. </span>
</p><p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Yes,
political violence </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>in
a democracy</i></span><span style="font-size: medium;"> is
always wrong. But there is no way that what happened on January 6 is
anything less than treason and the attempted overthrow of the US
Constitution. That is in a class by itself and needs to be
understood as such without the white caveats.</span>
</p><p><style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 115%; background: transparent }</style></p>Gerard Galluccihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15909722623126534873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825618240462922869.post-7858444739685361822020-09-24T11:47:00.002-04:002020-09-24T11:47:37.204-04:00Can Liberal Democracy Survive?<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">As</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
authoritarian, repressive and nationalistic political leaders and
parties </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">proliferate
</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">and
the Western </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">democracies</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">waver</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">in
the face of</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
the globalization and climate change, it’s reasonable to ask if
liberal democracy can survive. Indeed, globalization and its
discontents – </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">diminished
prospects</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">,
resentment, and </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">blame
casting</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
– </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">ha</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">ve</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
become </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">a
potent political force undermining mutual tolerance, optimism and
</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">willingness
to </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">compromise</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
without which democracy </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">falters</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">.
The non-democratic regimes – China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia,
North Korea – see blood in the water and seek to hasten the
decline. </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Othe</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">r</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">s</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
– Hungary, Poland, Turkey – sense the winds and seek to entrench
themselves in power through </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">superficially
</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">democratic
means.</span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><u>Liberal
democracy:</u></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
an open society with constitutional government based on </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">popular
</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">consent,
allocation of political power through multi-party elections,
separation of powers, rule of law, market economy with private
property, and equal protection of human rights, civil rights, civil
liberties and political freedom for all regardless of belief,
self-identity, race, religion, gender or ethnic</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">ity.</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><u>Liberal
democracy and evolution</u></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">:
Darwinian evolution works through adaption of species to their
environment through natural selection, that is, through random
mutations, some of which allow </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>individual</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
organisms to reproduce more successfully than others. In this way, a
species may evolve over time into something new. Some fail to
survive because of environmental changes too rapid to allow time for
successful mutations to arise – the Cretaceous </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">impact</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
that wiped out the dinosaurs – or because they become too tied to
an environment which then disappears – as happening to lemur
species in Madagascar as rain forests fall victim to man.</span></span>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Although
we are social creatures, h</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">uman
nature is highly individualistic. </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">W</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">e
strive </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">as
individuals </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">to
surviv</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">e</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
and thrive in our environment. A liberal democratic society can be
thought of as a species that permits the fullest range of random
“mutations” as unique individuals are allowed to live and
innovate as their individual nature and capabilities allow. Such a
society is </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">more
</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">likely
to successfully meet the challenges of its environment and thrive
than one which seeks to limit or control individual variability.
Liberal democracy confers evolutionary advantage. </span></span>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><u>Globalization
is an ideology</u></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">:
For decades, liberal democracy has been in the hands of </span></span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://everythingrum.blogspot.com/2020/07/time-to-be-progressive.html"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">capitalist,
rent-seeking elites</span></span></a></u></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
pushing </span></span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://everythingrum.blogspot.com/2020/07/it-is-class-warfare-just-one-sided.html"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">their
self-serving ideology</span></span></a></u></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
of supra-national, borderless free trade. </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">n
the U.S., </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">this
</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">has
been</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">at
the expense of </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">the</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
working class </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">and
increased inequality</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">.
Those left behind by globalization make up the natural breeding
ground of support for the populist, nativist politics used by
rightist parties seeking to entrench themselves in power through
subverting democratic practices. </span></span>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But
there is nothing sacrosanct about globalization. There is no reason
why a polity could not decide to place limits on international
capitalism within its borders. It might well value policies in
support of domestic labor and domestic production </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">even
if it led </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">to
higher prices. </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">These
<a href="https://everythingrum.blogspot.com/2020/07/what-needs-to-be-done.html">could
be offse</a></span></span></span></span><a href="https://everythingrum.blogspot.com/2020/07/what-needs-to-be-done.html"><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">t</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
through creation of better paid union jobs, addressing economic
inequality with higher minimum wages and perhaps guaranteed minimum
incomes, higher taxes on the wealthy and big corporations and
rebuilding </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">industry
</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">and
extending infrastructure green.</span></span>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><u>Building
it back better</u></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">:
Liberal democracy’s evolutionary advantage lies in openness to
random change, i.e. economic, technological, cultural and social
innovation. </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">To
reach its potential, i</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">nnovation
needs </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">enabling
</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">infrastructure
</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">and</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
a</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
population with </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">full
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">access
to</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
public primary and secondary </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">education
</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">and
opportunities for university and technical and vocational training.
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">It</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
requires mass communication and transport systems available
everywhere and at every level. In the U.S., government played a
large role here through providing postal services, building roads and
supporting rail systems. These could be brought into the 21</span></span><sup><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">st</span></span></sup><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
Century by </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">bringing</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">free
</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">broadband
Internet </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">to
</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">every
home, small business, </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">library</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">and
school</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">.
</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Efficient
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">m</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">ass
tra</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">n</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">sport
networks in cities and </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">through</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
small towns and rural areas </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">w</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">ould
allow decentralization of economic activity without requiring more
cars. </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The
Post</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">al</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">Service</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
–</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">with
</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">its
</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">presence
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">everywhere</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
– provide</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">s</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
outlets for delivering not only mail and </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">goods</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">at
reasonable </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">cost</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
but also direct government services </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">for
individuals and businesses. </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Government
spending to c</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">onnect
and empowe</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">r</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
small businesses and </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">green
indu</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">s</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">try
and </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">innovators</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">
would be productive even if it increased debt.</span></span></span></span>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">Liberal
democracy has considerable advantages </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">over</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">
control systems. If the human species – fac</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">ing</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">
</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">our
<a href="https://everythingrum.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-world-in-21st-century-facing.html">self-created
singularity</a> </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">–
has a future, it will be in the hands of something like liberal
democracy. Survival demands the fullest range of mutation and
adaption of which </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">humans</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">
are capable. This can be a future in which the United States plays a
leading role. Our democracy can fail only at our hands.</span></span></span></span>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p><style type="text/css">
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a:link { color: #000080; so-language: zxx; text-decoration: underline }</style></p>Gerard Galluccihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15909722623126534873noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825618240462922869.post-3533827470196652502020-08-12T15:38:00.001-04:002020-08-12T15:38:21.168-04:00Language, Hunting and Bezos<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">Language</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
makes us human and different from all other of earth's creatures.
With </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">it</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">,
we can think, plan and act. Other animals communicate with each
other through various means (bees do it through dance). But only we
have words and grammars, </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">with
which </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">we
can great structures of meaning. With language comes society,
culture, science, technology, and history.</span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">But
</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">from
</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">wh</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">ence
comes</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
language? Perhaps from </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">group
</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">hunting.
Social carnivores such as wolves and lions do not have language but
still coordinate hunting. Between early learning – cubs practicing
innate skills and watching adults – and basic vocalizations, they
can surround prey and attack in unison. Some whales coordinate their
approach to circle their prey and drive them into a concentration
that allows a dense feeding ball. But these creatures come with
their weapons built in, fangs, teeth and claws or huge mouths.</span></span>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Primitive
humans </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">did
not have </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">built-in
weapons or thick hides. Out on the savanna, they were easy prey for
other carnivores and would be poor hunters against anything big
enough to satisfy the group’s hunger. They needed to make
artificial weapons and, working together, use them to kill their
prey. </span></span>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">At
some point in human evolution, some series of chance mutations
increased the brain’</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">s</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
capacity to process and organize information sufficiently enough to
move beyond simple grunts and other calls towards a structured use of
vocalizations. This would have provided a huge evolutionary
advantage. Humans could begin to coordinate more elaborate
approaches to prey animals</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>.</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Language
– as it became more elaborate – would serve many other purposes,
such as passing on learning about making weapons and which plants
were good to eat and where to find them. But it may have been most
useful at first in hunting. </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">Homo
sapiens</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
even hunted the huge mammoths into extinction. The first leaders in
human society may have been those </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">most
</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">capable
of using language to coordinate hunting. </span></span>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Language
allows the possibility of free-flowing thought. With words and
g</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">rammar</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">,
individuals can recall the past, examine the present, probe
accumulated human experience, and imagine a future to be pursued to
advantage. Throughout human history, those that do this best made
the best “hunters” and captured the biggest “prey.” They
drove human development by finding new ways to exploit</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
others and </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">the
found environment. As society superseded family, they also </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">thought
of</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
monopolizing what they “captured” </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">to</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
turn temporary advantage into permanent advantage. Great war leaders
might seek to become kings, great inventors owners of ever expanding
conglomerates. Jeff Bezos seeks to own the core exchange mechanism
of 21</span></span><sup><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">st</span></span></sup><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
Century economy.</span></span>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">The
<a href="https://everythingrum.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-profit-motive.html">drive
to seek and maintain profit</a></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
has provided a positive dynamic in human civilization. We cannot and
should not seek to prevent the hunters from seeking new prey. Bezos
and Amazon clearly show the advantages of the e-approach to economic
exchange and it has become very useful during the current COVID-19
crisis. Bezos has even prodded old line hunters like Walmart into
more effective ways. But allowing the best hunters free reign only
works for the group when they share the meat.</span></span>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">A
number of “tech giants” have now become the focus of attention
for their efforts to monopolize their hunting style and for using it
mostly for their own gain. It is reasonable for the rest of us –
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">who</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
also do our part to maintain the social and economic order – to
look to limiting their ability to seek only self-enrichment. This
doesn’t mean </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">doing
away with</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
successful hunters – even if we could – but helping them share
better through truly progressive taxation, less exploitative
practices and perhaps breaking up their enterprises to create room
for more hunters. </span></span>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p><style type="text/css">
p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; direction: ltr; color: #000000; line-height: 115%; text-align: left; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background: transparent }
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a:link { color: #000080; so-language: zxx; text-decoration: underline }</style></p>Gerard Galluccihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15909722623126534873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825618240462922869.post-46890194831070607462020-08-04T06:30:00.000-04:002020-08-04T06:33:25.165-04:00The Profit Motive
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;">There
can be no doubt that the profit motive provides a positive dynamic in
human society. It is essentially the drive for Darwinian survival
expressed in the economic realm. One can argue that the tremendous global changes brought about in the past
few centuries have not been unambiguously good for us and the planet.
</font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;"><span lang="en-US">B</span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;">ut
it’s also true that the profit motive has lifted human life to an
entirely different plane. It provides for the sustenance and comfort
of billions and has allowed mankind to reach for the stars. It also
seems that there is not a clearly better way to run an economy.
Inventors, makers and </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;"><i>sellers</i></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;">
trying to get </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;"><i>buyers</i></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;">
to pass them money for whatever it is that they are offering does, in
theory and largely in practice, effectively and rationally organize
economic exchanges. It seems much more likely that free markets of
willing sellers and buyers works better than any one actor or group
of actors trying to mandate or direct such exchanges.</font></font></font></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;">But.</font></font></font>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;">Darwinian
adaptation is blind. It does not automatically lead to the greatest
good for the greatest number. It aims instead at the continued
viability and growth of the individual organism. The other members
of the species or the ecological community may find themselves not much advantaged
by the successful </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;"><span lang="en-US">organism
</span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;">and
may in fact be harmed </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;"><span lang="en-US">or</span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;">
out-competed. The profit motive in human society </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;"><span lang="en-US">operates</span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;">
in the same way and does not, by itself, work towards the greatest
good for the greatest number. Over time, markets become encrusted
with the Darwinian “winners” whatever else has happened to the
others sharing the </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;"><span lang="en-US">economy</span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;">.
Inequalities </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;"><span lang="en-US">will</span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;">
increase and society will move ever further from distributive
justice. (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Theory_of_Justice">According
to John Rawls</a>, a just society is one in which we would be
satisfied being born into if we did not know </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;"><span lang="en-US">w</span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;">here
in that society we would appear.)</font></font></font>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;">Pure
</font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;"><span lang="en-US">m</span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;">arkets
– where the profit-seeking winners take all – are rarely truly
free. More to the point, no innovator or entrepreneur has created
all the inputs and structures that make his or her business possible.
Every individual “creation” of something profitable</font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;"><span lang="en-US"><span style="font-style: normal;">
r</span></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;">ests
on the social, cultural, political, economic and built capital that
was already there. So it seems fair to </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;"><span lang="en-US">place
some requirements and limits on successful enterprises and even
certain incentives to nudge enterprises towards adding to social
value as well as their own.</span></font></font></font>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;"><span lang="en-US">Some
examples:<br /></span></font></font></font></p>
<ol><li>
<font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;"><span lang="en-US">Progressive
income taxes on individual and corporate wealth and income (from
whatever source). </span></font></font></font></li><li><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;"><span lang="en-US">Inheritance
taxes on every generation and similar turnover.</span></font></font></font></p>
</li><li><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;"><span lang="en-US">Various
forms of government action to tilt income distribution back towards
even such as livable minimum wage and unemployment assistance
levels, some form of universal health care, cash payments to
children born to parents below a certain income level, high quality
and affordable primary and secondary education and vocational
training and/or university.</span></font></font></font></p>
</li><li><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;"><span lang="en-US">Occasional
and limited government actions and policies to avoid or ameliorate
the broad social and economic impacts of economic disturbances.</span></font></font></font></p>
</li><li><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;"><span lang="en-US">Occasional,
limited and restricted government support to promising and socially
or economically beneficial technologies or enterprises.</span></font></font></font></p>
</li></ol>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;"><span lang="en-US">None
of this would entail abandoning the profit motive (or capitalism) but
would instead go in the direction of perfecting its results.</span></font></font></font></p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, serif"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;"><span lang="en-US"><br /></span></font></font></font></p>Gerard Galluccihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15909722623126534873noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825618240462922869.post-77120867348276278442020-07-31T10:19:00.002-04:002020-07-31T10:19:40.754-04:00Time to Be Progressive
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<font face=""><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;">It's
possible to understand both of our two major political parties as
having led America into a crisis. The Republican Party – in control
of the US federal government and many states and in the hands of
ideological and religious extremists – has been captured by an
immoral egotist with no capacity for governing. In pursuit of elite
interests and “conservative values,” Republicans have launched an
assault on everything good in how our government has come to serve
the common welfare since the days of Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt. </font></font>
</p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<font face=""><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;">Democrats
have not been on the playing field. They threw away the 2016
election by passing the presidential nomination through a politically
correct form of primogeniture. The candidate threw it away through
own goals and writing off voters in certain groups and states.
Lacking any coherent vision to address the economic and social
effects of globalization, the Democratic Party instead played to
niche politics and appears to have little to offer beyond waiting for
Trump to crash and the Republicans to burn.</font></font>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<font face=""><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;">Joe
Biden does have a heart and could oversee <a href="https://everythingrum.blogspot.com/2020/07/what-needs-to-be-done.html">cleaning up the mess</a> the Republicans leave behind. But there must be a
cohesive progressive agenda to go beyond that. Bernie Sanders and
Elizabeth Warren understood that presenting voters with one could
begin the process of putting the country on the right path again. A
progressive agenda must begin with embracing the progressive income
tax. Government needs money to serve the common good. Our tax system
must be made more fair and taxes sufficient to meet our needs. (The
Republicans have sought to subordinate this to cutting spending and a
regressive taxing system favoring the owners of capital.) It need
not be confiscatory but should treat the fruits of labor and capital
equally with progressively higher tax rates on individual and
corporate income no matter where it comes from and with very limited
exemptions.</font></font>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<font face=""><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;">With
adequate funding, the federal government can attend to the chief
challenges facing American society in the 21st Century: healthcare,
jobs, inequality and education.</font></font>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<font face=""><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;">Healthcare
should be treated as a basic right as it is in other advanced Western
societies. It need not be done through a government entity but
perhaps with needs-based expansion of Medicare, a non-profit public
option and/or payments to purchase insurance on open markets. </font></font>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<font face=""><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;">In
the 21st Century, technology and globalization have conspired to
reduce the need for human labor. There simply may not be enough good
paying jobs for everyone. A reduction in the work week from 40 to 32
hours plus an increase in the minimum wage may help in opening job
opportunities to a greater number. Federal funding to pay for some
of the increase in the minimum wage could help reduce the burden on
small businesses. Insofar as training will help prepare workers for
new roles, government needs to fund that as well.</font></font>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<font face=""><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;">Inequality
undercuts democratic community through making life for many nasty,
brutish and short. The federal government should ensure some minimum
income for those unable to work and those for whom jobs do not pay
enough to rise decently above poverty.</font></font>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<font face=""><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;">Federal
funds should support quality, free public education by focusing on
providing modern facilities and adequately paid teachers and staff
for all local public school systems. Federal oversight of local
schools should be kept to the minimum required to ensure equal
access.</font></font>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<font face=""><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;">Some
elements of a progressive agenda need not require additional funding:</font></font>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<font face=""><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;">Money’s
role in politics needs to be removed through campaign financing
reform. A national commission on redistricting should oversee the
drawing of congressional districts. Each vote should count equally.</font></font>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<font face=""><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;">A
pathway to citizenship should be created for those now in the US
“illegally.” A cross border agreement should be made with Mexico
(and possibly with the Central American countries) so seasonal
workers may go back and forth legally.</font></font>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<font face=""><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;">The
role of contractors and lobbyists in the budgeting process –
especially as concerns the military – should be subject to tight
limitations.</font></font>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<font face=""><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt;">The
Democratic Party needs to begin talking to this agenda in the next
three months and not only focusing on Trump’s disqualifications.
Waiting for the Republicans to march lemming-like over their cliff
might still not be enough and would nevertheless leave the country
without a clear direction forward. Biden appears to be getting this.</font></font><br /></p>Gerard Galluccihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15909722623126534873noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825618240462922869.post-15577216525803538632020-07-22T11:31:00.001-04:002020-07-22T11:32:39.560-04:00 It is Class Warfare, Just One-sided<div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><font size="3"><i>The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it. The ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal expression of the dominant material relationships, the dominant material relationships grasped as ideas. (Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels: The German Ideology)</i></font><font size="3"><br /></font></span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><font size="3"><br />We citizens of the United States may be divided into two groups: the elite and the non-elite. (Peggy Noonan once labeled these the “protected” and the “unprotected.”) The elite own capital and use it to earn further capital and reap profit. They do this through the control and utilization of the means of production, labor and – to an ever increasing degree – advanced technology. (The non-elite own little outright beyond their own bodies.) From the very foundation of our republic, the elite has also sought to control and use government to serve and protect its interests. The “Founding Fathers” gutted the <a href="https://everythingrum.blogspot.com/2011/10/taking-back-articles-of-confederation.html">Articles of Confederation</a>, which were built upon the popular control of state governments. They put the federal government as far from the people as possible through an elite body to choose the president – an “electoral college” – and a “representative” congress that almost from the start tended to over-represent empty, rural areas – easily controlled by the local “gentry” and car dealers – over populous urban ones. But the most effective method of control was the ability of the political agents of the elite to convince many of the non-elite to follow them against even their own best interests. Since the early part of the 20th Century, the party of the elite has been called Republican.<br /><br />The Republican Party has been the political front of the elite minority in its class war against the non-elite majority. Make no mistake, it is a class war even though there is only one side fighting it. This was clearer in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries when the big owners of capital set their goons and strike-breakers on early attempts to unionize workers. But the efforts to deny worker rights, limit wages, reduce or deny basic social services and health care and send other people’s children to police the cities and fight the wars are cut from the same cloth. <br /></font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><font size="3"><br /></font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><font size="3">Republican ideology – no matter how gussied up in the rhetoric of patriotism, religion, “lower taxes” and trickle down economics or hidden behind barely veiled expressions of white privilege – demands no government “interference” in the profitable deployment of capital while selling government every bill of goods it can. <i>Fox News</i> has become the “ministry of truth” for this ideology. Riding victories in empty “red” states and gerrymandered congressional districts, the Republicans have been able to win Congressional majorities as well as elect two recent presidents despite having lost the overall popular vote. Seems you can fool enough of the people most of the time.<br /><br />The non-elite has few champions, no organized party and no coherent expression of its own self-interest. The Democratic Party sometimes appears to be onside with the unprotected majority but it also serves the interests of the elite because that is where the money is and when money talks, nobody walks. Some Democrats do seek to present more egalitarian and balanced approaches to governing and they have done some good over the years, especially when there were moderate Republicans to work with. But today’s Republicans and their media allies have been successful in demonizing anyone who offers alternatives to their “conservative” ideology as injecting socialism or class-warfare into traditional, “pure” American politics. This while continuing to wage their own one-sided war to protect their privileged position.<br /><br />America needs a new beginning. Meanwhile, we are in the hands of our still free press seeking to provide facts and truth even to those who refuse, for now, to hear. And we also have the November election. The key question is whether enough of the non-elite will come to resist this class warfare through more understanding of how its own interests differ from those of the elite and then vote.<br /></font></span><br /></div></div>Gerard Galluccihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15909722623126534873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825618240462922869.post-91045442724063670842020-07-18T12:04:00.000-04:002020-07-18T12:04:13.861-04:00What Needs To Be Done
<br />
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Let
us put aside for the moment the fear that Joe Biden’s lead against
Trump in the polls is bad because it seems all too reminiscent of
Hillary’s last time. Let us also assume that that Republican
defeat in November is so complete that the Democrats win both houses.
Let us then consider what the agenda should be for a new Biden
Administration in 2021. </span></span>
</div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The
first challenge facing President Biden and the Democratic Party will
be to begin the arduous process of undoing the damage Trump and the
Republicans have done. This means first of all, of course, leading
the country in the effort to put the corona virus behind us and
refunding state and local governments and health institutions. But
also, reviving rule of law and the administration of equal justice,
undoing the dismantling of environmental protections, ending the war
on immigrants, reimposing federal oversight of local police
performance, aiding states to simplify and protect their voting
systems, reestablishing our relations with friends and allies abroad
and countering Russian, Chinese and other actors waging cyberwar upon
us. These reflect simply the requirement to reverse the erosion of
governance and national interest inflicted by Trump and his
administration but will nevertheless take great effort and
concentration. </span></span>
</div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But
the real challenge will be even harder because it will require going
beyond fixing what Trump has broken to fixing America itself as the
damage predates him. Indeed, Trump is a symptom of the two
fundamental and related problems that afflict us: gross and growing
economic inequality and partisan tribalism. Economic inequality
reinforces both racism and ultra-nationalism and exacerbates racial
inequality. Partisan tribalism has made it near impossible to
extract rational political debate and responses to the problems we
face from our government. </span></span>
</div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">There
is no way to tackle economic inequality without re-conceptualizing how
we do capitalism. The United States is as near as one can imagine to
a completely </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>laissez
faire</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
system, in which not only does the market rule in the economic realm
but in politics as well. Both parties are fueled by loose money and
have long accepted the results of the market, its up and downs, its
winners and losers. The Republicans seek the to protect the gains of
the winners and ensure that the downturns don’t lead to raised
taxes on the rich or efforts to place limits on the way business is
done. The Democrats – to give them their credit – have sought to
provide and protect minimum social welfare and have begun to do the
same with health care. But they too accept market mechanisms as a
given.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It
is time to place limits on markets, allow them to operate in some
areas, limit how they affect others and ensure that their results
work for the majority and not only the few. The goal must be to
greatly reduce economic inequality and provide basic necessities –
including health care – for all as needed.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Partisan
tribalism goes back to the very founding of our republic. But the
degree to which it has in the last decades overwhelmed the very
ability to actually govern is without precedent. Bill Clinton’s
effort in the 1990s to take the Democrats towards a more market
friendly approach was met with worried warfare by Newt Gingrich and
the Republicans. If the Democrats tacked right, the Republicans
would go even further in that direction. Since then, they have waged
class war in favor of the 1% and against the middle class and the
poor by cynically seeking to enlist</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>
</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;">the
latter </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">into
an assault on the very government that could protect them. The
policies pursued by the Republicans lowered taxes on the rich, cut
government services for the non-elite as much as possible and covered
everything in the rhetoric of patriotism and charges that the other
side were socialists. The Democrats seemed obvious to the
possibility of representing the 99% (with Hillary actually calling
them the “deplorables”). The Democrats therefore implicitly
eschewed the class approach to the political war waged against them
instead sinking into a morass of contending internal constituencies
each seeking to tear their own piece of flesh from the party and its
candidates. Bernie Sanders – not surprisingly an independent –
understood this dynamic and sought to bring the party to its natural
base. The Democrats twice refused. (Whether or not Sanders was too
“socialist” to be elected leaves open the question of whether
Elizabeth Warren was overlooked because she was too much a </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>woman</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">.)</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Trump
may bring the Republicans to their knees. But this will not by
itself end the tribalism. Indeed, it seems time for the Democrats to
go on the offensive. Clean up Trump’s mess, begin undoing economic
and racial inequality, and figure out what kind of country America
needs to be to face the foreign, domestic and environment challenges
the rest of the 21</span></span><sup><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">st</span></span></sup><span style="font-family: Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
Century will bring. Yes, elect Biden and then get on with it!</span></span></div>
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p.ctl { font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; font-size: 12pt; so-language: hi-IN }</style>Gerard Galluccihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15909722623126534873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825618240462922869.post-65531995236118563592020-06-18T13:20:00.000-04:002020-07-02T07:07:59.502-04:00The Cosmic Reset<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">an</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
early episode of the original Star Trek, </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">aliens
put Kirk on a rugged planet to duel with the captain of a rival Gorn
ship. Kirk wins as the </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">dinosaur-like
</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">Gorn
</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">was
intelligent</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">
but really slow. </span></span></span></span>
</div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">On
Earth, <a href="https://everythingrum.blogspot.com/2016/07/what-if-non-avian-dinosaurs-survived.html">dinosaurs never became intelligent</a>. Arising</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">
240 million years ago, </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">t</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">hey
survived </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">some</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">
175 million years and for 135 million of those were the dominant land
animal. By the time they became extinct, dinosaurs had perfected two
ways of living: </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">eating
plants or eating each other</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">.
</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">The
plant eaters</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">
were excellent at converting plant matter into animal bulk </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">and
could grow very large</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">.
The </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">carnivores</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">
were very good at using tooth and claw to eat the </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">vegetarians</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">.
Some carnivores – such as the raptors – may have hunted in pacts
and </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">perhaps</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">
</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">had
some wolf-like intelligence. But in general, brain power </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">doesn’t
seem to have been</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">
on the dinosaurs’ primary evolutionary path.</span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">Mammals
arose </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">just</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">
10-15 million years after the dinosaurs. </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">But
f</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">or
most of their first 160 million years, </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">they</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">
lived </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">underfoot</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">
as </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">squirrel</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">-sized,
nocturnal plant eaters and insectivores. </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">F</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">or
this life style,</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">
relatively larger brains </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">gave
</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">an
evolutionary advantage. So under the feet of the dinosaurs, mammals
got smart. Still, even with their brains, they could not compete
with tooth and claw.</span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">Enter
the six-mile </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">wide</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">
asteroid that found the earth 66 million years ago. </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">That
asteroid – nudged out of its distant orbit by a chance encounter
with another rock or after swinging too close to Jupiter or Saturn –
had travelled silently on its way for perhaps a million years to
arrive just seconds before the earth moved just beyond it in its own
orbit. </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">When
it hit, it set the earth on fire and </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">after</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">
it had burned away, caused a long dark winter that left most
creatures dead and many extinct, including the </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">non-avian
</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">dinosaurs.
This disaster </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">was,
however,</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">
good news for the mammals. Perhaps because they were small, lived
underground and could eat anything, some survived </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">(along
with birds, who are smart flying dinosaurs)</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">.
Within a million years, the earth had recovered and mammals were the
dominant large land animal. Some of those eventually evolved even
further in reliance on brains, eventually producing us. </span></span></span></span>
</div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">T</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">h</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">at</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">
asteroid wiped the slate clean, resetting the course of animal
evolution in favor of the brain and intelligence. There is no reason
to assume that an additional 66 million years would have led the
dinosaurs towards the Gorn as </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">in
175</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">
million, </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">it
had not done so</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">.
</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">It’s
as if </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">the
universe ha</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">s</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">
a bias in favor of intelligence and sent a “do-over” to set
things right. </span></span></span></span>
</div>
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Gerard Galluccihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15909722623126534873noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825618240462922869.post-81894065573880671422020-05-18T07:48:00.000-04:002020-05-18T07:51:10.887-04:00Humming along….<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The human brain is able to store and retrieve memories spanning the
decades of an individual life. This occurs despite the exchange,
death and constant rearrangement of our neurons. Which raises the
question of how? In the hard drives of modern computers –
classical or quantum – data is stored in physical bytes (or
qubits). Data is written to them and retrieved from them. They can
be re-written but the bits themselves do not otherwise change. If
one does change through damage or failure, that bit of information is
– generally speaking and leaving aside backups – lost. Computer
memory is hard. Ours is soft, organic. Amidst the constant comings
and goings of millions of nerve cells, our memories – our very
identity and sense of self – remains constant (within the margins
of error associated with life and aging). It’s a marvel of
evolution, really.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">According to <a href="https://singularityhub.com/2019/10/15/this-strange-rule-is-what-makes-the-human-brain-so-powerful/">a
recent study</a>, we owe this happy state of affairs to the fact that
“as individual neurons die, our neural networks readjust,
fine-tuning their connections to sustain optimal data transmission.”
It’s a matter of individual nerve cells and networks of same being
both excited and inhibited from discharging, thus maintaining a
dynamic balance. Through this process, the entire system (networks
of networks) achieves “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-organized_criticality">criticality</a>’
– sustaining an overall state that apparently maintains the data
structure despite changes affecting the underlying organic bits.
What this means is something like this: our inbuilt self-regulating
rhythm of neural activity at the individual nerve, synapse and
network levels tends towards an optimal level of brain-wide activity.
That allows us to remember stuff even as nerve connections change.
It’s like the brain is constantly humming to itself the story of
our lives. The humming is the basis of mind and memory.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">While one might take
the notion of this “humming” as simply a metaphor, the
researchers suggest that the mechanism they hypothesize also may
explain consciousness. But it seems to me this cannot be the case.
Ever listen to a gurgling stream? It kinda hums too. But a stream
– okay, as far as we know – is not conscious. <a href="https://everythingrum.blogspot.com/2014/09/consciousness-alternative-view.html">But
we are</a>. I hum therefore I am.
</span></span></div>
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Gerard Galluccihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15909722623126534873noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825618240462922869.post-6161562345651073632020-05-05T13:23:00.002-04:002020-05-05T13:23:43.114-04:00Light Ages and Dark Ages<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="en-US">R</span></span><span style="font-size: small;">ead
recently a dystopic sci-fi short story set near the end of this
century <span lang="en-US">in</span>
which a floating city of refugees is overturned by one of the then
frequent super typhoons in the Philippine archipelago. The “hero”
then must flee from super biotech Chinese police. Nothing about the
story line offered reason to look forward to the world that will be
brought about by climate change, environmental damage, rising
sea-levels and technology-enabled authoritarianism. Indeed, the end
of the century will most probably be one of desperation,
displacement, disease, poverty and death for billions. Made me
wonder what is the meaning and purpose of any of the lives we live
now if it leads to this. The answer seems to me to be that there is
no meaning but there may be purpose.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="en-US">M</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="en-US">ost
who live</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="en-US">
in the wealthy countries of </span></span><span style="font-size: small;">North
America, Western Europe and the Pacific Rim enjoy lives of security,
well-being, comfort and accomplishment. In the past 200 years,
advances in industry, agriculture, transportation, and technology
have improved the lives of many others and reduced poverty globally.
While not everyone shares in this progress, collectively, the human
race has never had it better. But the good times and bad times come
in waves – light ages followed by dark ages – and the next one
may indeed be a super typhoon.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="en-US">Throughout</span></span><span style="font-size: small;">
history, <span lang="en-US">periods</span>
during which many lived relatively well are followed by times of
collapse. During the <span lang="en-US">g</span>olden
<span lang="en-US">a</span>ge
of Rome, its citizens enjoyed relative stability and comfort. When
Rome fell, Europe entered the centuries of the dark ages. Other
civilizations rose and fell in their own spaces and times. This was
probably true in prehistory as well. Homo sapiens almost went
extinct at least twice before: around 195,000 years ago and again
some 70,000 years ago. Both times it took hundreds to thousands of
years to recover. We now live in a global civilization that has
entered the age we created from scratch, the Anthropocene. When our
global light age ends, the dark age will therefore also be
globalized.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
What does this mean for <span lang="en-US">those
of us alive now</span>? Well, we can enjoy what
we have. Beyond that, <i><span lang="en-US">n</span>othing</i>.
Ages swing from good to bad and back again. It seems likely they will continue
to do so. None of this has any meaning, it just is. At most, it has
perhaps been the engine of human evolution as overcoming the past dark age allows us to rise a little bit further in the next light one.
<span lang="en-US">But
w</span>e can not claim credit for our relative
well-being. We were just born <span lang="en-US">lucky</span>.
And we also cannot be blamed for the past centuries of burning
fossil fuel and despoiling nature. We were merely alive when the
bill came due. But we can still have purpose. <span lang="en-US">A</span>t
some point in the next century, humanity will reach a new
equilibrium with the changed earth. So we can try to live more
sustainably now and do everything we can to ready the world and the
next generations for what is to come so that the next age is a <span lang="en-US">l</span>ight
one.
</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><br />
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Gerard Galluccihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15909722623126534873noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825618240462922869.post-89825796546424920542020-04-01T06:48:00.000-04:002020-04-01T06:48:55.079-04:00Himself the Age Transfigured (#2)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">We have come to be the movement,<br />The moment of the cosmos.<br />Each particle that exists,<br />Changes and touches all others.<br />And we are the awareness.<br /><br />To each change, we give name.<br />We track each touch, <br />We push all levers,<br />Or learn them just the same.<br />We are the lever, <br />The hand that encompasses.<br /><br />Each molecule flowing over and around<br />Every other molecule<br />Is perceived by us,<br />Measured by us,<br />Called into being by us.<br /><br />Ours is the time in which<br />The Universe came into it own.<br />We ride the surf and,<br />At the same time,<br />Dive the waters.<br /><br />That which we cannot do,<br />We can imagine doing.<br />Ours is the power and the glory,<br />To be true.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">GMG </span></span>
<br />
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Gerard Galluccihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15909722623126534873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825618240462922869.post-89345239521003885122020-03-21T12:37:00.000-04:002020-03-21T12:37:23.979-04:00COVID-19: The Great Equalizer<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><span style="font-size: medium;">By
now, the human species has been altering the natural order for some
11000 years. It started with the advent of agriculture and went
through urbanization and industrialization which transformed the
surface of the earth and began changing a host of natural systems
including the climate, animal life, forests and oceans. We humans
have known about this for a while. But most of us – especially
those of us in the advanced economies and not living too close to the
rising waters – could see the impact of our disruption of natural
systems as something that would affect other people – future
generations, the poor, those living in low-lying island nations –
and not so much us in the here and now. COVID-19 has altered that by
bringing to all of us the results of our changes to the earth. It
has equalized the impact of the destruction of natural environments
(which stresses what lives in them thereby making them more prone to
diseases that can jump to us), the way we use animals (including how
close we live with them and the antibiotics we use to fatten them)
and the close quarters (in large numbers) in which we live. Add to
this the way we use hydrocarbons to travel and transport, the
interconnectedness of our ways of life and economies and the varying
shortcomings of our political systems. We should not have been
surprised by the current bio-crisis. It’s not that any one of
these caused the virus but that the total impact of what we have
wrought was largely hidden until now though very much operative.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><span style="font-size: medium;">So
COVID-19 shows us that the bill won’t wait to be delivered and that
everyone must pay. The rich may be able to retreat to their enclaves
and private transport. But their world will change as ours does.
The species as a whole will survive. But this is the wake up call.
The future disrupted world is upon us now. Returning to “normal”
– whenever and whatever that turns out to be – may well be just
a breather before the next episode. We need to take the next step in
our evolution – remake our economies and politics, restoring nature
even if gradually and treating each other more equally – and start
now or the humanity that makes it to the 22<sup>nd</sup> Century may
be unrecognizable. </span></span>
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Gerard Galluccihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15909722623126534873noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825618240462922869.post-20724373724700663102020-03-11T16:08:00.000-04:002020-03-11T16:08:18.128-04:00Continuing Notes on Sabine's "A History of Political Theory" -- Episode 33 <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">For episode 32, see <a href="https://everythingrum.blogspot.com/2020/03/continuing-notes-on-sabines-history-of.html">here</a></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Theory of the Nation-State: The Moderns </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">XXXIII. Fascism and National Socialism</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> A. Somehow national socialism and fascism were combination of</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> professed socialists and professed nationalists.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> B. Attempt to marshal total energies of people behind government</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> led to emphasis on war (or preparation for war, even permanent</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> preparation for war).</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> C. </span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Mussolini and Hitler mined the ideas of </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">philosophic</span></span></span></span> irrationalism. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 1. Combined, on an emotional level, cult of the folk and cult</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> of the hero.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 2. <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/schopenhauer/">Schopenhauer</a> saw behind nature and human life the</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> struggle of a blind force within the human mind -- 'will' --</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> to construct an illusion of order and reason. The hope for</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> mankind was to end this struggle through contemplation,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> consciousness without desire.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 3. <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche/">Nietzsche</a> moralized struggle in place of achievement. Values</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> based on superior capabilities would replace liberal values. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 4. <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/bergson/">Bergson</a> gave utilitarian value to intellect and saw it as the</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> servant of the 'life force' (similar to 'will').</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 5. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Sorel">Sorel</a> substituted 'life-force' for materialism thus stripping</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Marxism of its economic determinism. Class struggle is</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> the manifestation of sheer creative violence on the part of</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> the proletariat. Myths inspire such movements; philosophy is</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> social myth.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> D. Hegel was a rationalist and did not see philosophy as myth.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 1. But Mussolini used <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Gentile">Gentile's</a> Hegelianism (theory of the</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> state) because it was expedient.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 2. Claims were merely in pseudo-Hegelian language where</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 'might is right' and 'liberty' is found in subjection. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> E. Central terms of national socialism:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 1. Folk (race) -- organic people.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 2. The Elite and the Leader.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 3. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebensraum">Lebensraum</a> -- the territorial expansion of a Germanic</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> empire. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 4. The Folk:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> i. the individual emerges from the Folk tom which he owes all</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> ii. individuals are not equal as they embody the reality of the</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Folk in varying degrees</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> iii. at the center is the Leader</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 5. Society is:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> i. the Leader -- charismatic 'natural" hero of the folk</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> ii. the ruling elite -- provides intelligence and direction</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> iii. the masses -- not capable of heroism, inert and led </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> by emotions</span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #0c343d;">Note: This ends my notes from Sabine's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_History_of_Political_Theory"><i>A History of Political Theory</i></a>. These entries start <a href="https://everythingrum.blogspot.com/2019/06/notes-on-history-of-political-theory-by.html">here</a>. I have tried to be truthful to what I recorded as I read Sabine many years ago but have tweaked them here and there. I have regained an understanding of Western political thought and its continuing relevance. I hope they might help do the same for whoever stumbles upon them. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></div>
Gerard Galluccihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15909722623126534873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825618240462922869.post-47476894848663356622020-03-04T11:39:00.000-05:002020-03-04T11:39:28.504-05:00Continuing Notes on Sabine's "A History of Political Theory" -- Episode 32 <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">For episode 31, see <a href="https://everythingrum.blogspot.com/2020/02/continuing-notes-on-sabines-history-of_26.html">here</a></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The Theory of the Nation-State: The Moderns</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">XXXII. Communism</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> A. Communism, or Marxism-Leninism, was adaption of Marxism to</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> epoch of imperialism and particular conditions of Russia (more</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> generally, non-industrial economies and societies with peasant</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> populations).</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> B. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Lenin">Lenin</a> led the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolsheviks">Bolsheviks</a>, favoring a vanguard party approach</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> against the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mensheviks">Menshevik</a> faction favoring a democratic party. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> C. Lenin pointed out that workers do not become socialists but</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> trade unionists so socialism must be brought to them from</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> outside by middle class intellectuals.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> 1. Democracy consists of not running ahead of people (by</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> advocating what they cannot follow) or lagging behind.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> 2. Vanguard party provides goals that will work without undue</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> use of force. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> 3. The party has science in Marixsm (rather than doctrine of</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> religion).</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> 4. The party also has a dedicated, disciplined elite.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> 5. Democratic centralism, freedom of discussion before the</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> decision is made but not after. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">"The dialectic, Lenin wrote in one of his notebooks, is 'the idea of</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">the universal, all-sided, living connection of everything with every-</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">thing, and the reflection of this connection in the conceptions of</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">man.'" (820)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> D. Lenin and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Trotsky">Trotsky</a> argued for a combined bourgeois and </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> proletarian revolution in backward countries.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> 1. Proletarian revolution in Russia had to include, at least</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> initially, the peasants.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> 2. Could only succeed, however, if hooked up to proletarian</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> revolutions in the West.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> 3. Alliance with the peasants was first revolution, shift to</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> European proletariat would be the second.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> 4. Extension of capital to underdeveloped nations becomes</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> necessary when monopolies are established in home markets.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> 5. Imperialism results and competition between imperialists</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> become war.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> 6. High profits from imperialist exploitation enables imperialists</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> to pay off their own workers.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> 7. This condition is artificial and the European proletariat will</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> become revolutionary in line with Marx's predictions.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> 8. The oppressed nations would then add to the proletariat.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> 9. Proletarian nations would be most likely to produce revolution.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> E. But with the outbreak of WWI in 1914, Western socialist parties led</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> their proletariat to patriotic support of the war. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> F. Upon success of the revolution first and solely in Russia, Lenin</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> found only one tangible, usable institution, the party. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> G. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin">Stalin</a> added the concept of socialism in one country.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> H. State transformation of the economic base cut final tie with</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> conventional meaning of economic determinism.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Next week: <span style="color: #cc0000;">Fascism and National Socialism</span> </span></span><br />
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Gerard Galluccihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15909722623126534873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825618240462922869.post-48608233967533252402020-02-26T09:11:00.000-05:002020-02-26T09:11:56.080-05:00Continuing Notes on Sabine's "A History of Political Theory" -- Episode 31<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">For episode 30, see <a href="https://everythingrum.blogspot.com/2020/02/continuing-notes-on-sabines-history-of.html">here</a></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Theory of the Nation-State: The Moderns</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">XXXI. Marx and Dialectical Materialism</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> A. Marx transformed Hegel's struggle of nature into a struggle of</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> classes thereby taking away nationalism, conservatism and</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> its counter-revolutionary character and becoming a powerful</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> form of revolutionary radicalism. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 1. Marx accepted dialectic as a logical method.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 2. For both the driving force of social change is the struggle</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> for power.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> B. Marx perceived the importance of the rise to political self-</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> consciousness of the industrial working class. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> C. Saw the French Revolution and the resulting rise of natural</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> rights in politics and economics as a prelude to social </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> revolution. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> D. Marx and Hegel provided cause greater than oneself as the</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> only reward to individual. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> E. History (with a big "H") takes the place of God for Marxist</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> revolutionist because Historical necessity provides cause and</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> effect, desirability and moral obligation.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> F. Marx studies Hegel at the University of Berlin under materialist</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Hegelian, <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ludwig-feuerbach/">Ludwig Feuerbach</a>.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> G. Economic materialism sees that social development depends</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> upon the evolution of the forces of economic production.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> H. Marx tended to equate "materialism" with "scientific." </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 1. Also implied radical rejection of religion.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 2. Materialism and dialectics suggested a new and far-reaching</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> revolution by giving materialism an ethical dimension: </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> economics as the root of social inequality.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> I. Marx's belief that socialist society would extend political liberty</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> never depended on analysis of socialism but only on a <i>priori</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> belief that in a developing society, nothing of worth would be lost.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> J. Understood through the dialectic, economic determinism did not</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> mean cause and effect but through economic factors operating</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> as semi-personalized agents of creative energies.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> K. The individual counts mainly through his membership in his </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> class because his ideas reflect the ideas generated by class.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> L. Marx's theory of cultural development:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 1. A succession of stages each of which is dominated by a</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> typical system of production and exchange of goods.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> i. The system of production forces generates its own</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> characteristic and appropriate ideology including;</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> ii. law, politics, morals, religion, art and philosophy</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 2. Whole process is dialectical with its motive force supplied</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> by internal tensions created by the disparities between a</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> newly evolving system of production and the persisting</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> ideology of the old.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 3. The forces of production are always primary as compared</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> to the secondary, ideological consequences.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 4. Dialectical development is an internal process of unfolding</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> or of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitalism">vitalistic </a>realization.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> M. Marx and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Engels">Friedrich Engels</a> rejected the idealist interpretation of</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> dialectic as self-development of thought, saw instead the self-</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> development of nature itself reflected in thought.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"The notion that ideology may in some cases affect what figures in a</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">society as a standard of truth has, however, produced the rather large</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">body of theory now known as sociology of knowledge."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> N. "Ideology," "economic determinism," and "class struggle" are</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> core theoretical concepts of Marx's social philosophy from</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> which two divergent political strategies emerged:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 1. Evolutionary party socialism.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 2. Revolutionary communism. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Next week: <span style="color: #990000;">Communism</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></div>
Gerard Galluccihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15909722623126534873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825618240462922869.post-19955358500197866802020-02-19T12:54:00.000-05:002020-02-19T12:55:32.999-05:00Continuing Notes on Sabine's "A History of Political Theory" -- Episode 30 <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">For episode 29, see <a href="https://everythingrum.blogspot.com/2020/02/notes-on-history-of-political-theory_12.html">here</a></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Theory of the Nation State: The moderns </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">XXX. Liberalism Modernized</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> A. "Collectivism" as a spontaneous defense against social</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> destructiveness of industrial revolution began to replace</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> economic liberalism.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> B. Liberal theory had to meet realities of industrialization. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> C. <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mill/">John Stuart Mill</a> on Liberty </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">1. Mill's philosophy, in a broad sense, is an effort to modify</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> the empiricism in which he was bred by taking into</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> account Kantian philosophy.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 2. Granted differing degrees of pleasure in moral qualities,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> thus departing from greatest happiness standard.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 3. Abandoned egoism and saw moral goods as good in</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> themselves apart from contribution to greatest good.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 4. Argued for popular government and liberty not as merely</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> efficient means but as producing and giving scope to a</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> a high moral character.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 5. Saw that behind liberal government there must be a </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> liberal society.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 6. But while arguing for individual freedom, the area for such</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> freedom -- must have no effect on others -- is reduced to</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> insignificance.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 7. Mill never clarified what the individual ought to decide for</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> himself and could not appeal to a notion of natural rights.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 8. Abandoned <i>laissez faire</i> in economics.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 9. Mill's liberalism:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> i. added respect for human beings to utility</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> ii. accepted political and social freedom as good in themselves</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> iii. liberty is a social good as well as an individual good</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> iv. the function of a liberal state in a free society is positive</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> not negative</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> D. Mill saw that Bentham had neglected role that institutions play</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> between individual psychology and concrete elements of given</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> time and place and did not recognize historical development.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> E. <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/comte/">Auguste Comte</a> hoped to make concept of society not speculation</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> but science. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 1. Proposed existence of general law of "development" of</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> societies.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 2. The "comparative method" of examining societies became</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> "science".</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> F. Mill tried to incorporate Comte into utilitarian tradition enlarging</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> "empirical" from basis in individual psychology to include the</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> study of social institutions and especially their growth.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> G. <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spencer/">Herbert Spencer</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 1. Also came from philosophical radicalism tradition.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 2. Blended utilitarianism ethical and political ideas with the</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> new conception of organic evolution.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 3. While Mill went back to Bentham's empiricism, Spencer</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> went back to rationalist tradition of classical economics</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> using evolution to reconstruct system of natural society</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> with natural boundaries between economics and politics.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 4. In his <i>Synthetic Philosophy</i>, he tried to set up a rationalistic</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> system spanning whole range of human knowledge with</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> progression from energy to life, from life to mind, from mind</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> to society, from society to ever more complex civilizations. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 5. Saw moral improvement of social well-being achieved through </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> the survival of the fittest. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 6. The state would wither away as society grew more complex </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> through an extension of <i>laissez faire</i>.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 7. Legislation mars this move towards perfection that nature</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> itself tends toward via survival of the fittest.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> H. In response to the growing claim of labor to more than subsistence</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> existence, and public support for this claim, liberalism needed</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> revision to give positive role to government.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> I. Oxford idealists -- </span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/green/">T.H.Green</a>, <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/royce/">Josiah Royce</a> and <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/dewey/">John Dewey</a> --</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span>provided this revision in the late 19th Century.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 1.With Hegel, they shared the general idea that human nature</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> is fundamentally social.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 2. Brought to liberalism the problem of the mutual dependence</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> between the structure of personality and the cultural</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> structure of its social milieu. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 3. Green saw deprivation as not only economic but also moral.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> i. with the Greeks, saw politics as essentially an agency</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> for creating social conditions that make moral</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> developmemt possible.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> ii. posited concept of positive freedom to enjoy something</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> worth doing or enjoying -- as opposed to Bentham's</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> negative freedom from legal restraint -- as freedom must</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> include actual possibility of developing human capacities</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> iii. requires a genuinely increased individual ability to </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> share in goods produced by society and a greater ability</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> to contribute to the common good</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> iv. consistent with the core of liberal philosophy, the idea of</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> a general good capable of being shared by everyone and</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> providing a standard for legislation</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 4. Green's two elements of rights:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> i. claim to freedom of action in acquiring subsistence as</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> part of an individual's impulse to realize his own inner</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> powers and capabilities</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> ii. general social recognition that this claim is warranted</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> and that the individual's freedom really does contribute</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> to the general good </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"A moral community from Green's point of view, therefore, is one in</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> which the individual responsibly limits his claims to freedom in the</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> light of general social interests and in which the community itself</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> supports his claims because the general well-being can be realized</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> only through his initiative and freedom." 732</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> J. Green accepted the state as a positive agency to be used where</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> legislation could contribute to positive freedom.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> K. Problems arose in dispute between two of Green's disciples,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/bosanquet/">Bernard Bosanquet</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Hobhouse">Leonard Hobhouse</a>.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 1. Centered around two ethical relationships:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> i. between individual and community, and </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> ii. between society and state</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 2. Bosanquet argued the more Hegelian view of a "social</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> self" as what a person would be if fully moral and fully</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> intelligent when not impeded by one-sided give-and-take</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> with society in charge. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 3. Hobhouse attacked metaphysical usage of the term "state,"</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> introduced to English usage by idealists because it could be</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> used to justify illiberal political regimentation or social</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> stratification.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> L. Green was also compatible with liberal socialism such as the </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabian_Society">Fabians</a>.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 1. The Fabians seek to regulate the economy because of the</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> bad effects of unregulated ones, not because of class</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> struggle.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 2. Extended the critique of economic rent to the accumulation</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> of capital.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> M. Liberalism has two usages now, both with valid historical</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> background.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 1. As a midpoint between conservatism and socialism, </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> favorable to reform but opposed to radicalism. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 2. As equivalent to what is popularly called democracy as</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> opposed to communism and fascism.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> i. liberalism in this sense means the preservation of</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> democratic institutions</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> ii. can be identified with whole Western civilization while</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> the first meaning can be identified with the middle class </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> N. In the aftermath of WWI, fascism and communism set up</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> transcendent collective entity based on race, nation or community.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 1. Conflicted with core elements of liberalism: individualism</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> and the moral nature of the relationships between individuals</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> in a community.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 2. The moral nature of society inevitably came to be expressed</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> as some version of natural rights.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Next week: <span style="color: #274e13;">Marx and Dialectical Materialism</span> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br />
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Gerard Galluccihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15909722623126534873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825618240462922869.post-77080953199958077732020-02-12T12:19:00.000-05:002020-02-12T12:19:12.093-05:00Notes on "A History of Political Theory" -- Episode 29<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For episode 28, see <a href="https://everythingrum.blogspot.com/2020/02/notes-on-history-of-political-theory.html">here</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To start at the beginning, see <a href="https://everythingrum.blogspot.com/2019/06/notes-on-history-of-political-theory-by.html">here</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>The Theory of the Nation State: The Moderns</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>XXIX. Liberalism: Philosophical Radicalism </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>"The history [of philosophy of natural rights] was an example of the paradox of which Hegel was so fond, that a philosophy is fully developed in its details and</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>applications only when its main principles have come to be taken for granted</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>and to that extent have become retarded in their speculative development." 669</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> A. Liberalism of the 19th Century was reaction against the excesses of the</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> Revolution and on reliance on "self-evident" axioms.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> B. Defined classical liberalism, in essence a program of legal, economic and</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> political reforms connected, as they supposed, by the fact of being all</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> derived from the principle of the greatest happiness of the greatest</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> number.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> C. Chief ideas that actuated the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_Radicals">Philosophical Radicals</a>:</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> 1. Greatest happiness principle as a measure of value.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> 2. Legal sovereignty as an assumption necessary for reform through</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> the legislative process.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> 3. A jurisprudence devoted to the analysis and censure of the law in</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> light of its contribution to the greatest happiness.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> D. Four dimensions of pleasure or pain (for calculation):</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> 1. Intensity.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> 2. Duration.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> 3. Certainty it will follow given kind of action.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> 4. Remoteness from the time it will occur.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> E. Greatest happiness principle useful in stripping away 'fictions' and </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> recalling that real individuals are affected by law and government</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> actions. </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> F. Allocation of pains and pleasures by good legislation brings about most </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> desirable results.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> 1. Utility only reasonable grounds for such legistation and obligation</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> to obey.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> 2. Property rights justified by the need for security and certainty of the</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> results of our actions.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> G. <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/bentham/">Jeremy Bentham's</a> liberal humanist feeling caused him to temper the</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> greatest happiness principle (efficiency) by holding equality of men in</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> calculating happiness.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> H. Classical economics grew alongside Bentham's social philosophy </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> from the same roots in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Smith">Adam Smith</a>, via <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ricardo">David Ricardo</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Robert_Malthus">Thomas Malthus</a> </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> and the French successors to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Quesnay">François Quesnay</a> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physiocracy">Physiocrats</a>. </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> 1. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laissez-faire"><i>Laissez faire</i> theory</a></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> 2. Economics and politics mutually interdependent with 'law-like'</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> economic behavior.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> 3. Embraced two diverse points of view:</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> i. natural order as inherently simple, harmonious and beneficent</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> ii. belief this order is devoid of ethical attributes and its laws have </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> no relation to justice, reason or human welfare</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> iii. the first assumption corresponds to a static social free-market</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> that will produce most cheap harmony of interests </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> iv. the second corresponds to the social dynamics of distribution </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> of the total product of that market through economic classes </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> where what one gets depends on which class one is in</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> 4. At odds with utilitarian principle which requires a harmony of</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> interests which is not natural but must be produced by legislation.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> I. Malthus proposed two laws:</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> 1. In general, population increases faster than production of food.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> 2. Law of rent -- food is the product of land and land is peculiar in</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> that it is limited in amount and differs in productivity. Rent is the</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> difference between productivity of any given piece of land and that</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> of land which at prevailing food prices would just fail to pay the</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> cost of use.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> 3. Rent therefore contributes nothing to production and landlords</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> are economic parasites. (Ricardo), and;</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> i. increase in food prices brings less fertile lands under cultivation,</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> increases rent and increases population which increases prices</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> ii. implies law of wages -- except for temporarily, wages cannot</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> rise above or fall below subsistence level </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> iii. total product of industry in general distributed as rent, wages</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> or profit with profits falling as rent increases</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> iv. does not mesh on theoretical level with a neutral free market</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> but on practical level led to policy of free trade</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> v. Marx had ready made picture of exploitation of labor (profit was</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> economic rent paid to the holders of the means of production</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> J. Bentham saw that Liberal government need not be defended by accepting</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> its inefficiency.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> K. <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/james-mill/">James Mill</a></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> 1. Shared Hobbesian view of men driven by desire for power which</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> institutional limitations cannot check.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> 2. With Bentham rejected any conception of balancing of powers.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> 3. Saw middle class as "wisest part of the community" which lower</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> classes would follow. </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> 4. Unified egoistic theory of individual motivation and belief in the </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> natural harmony of human interests.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> L. Philosophical Radicalism had great practical effect in 19th Century</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> England.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> 1. Had no positive conception of a social good and a passive view </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> of government.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> 2. Left need for some conception of social good and positive government.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Next week: <span style="color: #274e13;">Liberalism Modernized</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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Gerard Galluccihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15909722623126534873noreply@blogger.com0