File spoon-archives/heidegger.archive/heidegger_2003/heidegger.0307, message 19


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





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