"Gause, Brian" <bgause@SECTORBASE.COM> wrote:
<<<<<1. Uniting the people isn't good or bad. It is simply uniting. In 1861,
one half of the United States was united in the belief that black men and
women imported from Africa should be owned by white men and women in the
Southern USA. The other half, of course, was united against this belief.
Well, it seems that when you have two halves of the same country united to
opposite sides of the same belief...well, they kill each other then. Read
your Human Being User's Manual and you'll discover on page three that, and I
quote here, "Dying is bad. You should make an effort not to die and you
should not cause others to die." Uniting people is only as good as the cause
which unites them.>>>>>>
I think that most people would agree that two sides "uniting against each
other" could be more accurately defined as *dis*unity, or division, hence
Lincoln's pithy little line about a "nation divided against itself". There
are other reasons why unity isn't *necessarily* a good thing, even when not
viewed in terms of oppositions, e.g. Kundera's existentialist
cult-of-authenticity bit in The Unbearable Lightness of Being about actual
evil residing not in what people are saying when they hold a mass
demonstration or parade, but rather in act of holding the parade. There's
also a certain loss or dehumanization involved in dissolution into a mass,
although try telling that to a bone fide hippie (who, due to their
depressing lack of irony, are usually far more intolerant of *actual*
differences or deeply-held convictions than are most suburban housewives).
<<<<<2. Fascism cannot control the economy. If you study it a bit, the
current economic boom in the US will show you just how little "good
economies" are the result of government intervention. If that doesn't
convince you, look at Syria or a hundred other government controlled
economies around the world. Economies are strong only when they are
free.>>>>>
Not to weigh in on the side of fascism (really, not to), but that last
sentence is one of the larger (and more popular) solecisms floating around
these days. Anyone who thinks unregulated laissez-faire and "free trade" is
the answer to the world's economic problems need only take a quick gander at
the ides of the 1920's. Pure free-market systems are subject to radical
turbulence to a degree greater than most populations are willing to suffer,
despite what the current New Business rhetoric would have one believe. It's
quite possible that Alan Greenspan, for instance, in his tireless efforts to
keep real wages down (inflation is the ultimate enemy, remember?), has
little real impact on the infrastructure of the economy but is rather merely
a skillful manipulator of the confidence of market speculators, but it's
hard to doubt that the Reserve Board, along with any number of other
regulatory bodies currently in operation, can serve a function as a brake or
safety measure in a capital-based economy. Of course, no one really wants to
get rid of the Fed-- they just want "free trade", and at all costs--
however, "free" economies are only necessarily good according to some very
selective indicators, and are definitely not always beneficial locally or
societally. The "booming" deregulated speculative economy of yesteryear had
*huge* faultlines that are only now beginning to show up in our vaguely
misguided selection of economic indexes.
Fascism is, of course, the other side of the coin, and leads to some
interesting problems of its own. And the fascist system *does* have its good
points for the great middle (e.g. Nixon's silent majority), usually at the
expense of any and all minorities. NYC mayor Guiliani's repressive
administrative and policing tactics have been remarkably effective in
keeping the streets safe for "repectable people", and his approval ratings
are extremely high even as he tries to shut down art shows and as his police
brutalize racial minorities and the homeless. The majority of New Yorkers
feel, despite all this, that they are better off. Hitler was also
well-liked. And yes, autocratic governments can also achieve spectaculary
efficient economies-- this can be easy to accomplish when part of the
population is expendable and another is militarized. (Using Syria or a
third-world country as an counterexample to the idea that oppressive
dictators can engineer good economies is disingenuous at best, BTW.) That
fascism generally fails and sours is not unique to that system; the only
reason capitalism seems to survive as it does is because it is terrifically
anarchic and protean-- you'll note that Fordism is dead as a doornail, as is
the industrial worker model. Unfortunately, whereas large-scale
economic/social transitions in capitalist/republican systems tend to occur
gradually (although possibly through violence as well, cf. race riots,
violent disputes between striking laborors and pinkertons), fascism is
usually ended by coups, bloodshed, or anarchy of succession following the
death of the leader. While there may have been no point in bringing up the
fact that fascism may have its benefits (inferior to its detriments, by most
reckonings)--especially among such a nice bunch of capitalists and/or
lefties--the statement *could* have been received in the spirit in which it
was intended, if not simply ignored. (Note that this last statement does not
necessarily draw reference to Brian, whose response here was measured and
intelligent).
Oh wait... idmlist idmlist idmlist.... So... I like Fizzarum well enough
myself, and have been casually listening to the new album on a relatively
regular basis as of late, but they sort of remind me of what would happen if
Eno decided to be Autechre. It's pleasant, but it fades almost immediately
into the general musical background. Of course, this is coming from a big
Funkst?rung fan, so I don't know how defensible the complaint is, if that
was a complaint.
Cheers,
M.
-----
Made with affection by distrustful lovers
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