Subject: RE: having said all that... Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2003 14:28:08 +0200 From: "Bakker, R.B.M. de" <R.B.M.deBakker-AT-uva.nl> -----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- Van: Jan Straathof [mailto:janstr-AT-chan.nl] Verzonden: donderdag 3 juli 2003 1:51 Aan: heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu Onderwerp: RE: having said all that... "Is the Social Welfare State over the hill ?" This question, so it seems, belongs to the attention-space of Heidegger's dangerous diagnose of the current world history. Jan, No: the danger is not in Heidegger, but in the world constellation. Con-stellation is another word for Ge-stell, as can be seen in "Identity and difference". Heidegger has said about this book, that in it the snake comes a little more out of the bag than elsewhere. We know now, thanks to my quoting, more of the snake: it bites its own tail, it shows that we're in a beginning that is already ended. Now, are we going to take this seriously, or not? Probably not. Are we going to take seriously then those that see more than us others, who don't see? Nope. We rather want the nothing..... In the vicious circle, or as he calls it in GA45: the dust-circle. (Dunstkreis) Social welfare state, hyena capitalism, communism, terrorism (ours) are all circling in the dust-circle. As Edward's mysterious bodies circulate in the porno industry. (also a form of the abysmal-sensuous.....) Are you, i mean everyone and no one, btw brave enough to ask yourself the question where all those missing persons remain? Into the snuff-economy i'm afraid. That's far below a public rape in Pakistan, people, and our self-proclaimed 'superiority' despicable. And it's growing worse very quickly. If you want to be a biological species, things are going fine: self-fulfilling prophecy. Here's indeed the danger of being overviewed by a Heidegger. Remedy: blame him instead. Write a book: Heidegger and .... (unimportant what) If we are before the necessity to determine new highest values, we better take a look direction Islam. Allah is bigger than economy. regards, rene A week ago, MichaelE showed little doubt when he remarked that the 'Sozialstaat (is) currently well in decline' and today Anthony goes on further, he talks about the 'nihilstic results of the socialstate'. Although this opinion is currently widespreadly defended throughout the right-wing (and some parts of the left-wing) electorate of european states, i do not share this view. Let's first take a step back, away from the dayly headlines, and look a little at the history of the SWS. What we notice at once is that, on a socio- historical scale, the SWS is a relatively young phenomenon, it originated after 1945 in the north-western parts of Europe. It was a socio-economic compromise formation between three 'power-strata', viz.: the state, the employers and the employees (the clergy and aristo-nobility were finally austed). Yet most importantly, as political answer, it served to provide a sociental alternative to Sovjet Communist seductions. The compromise formation (sometimes called the Rheinland-model) worked in fact quite simple: the employers and the employees would bring in the labour and capital to produce the welfare and the state would then (re-)distribute the wealth into some form of garanteed basic income, healthcare, justice, education and culture arrangement. And although, of course, not one country ever has (yet) reached the high levels of Marx's principle:"from each according to ability--to each according to need", if you look at what the SWS has actually accomplished, the last five decades, there is little reason to be ashamed. (ask my 80 year old mother) The critics of the SWS basically use two lines of argument: economics and demographis. On the economical level they say that the SWS costs too much and that it lacks enough insentives to drive creativity and innovation in production. On the demographical side - as Anthony's article shows - they argue that an ageing population implies a demise in power-presence on the world political plane. In think that both claims are questionable. The demographical argument is weak imo, becausethere is very little evidence in modern history that countries with young and growing populations possess the major say in geopolitics (look f.i. at minor role India, China and Africa played the last couple of 100 years). On the economical side things seem to look grimer for Europe's lovely SWS. But again, i'm not so pessimistic about the lack of dynamics and innovation in the economies of the euro-zone. Let's take Italy as an example: at the moment everybody there is lamenting because Fiat, her famous grand-old automobile manufacturer, is laying off 10.000's of its employees, ok this is horrible. Yet nobody is talking about the fact that Milan and its environs have become the european (and maybe the global) centre of fasion design, high quality textiles, and as a spring off it has/is created a dense aesthetic network of artist and manufacturers, ranging from furniture design to top-end kitchen artefacts. The Italians are doing what they were always good at, and that is: *making magnificently designed products*. Such 'success-stories' can also be told of other fields in Europe's economy: in the global market of civil aviation Europe is producing the most planes; and on applications of alternative or low level energy in civil and industrial construction Europe is leading competitive. Furthermore the coming influx of highly educated east europeans in the E.U. will probably compensate far enough the costs of integration and will most likely boost technological and cultural innovations. And in Africa (Europe's nearest market) it seems that the economical tide is turning in favor of european alliances. Imo the future of the expanding european economy is strong enough to support and further develop its variant of the SWS. But the real question is: is Europe's SWS- model a viable alternative for the developing South and underdeveloped parts of the North, or is it just based on a metaphysical illusion. Do/will we remember those greeks who talked about eudaimonia ....... ? yours, Jan --- from list heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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