File spoon-archives/heidegger.archive/heidegger_2003/heidegger.0311, message 452


From: "Anthony Crifasi" <crifasi-AT-hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Liberal vs. social democracy - Gestell/Gewinnst
Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 15:37:39 +0000


Henry Sholar wrote:

> >But in any case, it is hard to miss the
> > striking parallels between the relationship between the power plant and 
>the
> > Rhine in Heidegger's example, and the relationship between government 
>and
> > its citizens.
>
>It s very easy to miss that from my perspective, as I don't totalize my
>relationship to the state and my citizenship as just taxes.

I wasn't saying that you should, nor that I do. I was suggesting that the 
very same characteristics of corporations which have been introduced here as 
evidence of Gestell are all the more present in our relationship with 
government. So there are two possibilities - either BOTH are manifestations 
of Gestell and government moreso than corporations, or NEITHER are, and 
therefore BOTH require a phenomenological analysis other than in terms of 
Gestell (as Michael Eldred has attempted with capitalistic social 
relations). But either way, it is inconsistent to totalize corporations 
under Gestell but not government too.

> >We have no alternative but to pay taxes (on pain of jail and
> > the siezure of assets), just as the Rhine has no alternative when it is
> > dammed up.
>
>Well, there are a number of other alternatives, starting with avoiding the
>money economy.

I admit it's possible to practically detach oneself from the money economy 
like the Unibomber did (and his "Manifesto" had similar anti-technology 
overtones), but remember that Heidegger himself explicitly said that this is 
hardly what he meant:

"For all of us, the arrangements, devices and machinery of technology are to 
a greater or lesser extent indispensable. It would be foolish to attack 
technology blindly. It would be shortsighted to condemn it as the work of 
the devil. We depend on technical devices; they even challenge us to ever 
greater advances. But suddenly and unaware we find ourselves so firmly 
shackled to these technical devices that we fall into bondage to them.

"Still we can act otherwise. We can use technical devices, and yet with 
proper use also keep ourselves so free of them, that we may let go of them 
at any time. We can use technical devices as they ought to be used, and also 
let them alone as something which does not affect our inner and real core. 
We can affirm the unavoidable use of technical devices, and also deny them 
the right to dominate us, and so to warp, confuse, and lay waste our nature.

"But will not saying both yes and no this way to technical devices make our 
relation to technology ambivalent and insecure? On the contrary! Our 
relation to technology will become wonderfully simple and relaxed. We let 
technical devices enter our daily life, and at the same time leave them 
outside, that is, let them alone, as things which are nothing absolute but 
remain dependent on something higher." (Discourse on Thinking)

> >Politicians become entrenched and begin to see different groups
> > and classes of citizens as standing reserves for tax revenue, ready on 
>call.
>
>Really? So as you see it, the whole of the political system in the US is
>just about your taxes?

No I don't, but given the characteristics of corporations that have been 
brought up here, the analysis would apply all the more to government.

Anthony Crifasi

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