Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 00:35:41 -0500
Subject: Re: I'd rather be a Cyborg than a Goddess


Eric, et.al

There were lots of fora and thousands of philosophers flourished upon this
land while family farms were devoured by agribusiness, while Reagan crippled
the Unions, while consumer electronics and clothing factories  were sent
abroad. .  The health establishment industry was delivered to Humongous
Outsiders, the schools are threatened with privatization, and real wages
have been static for decades.  All the above without the Internet.

The Internet COULD be a threat to politics as usual, but the people who talk
but don't vote would have to persuade each other that their votes would make
a difference.

Collapse of NASDAQ tech companies hurts investors' retirement plans, but
isn't causing a lot of unemployment.
The enslavement of some workers by computers and beepers is just another
blow of the wrecking maul affecting families.  If the hi-tech programmer
resists, the boss can have that job teleported to Bangladesh or Indonesia.
Our night is their day,
and he can receive their day's work early in the morining.

Perhaps things have to get worse before they can get better.

In the meantime GWB seems determined to wreak more ruin on the Environment.

Cheers,
Hugh


> hugh bone wrote:
>
> > Agree with most of this analysis, but can't imagine how intentions based
on even a hint of Marx, a name has negative meanings to the middle-aged and
older, or intentions based on the ideas of Continental philosophers, known
to only a handful of people in the U.S., could possibly become a "movement".
>
> I don't think I meant "movements" in quite the way you mean in my
> analysis - something closer perhaps to what you referred to in a later
> post as philosophy.
>
> I certainly am rejecting any kind of deterministic interpretation of
> Marx (or the far right for that matter) which sees history as externally
> caused by economic laws of development.  For me, history is much more
> fluid and chaotic than that.
>
> What I am trying to do is develop a framework for analyzing trends and
> events based upon developing tensions, knots and contradictions. In our
> contemporary situation, I identify two tendencies.
>
> One is the changing role of work in a job economy brought about by
> automation, temporaries, down-sizing, the internet, intranets and the
> need of business for a just-in-time work force. I think this will be a
> very explosive issue in the near future, one which is very complex and
> multifaceted.
>
> The other is the growth of the internet and information economy and the
> possibilities this offers for restructuring society and democracy in new
> ways.  It is no accident that the looming recession is tied directly to
> the failure of the internet companies to turn a adequate profit.
>
> Whether or not a movement emerges from these tensions certainly remains
> to be seen and with a non-democratic ruler in America, a certain nadir
> has been reached in progressive political life.
>
> However, I don't believe the situation is hopeless or that unexpected
> events will still emerge from out of the current wreckage.
>
> I also don't think that these, when and if they, occur will be
> explicitly Marxian, poststructuralist or global in nature. They will
> more likely be local and heterogeneous revolving around particular
> issues, at least initially.
>
> For me, the important thing here is to have a forum for discussing these
> issues in a way that is philosophical as well as political.
>
>