[Xmca-l] Re: poverty/class
Avram Rips
arips@optonline.net
Sun Mar 23 06:45:30 PDT 2014
"clever country'. This is a version of Clinton economics and now Obama-
actually bipartisan. You can do anything,invent a new self. This happens
while the de-industrialization process happens ,and more capital flows out
of the country to make more money for investment (non-productive) financial
sector.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andy Blunden" <ablunden@mira.net>
To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
Sent: Saturday, March 22, 2014 7:57 PM
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: poverty/class
> Perhaps a continuation of the discourse about "the knowledge economy" and
> so on. In Australia we have had what is called "the clever country",
> meaning, never mind the total loss of manufacturing industry, we are going
> to survive in the world by being "clever." Various formulations of the
> idea that with the changing nature of the forces of production and in
> particular the global division of labour, deployed for the purpose of
> offering prospects for the working class in the imperialist countries to
> find some place for themsleves while capital is more intent on exploiting
> cheap labour elsewhere?
>
> Andy
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *Andy Blunden*
> http://home.mira.net/~andy/
>
>
> mike cole wrote:
>> Could there be a common pattern here?
>> Nice quote from Halliday and thanks for the references, David.
>> mike
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 2:52 PM, David Kellogg <dkellogg60@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>> As you probably know, Korea is currently run by the neomilitaristic
>>> scion of the previous dictator, who took power in a transparently
>>> rigged election. No, I don't mean that Korea--I mean this one.
>>>
>>> Park Geunhye, the daughter of our former dictator Park Cheonghi, came
>>> to power about a year ago, first by stealing the opposition's clothes
>>> (to be fair, they made it very easy for her by having such a very
>>> unambitious programme to begin with). The National Intelligence
>>> Service then flooded the country with highly creative Tweets alleging
>>> that her opponents were soft on communism, one of those new
>>> mobilizations of social media that you may not have heard so much
>>> about.
>>>
>>> Anyway, to make a short story long, having stolen the opposition's
>>> clothes, she is now obliged to renege on her promises in the interests
>>> of those who financed her campaign. Now, part of this involves
>>> reneging on a massive programme of social welfare that Koreans
>>> desperately wanted (they deposed the mayor of Seoul in the interests
>>> of keeping a free lunch programme, for example). But surely, one must
>>> put something in the place of a promise of pensions, job creation
>>> schemes, minimum wage, etc, mustn't one?
>>>
>>> No, not really--all you have to do is babble and blather about a new
>>> "creativity-driven economy". The "creativity driven economy" is a
>>> pleasant way of referring to a highly unpleasant fact of life. In
>>> South Korea, where we nominally respect the elderly (and we certainly
>>> pay them more than the young) it soon becomes cheaper to employ four
>>> or five young people rather than one older one. This means,
>>> necessarily, booting out older workers around age fifty and hiring
>>> younger ones to replace them. The older workers (and, for that atter,
>>> younger ones who cannot find unemployment) are then given a little
>>> handout and encouraged to "create" their own jobs.
>>>
>>> Of course, for this to work (as a scam, I mean, it's obviously a
>>> non-starter as a social welfare scheme), one really has to try to
>>> inculcate the kind of "every man for himself" mentality that people
>>> have in other countries, and that is really a bit of a poser in a
>>> country which, although highly stratified socially, is still very
>>> collectivistic culturally. That is where education comes in.
>>>
>>> Consider the folllowing quotation from Halliday (2004, the Language of
>>> Early Childhood, p. 251):
>>>
>>> "Much of the discussion of chlidren's language development in the last
>>> quarter of a century (Halliday is writing in 1991--DK), especially in
>>> educational contexts, has been permeated by a particular ideological
>>> construction of childhood. This view combines individualism,
>>> romanticism, and what Martin calls 'childism', the Disneyfied vision
>>> of a child that is constructed in the media and in certain kinds of
>>> kiddielit. Each child is presented as a freestanding, autonomous
>>> being; and learning consists in releasing and brining into flower the
>>> latent awareness that is already there in the bud. This is the view
>>> that was embodied in the 'creativity' and 'personal growth' models of
>>> education by James Britton, John Dixon, and David Holbrook in Great
>>> Britain; and more recently, from another standpoint, in the United
>>> States in Donald Graves' conception of chldren's writing as process
>>> and of their texts as property to be individually owned. It has been
>>> supported theoretically first by Chomskyaninnatism and latterly by
>>> cognitive science models which interpret learning as the acquisition
>>> of ready0made information by some kind of independent process device."
>>> (I omit Halliday's references).
>>>
>>> My wife and I recently attended the Dialogic Pedagogy conference on
>>> Bakhtin in New Zealand where these "childist" ideas were very much in
>>> evidence, and where they were explicitly opposed to Vygotskyan ones!
>>> At first I found this opposition rather bizarre, not least because I
>>> had recently reviewed an excellent piece of work by our own
>>> Wolff-Michael Roth for the Dialogic Pedagogy Journal. Roth's piece,
>>> which you can read in the DPJ archive, had argued for the
>>> compatibility of Bakhtin and Vygotsky (on theoretical grounds it is
>>> true). There was also a very fine presentation by Michael Gardiner on
>>> Bakhtin, the autonomists, and the 99/1% discourse surrounding the
>>> Occupy movement.
>>>
>>> Now I am starting to understand a little better. There is, actually, a
>>> model of creativity out there which is individualistic,
>>> entrepreneurial, anti-socialist, and even anti-social. The problem is,
>>> it's also anti-creativity.
>>>
>>> David Kellogg
>>> Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.
>>>
>>> On 23 March 2014 04:26, Larry Purss <lpscholar2@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Andy,
>>>> Your comment:
>>>>
>>>> "Avram, I am not convinced that creating niche economies can in any
>>>> way
>>>> ameliorate the domination of big capital. We have to find a way to
>>>> penetrate and subvert the sources of capitalist exploitation, rather
>>>> than
>>>> offering "alternatives,"
>>>>
>>>> suggests there may be ways to potentially penetrate and subvert "at the
>>>> source" rather than act to *create* alternatives.
>>>>
>>>> I have wondered if my utopian sympathies which show my curiosity with
>>>> exploring *alternatives* can be viewed as *living experiments* or
>>>> *living
>>>> laboratories* where alternative life styles and attitudes are generated
>>>>
>>> and
>>>
>>>> lived.
>>>> It must be my personal experiences with *alternate communities* which
>>>>
>>> have
>>>
>>>> attempted to actualize their ideal alternatives. I must admit, most of
>>>> these experiments are failures. However Cultural Historical Theory
>>>> developed in an *alternate setting* and Dewey and Mead in Chicago
>>>>
>>> gathered
>>>
>>>> together a committed group with shared ideals.
>>>>
>>>> In order to penetrate capitalism *at its source* may require
>>>>
>>> demonstrating
>>>
>>>> other ways of life as experiments which express other *values*. Some of
>>>> these alternative approaches will include *alternative community*.
>>>>
>>>> The current discussion on the drift of *university departments*
>>>> suggests alternative forms of gathering may need to come into existence
>>>>
>>> to
>>>
>>>> express alternative *values* However I also accept this *hope* may be
>>>>
>>> naïve
>>>
>>>> and not grounded in recognition of the depth of capitalist ideology
>>>> which
>>>> co-ops ALL utopian ideals. Therefore the requirement to subvert the
>>>> *source*?
>>>>
>>>> To once again return to Alex Kozulin's book which is expressing a
>>>> theme.
>>>> He is exploring the *double-faceted* nature of consciousness and
>>>>
>>> suggests
>>>
>>>> the
>>>>
>>>> "interpretive or metacognitive function [aspect?] of consciousness may
>>>>
>>> have
>>>
>>>> an AUTONOMY from REGULATIVE AND CONTROLLING functions.
>>>>
>>>> I wonder if this *autonomy* can extend to *alternative communities*
>>>>
>>> forming
>>>
>>>> to express alternative *values*?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, Mar 21, 2014 at 7:50 PM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> One of the themes of the correlation you mention, Mike, is the focus
>>>>> on
>>>>> "the creative industries." There are theories about the way cities can
>>>>> escape from their rust-bucket depression by promoting "the creative
>>>>> industries." These include software development (e.g. computer games),
>>>>> advertising, packaging and fashion. That's probably fine for urban
>>>>>
>>> renewal,
>>>
>>>>> except for the artists who get booted out of their old warehouses
>>>>> which
>>>>>
>>> get
>>>
>>>>> done up for the expected "creative industries," but where it's has a
>>>>> big
>>>>> negative impact in the academy is in the "critical sciences." People
>>>>> involved in social and political criticism are suddenly faced with
>>>>> imperatives to serve the "creative industries." So feminist,
>>>>>
>>> philosophical
>>>
>>>>> and political critiques, which were surviving by a thread, now have
>>>>> to
>>>>> educate software makers who are building computer games or artists who
>>>>>
>>> are
>>>
>>>>> designing advertisements all in the name of needing to support the
>>>>> "creative industries."
>>>>>
>>>>> Avram, I am not convinced that creating niche economies can in any way
>>>>> ameliorate the domination of big capital. We have to find a way to
>>>>> penetrate and subvert the sources of capitalist exploitation, rather
>>>>>
>>> than
>>>
>>>>> offering "alternatives," I think. Capitalism can do perfectly well
>>>>>
>>> without
>>>
>>>>> a certain percentage of the world's population who find an
>>>>>
>>> "alternative".
>>>
>>>>> Andy
>>>>>
>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> *Andy Blunden*
>>>>> http://home.mira.net/~andy/
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> mike cole wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> So my noticing of the fascination and promotion of "culture and
>>>>>> creativity" discourse, design schools, and neoliberalism may be more
>>>>>>
>>> than a
>>>
>>>>>> symptom of failing eyesight?
>>>>>> Mike
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Friday, March 21, 2014, Avram Rips <arips@optonline.net <mailto:
>>>>>> arips@optonline.net>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The problem is the connection between people alienated from their
>>>>>> labor, or no labor and building a new democratic structure- that
>>>>>> can happen in a small scale , and spread out to new modes of
>>>>>> production away from the destruction of capital-such as chiapas
>>>>>> and taking over factories in Argentina.
>>>>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andy Blunden" <
>>>>>>
>>> ablunden@mira.net>
>>>
>>>>>> To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>>>>>> Sent: Friday, March 21, 2014 8:35 AM
>>>>>> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: poverty/class
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Yes, it seems to me that the burgeoning inequality created by
>>>>>> neoliberalism is a situation crying out for imaginative
>>>>>> social
>>>>>> entrepreneurship, i.e., social movement building. It is good
>>>>>> to hear that the 1/99 protests have generated talk about
>>>>>> inequality, but that in itself does not create a solution,
>>>>>> does it?
>>>>>> Andy
>>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>> ------------
>>>>>> *Andy Blunden*
>>>>>> http://home.mira.net/~andy/ <http://home.mira.net/%7Eandy/>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Avram Rips wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Innovation and entrepreneurship in some ways means
>>>>>> capital crowding out social space and solidarity. This is
>>>>>> evident in cities-whole neighborhoods taken over by
>>>>>> wealthy crafts people, and little focus on co-operative
>>>>>> movements for working class people-where a new focus on
>>>>>> participatory democracy can be developed ,and working
>>>>>> class culture in the Gramscian sense. take care! Avram
>>>>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "mike cole"
>>>>>> <lchcmike@gmail.com>
>>>>>> To: "Andy Blunden" <ablunden@mira.net>
>>>>>> Cc: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity"
>>>>>> <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>>>>>> Sent: Friday, March 21, 2014 12:31 AM
>>>>>> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: poverty/class
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Andy--- My intent in the garbled sentence you query
>>>>>> was to suggest that the
>>>>>> discourse in the US around vicious inequalities has
>>>>>> increased markedly in
>>>>>> the past year in tandem with a kind of frenzy in
>>>>>> those
>>>>>> parts of academia I
>>>>>> come in contact with about "design, culture, and
>>>>>> creativity" all of which
>>>>>> are linked to innovation and entrepreneurship. I very
>>>>>> interested in the
>>>>>> nature of imagination and creativity but I they often
>>>>>> appear to be new code
>>>>>> words for social and individual salvation in a lean,
>>>>>> mean, neo-liberal
>>>>>> world.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Maybe just another of my confusions.
>>>>>> mike
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Wed, Mar 19, 2014 at 6:14 PM, Andy Blunden
>>>>>> <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Mike, could you clarify a little your comment
>>>>>> below ...
>>>>>> ------------------------------
>>>>>> ------------------------------------------
>>>>>>
>>>>>> *Andy Blunden*
>>>>>> http://home.mira.net/~andy/
>>>>>> <http://home.mira.net/%7Eandy/>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> mike cole wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ... My fear that is appearance is
>>>>>> non-accidentally rated to explosion of
>>>>>> concern about poverty/class (the 1%/99% idea
>>>>>> has become ubiquitous in
>>>>>> American
>>>>>> discourse).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> mike
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
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