Homo Economicus Must Die

So, there's a depression setting in, not just a recession going on. It seems that the news media, business people, economists and everyone reading what they have said are stuck in the same trap. They think money is the problem and money is the solution.

"No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it" -Einstein

I'm sure that someone else said it before, but he's the one that got the quote. And the way he says it is kinda quippy.

The problem with the recession and all the talk about economics is that it is one-sided. The underlying assumption is that growth is good and so is employment. That may be true, but what industries grow, and what are people employed doing? We know that there are many many problems with out economy. We are losing our manufacturing base, the biggest employer in America is a temp agency! So even if people get put back to work, that's only important in so far as they can buy more stuff. Sure, there's lots of considerations such as food, electricity and clothing. But the assumption of the American isn't just providing himself or herself and their family with basic needs. The assumption of the American is that they'll go out and half-recklessly buy things they really don't need (cable, larger flatscreens, new furniture, trips to hawaii instead of the museum . . )

That's the level of consciousness we're in. We want to employ people, but only so they buy things, not so that they have a sense of purpose in life. We employ them so they spend. We employ them "for the love of money." There's no talk about human development, purpose, usefulness, contribution and the like.

What happened to the Pursuit of Happiness over the Pursuit of Luxury? The media has succumbed to the paradoxical seduction of statistics and talks about development only in economic terms.

We need something else. The green movement hints at this. Their elevation of near aseticism through being energy efficient and low carbon footprint will eventually call into question mass consumerism itself. We will have to ask what will replace shopping and displaying our financial conquests as a national pastime?

I don't know. I figure it would have to be something new, different. Perhaps the old pastime of conversation. You could say that American culture was built in the time between work, when parents talked with and schooled their kids. Where neighbors would have each other over for dinner. Perhaps the death of Homo Economicus will give way to Homo Sapiens.

I'm not saying i have the answer. I'm just looking ahead and seeing something cloudy, trying to convey to you that at sometime the beast Homo Economicus will be slayed and humanity will have a new expression/master. I'd just like to know what it is.

Perhaps for once we will have a conversation about the actual quality of our lives, not just in terms of physical things, but our intellectual, social, moral and spiritual lives. Sounds good to me.

Why vote for Obama

here's something that i left on a forum thread whose title was Obama vs Clinton

here's why i am and think you (and everyone) should vote for Obama:

At least internally, he's resolved what many of us see as dualities. It sounds like to him there is no race, gender or class, despite the media attention and pigeonholing of democratic candidates into race (Obama), gender (Hillary) and class (Edwards) [and isn't that ironic that we have(d) all three discussions in our face and didn't know to comment on that].

Obama seems to have touched what it is to be human. He seems to know what it is to have your heart broken because of chance, racism, happenstance, economics and gender. When he talks, he talks to the core of what it is to be human. He's not thinking of you, me and others as individuals with different shades and shapes, he's talking to the fact that we're cut from the same cloth. He takes into account that after years, decades and centuries of injustice, still we live and toil. He talks to humans of what is possible for humanity and mankind [and possibilities create opportunities for action]. And i think that what he talks about is a reflection of his thoughts. He speaks hope. He is hope.

I'm somewhat hesitant to say it but . . . him being in the political arena, he's playing a game that's beneath him. He's Plato's philosopher-king, Rand's Galt and Neo after the Oracle. His true voice would probably be found, mined, smelted and formed in the halls of academia, but since philosophy has been so long divorced from politics, his craft and words would fall on deaf ears. So he's doubly equipped as a philosophical non-dualist clashing swords in the halls of academia and an expert in the game of politics clashing in the halls of congress. You'll not find another benevolent warrior-king inside the world of politics since Ghengis Khan and perhaps Mansa Musa.

When i argue with people who've known me for a while, I tell them that every four or five years i get a new paradigm. I've been afrocentric, socialist, capitalist and perhaps a few shades of other stuff. My problem was that many times, these paradigms for me would be an intellectual exercise, rather than something that spoke from my Being, both as a human, and as a blackman. But for the last couple years, since i have distinguished this, i've grown to know an cherish how to speak from my experience as a human, and occassionally managed to talk to others in terms of their experiences as humans too. And i'm no master, i falter. Obama is a master, and he falters too.

It seems like for Obama, the unrelenting aspiration for the expression of love and fairness in the lives of everyone is the only life he wants to live, not a dog-and-pony show for votes. I can't help but support that. This is in stark contrast to Hillary who emotes some of this on cue and Edwards who really feels it, but isn't it. Shit, i even like McCain. McCain has the same qualities that i describe in Obama, but living his life in the machiavellian world of politics (as an honorable politicisan, not the derogatory intonation that we think of today) McCain is anchored in this realm of passion for love and fairness, but as a ship, not as an anchor. Obama is the anchor, the mooring of hope.

So for me, at least, not voting for Obama and the hope that he exudes, exhorts and represents would be perhaps the most traitorous thing i could do as a human.

Hope for President

Okay Jeff, that's not why you should vote for Obama, but why i am. And i hope that looking through the particular glasses that i look through in life, you'll start to see what it is about Obama that i know you feel, but just can't distinguish.

Human Achievement

So i picked up the book Human Achievement by Charles Murray. . . So far, it's a pretty good book. Basically he's statistically analyzing references to people in the arts and sciences to seek their eminence and excellence. It's a really intriguing read for two reasons, first it tells you just why eminent people are eminent (well, kinda) and second it has you evaluate your own notions of judging excellence.

For instance, i know little about European classical music, so i can't really argue about it. So the book has me wondering if when i listen to European classical music whether i'd agree with the experts. So far i do like bach and mozart, so that has me have a grudging agreement with the 'eurpoean classical music aficianados'. Why grudging? because i'd like to say that they dont' know what they're talking about if i ever heard them say that they can't get into hip-hop.

anyhoo, I wanted to read the book a long time ago but for more retributative reasons (is that a word?). I wanted to see how much of a fool this guy is. This is the same guy that came out with the book The Bell Curve a while back. And amidst all the hype and counter-racism and racism claims and all, i've always wondered about his sampling methods. At least in this book he kinda skirted some of the issue of Eurocentrism by [get this] only counting books by people from different cultures! For instance, to judge the relative merit of English literature, he only included the books of non-english-speaking writers!. So there's a one-up for anyone who's been mentioned across a language barrier.

I'm only a bit through the book, but the prefacing and hedging and explaining before we get down to the get down is rather exciting. And apparently he has lots of explanation of his sampling and statistical methods, which i'm also curious about . . . who cares about facts, i care about how you come to know a fact.