From: "Eric" <ericandmary-AT-earthlink.net>
Subject: RE: what is philosophy and this list for ?
Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2003 07:50:46 -0600


Hugh,

That posting was sent by me in happier days perhaps when I still
believed in the Lyotard list and thought it was possible to have a
meaningful group discussion about him. There have certainly been
moments, but things never really turned out the way I expected they
might. The hoped-for discussions never really materialized. I have seen
similar situations in other groups as well. 

I was never one to believe the internet meant the virtual flowering of
democracy in the so-called new economy, but I thought at least it might
offer a way for people outside the academic community to take part in
meaningful philosophical discussions. Now I'm not so sure. Today the
internet seems much closer to Wal-Mart than to the Greek agora.  

I would still stand by that piece, however, and add the following quote
to it, taken from Lyotard's essay 'The Survivor'. 

"the "law" of development finds both a means and a mask even more
powerful (because more acceptable to "philistines")than totalitarian
organization. Crude propaganda is discreet in democratic forms: it gives
way to the inoffensive rhetoric of the media. And worldwide expansion
occurs not through war, but through technological, scientific, and
economic competition. The historical names for this Mr. Nice Guy
totalitarianism are no longer Stalingrad or Normandy (much less
Auschwitz), but Wall Street's Dow Jones Average and the Tokyo's Nikkei
Index."

I still find those words as chilling as they are true. Though one could
certainly argue that our current military adventure in Iraq proves that
war is still part of the equation, it is hard to deny the argument that
capitalism, especially in the fundamentalist version of American
exceptionalism, has become the new form of totalitarianism.  To
paraphrase Orwell, it is a little like a Nike running shoe stomping on a
human face. 

The list offers little solace for coping with this situation and I guess
I wonder at times why we even bother to continue the pretense. It does
seem at times like a very lonely adventure.

eric 

 

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