tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post4111853442669671485..comments2024-03-06T06:34:42.881-05:00Comments on EconoSpeak: War, Waste, and the Myth of ProgressUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-27783402834851611112022-03-06T14:38:25.503-05:002022-03-06T14:38:25.503-05:00Yes I argue, but I have gained and use and credit ...Yes I argue, but I have gained and use and credit your splendid arguments.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-87174515128091551722022-03-06T13:42:23.142-05:002022-03-06T13:42:23.142-05:00Thank you, I had never come across "Elective ...Thank you, I had never come across "Elective Affinities" and will very soon read it. Also, I will then read the Benjamin essay on the work. These will be completely new to me.<br /><br />I know "Faust," but have never looked at another work by Goethe.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-58689966042090522542022-03-06T12:15:28.833-05:002022-03-06T12:15:28.833-05:00My apologies, anne, Marcuse took Benjamin's qu...My apologies, anne, Marcuse took Benjamin's quote out of context. In context, it was not referring to the condition "at the beginning of the fascist era" but to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's novel, <i>Elective Affinities</i>. Sandwichmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11159060882083015637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-9995358211157650872022-03-05T18:05:05.085-05:002022-03-05T18:05:05.085-05:00It is only for the sake of those without hope that...It is only for the sake of those without hope that hope is given to us.<br /><br />[ This is saddening, but presently only enervating. I admire Walter Benjamin, but I am not about to accept a statement about hope that for so many was all too reasonable at the beginning of the fascist era as being forever generally comforting or helpful. ]Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-82141926614175293002022-03-05T15:07:43.789-05:002022-03-05T15:07:43.789-05:00The critical theory of society possesses no concep...The critical theory of society possesses no concepts which could bridge the gap between the present and its future; holding no promise and showing no success, it remains negative. Thus it wants to remain loyal to those who, without hope, have given and give their life to the Great Refusal....<br /><br />[ I deeply appreciate this response, and am thinking carefully about it. I truly appreciate your thinking. ]Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-47346315352654565952022-03-05T13:51:37.889-05:002022-03-05T13:51:37.889-05:00Marcuse's One-Dimensional Man concludes as fol...Marcuse's <i>One-Dimensional Man</i> concludes as follows:<br /><br /><br />The critical theory of society possesses no concepts which could bridge the gap between the present and its future; holding no promise and showing no success, it remains negative. Thus it wants to remain loyal to those who, without hope, have given and give their life to the Great Refusal.<br /><br />At the beginning of the fascist era, Walter Benjamin wrote:<br /><br />“Nur um der Hoffnungslosen willen ist uns die Hoffnung gegeben.”<br /><br />It is only for the sake of those without hope that hope is given to us.Sandwichmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11159060882083015637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-69432334750721155442022-03-05T13:25:33.055-05:002022-03-05T13:25:33.055-05:00What I am trying to do with these reading is turn ...What I am trying to do with these reading is turn them hopeful rather than distressing. Progress is no myth, progress is achieved intentionally. Proper social organization can and should make for progress.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-76566909378883537542022-03-05T13:19:00.135-05:002022-03-05T13:19:00.135-05:00"...and I think this is a devaluing of work....."...and I think this is a devaluing of work..."<br /><br />You are welcome to your own opinion. My interpretation of what I wrote is entirely different. I consider myself somewhat of an authority on what I wrote and what I meant but your mileage may vary. Sandwichmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11159060882083015637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-67442822208119543972022-03-05T12:55:49.684-05:002022-03-05T12:55:49.684-05:00The early differentiation out of which the distinc...The early differentiation out of which the distinction between a leisure and a working class arises is a division maintained between men's and women's work....<br /><br />Instead of "the best of all possible worlds" or even "there is no alternative," the myth of progress admits that there are problems but implies that they can only be addressed by a gradual and virtually unintended process of evolution.<br /><br />[ I think I understand, and I think this is a devaluing of work for express social purposes. Progress does not justify social ills, but working to correct social ills is what progress is about. ]Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-70569235285599856432022-03-05T12:11:37.898-05:002022-03-05T12:11:37.898-05:00"I have trouble accepting what I take as rele..."I have trouble accepting what I take as relentless devaluation of work and the individual and social progress that should come from work."<br /><br />There was no "devaluation of work" in the above essay. The essay was about war, waste, and an apologetic myth about stages of society. Social progress exists in the particular sense, such that people learn how to do things they couldn't do before. The myth comes in when writers make sweeping generalizations about progress as a justification for social ills. <br /><br />Poverty? Not to worry, PROGRESS will take care of it! Misery? Oh, well that's the price of PROGRESS! War? It'll accelerate PROGRESS! Ignorance? PROGRESS will solve it. Climate catastrophe? We're working on NEW TECHNOLOGIES that will solve it in 30 years. And on and on and on.<br /><br />The rent is due, but the progress check "is in the mail."Sandwichmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11159060882083015637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-12110560489325723522022-03-05T07:18:44.308-05:002022-03-05T07:18:44.308-05:00I am sorry to have again commented excessively. P...I am sorry to have again commented excessively. Please remove my comments if they are intrusive. I dearly appreciate these essays.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-84238420413118776172022-03-05T07:16:17.267-05:002022-03-05T07:16:17.267-05:00After still another reading of this essay, along w...After still another reading of this essay, along with the following essay, I am grateful for these fine writings and treat them with complete respect and admire them. However, supposing I understand the essays, I have trouble accepting what I take as relentless devaluation of work and the individual and social progress that should come from work.<br /><br />I am currently watching and reading about the Beijing Paralympics and understand the social value attributed to the disabled in China. I understand the importance attributed to the work of the disabled, to work in general in China and find the descriptions of attitudes about work in these essays saddening and ultimately unrealistic given the remarkable progress that has been and is being experienced in China and other social democracies.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-25776278497108892072022-03-04T13:53:59.592-05:002022-03-04T13:53:59.592-05:00Anonymous - it's just sour grapes. China and C...Anonymous - it's just sour grapes. China and Chinese people today are more like the USA and Americans used to be, its recent social democratic economics similar to the New Deal. We, however, have become a nation of Ah Qs amd emulate the worst aspects and corruption of Nationalist China. :-)<br /><br />I agree: That progress is a myth is more of a myth than the myth of progress. Eppur si muove. Calgacushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06031818010224747000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-58242951109527260262022-03-04T09:47:48.212-05:002022-03-04T09:47:48.212-05:00After Xi Xinping became president, a prominent Ber...After Xi Xinping became president, a prominent Berkeley economist wrote that Xi would cost China between 10 and 50 years of development. The Economist agreed. Beyond the racism, there is the failure to understand just how optimistic, inclusive and adaptable Chinese social-democracy thinking is.<br /><br />Look for instance at the Paralympics, and understand what progress is:<br /><br />https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-03-03/China-s-Paralympic-competitiveness-just-the-tip-of-the-iceberg-184XYh6d22A/index.html<br /><br />March 3, 2022<br /><br />China's Paralympic competitiveness just the tip of the iceberg<br />By Timothy KerswellAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-66013340339511796412022-03-04T09:18:30.048-05:002022-03-04T09:18:30.048-05:00The problem is that the social criticism is wrappe...The problem is that the social criticism is wrapped in a myth of progress that neutralizes its effectiveness, at the same time, however, of possibly affording the criticism a wider audience than it would have received in the raw....<br /><br />[ Nonetheless, there can be and has been and is progress:<br /><br />https://english.news.cn/20220304/5abb9e65bf9d4815976e1582e88e4d9b/c.html<br /><br />March 4, 2022<br /><br />Decade of Miracles: How Xi's thought steers new chapter of China's economic growth<br /><br />BEIJING -- A new chapter of China's economic miracle has been written since the end of 2012, as Xi Jinping's thought has propelled unprecedented changes toward innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development.... ]Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com