>My point was not at all Euroculture bashing (though actually I
>work hard to be as critical of my own cultural tradition as I
>possible can; it is a gesture of self-defense against self-delusion).
>My point was to suggest common sociopolitical origins of various
>technologies of control, including those of modern schooling,
I always felt, I am trembling somewhat in writing this, that there
is some similarity to self-flagellation in your, Jay's, pointing
to the common origins of present "Western States" institutions
and patterns of violence control. For me there has been a very
important forking of historical streams, and the North American
stream has made quite different uses of "the same" history --
mostly very good ones, among them the valuation of individuals
and newly forming communities. For us here in Europe, this kind
of freedom in the pursuit of happiness is not something in *our*
heritage, rather it is a new ideal from abroad.
If there are negative consequences, too, these may have to do
more with the new characteristics rather than with the common=20
roots of present-day Europe and North America. That's all I
wanted to put on the desktop for all of us to inspect.
So -- I feel that what you write in your second note of yesternight
may well have to do with the way US American cultural patterns
have diverged from some European roots, but at the same time
it is extremely different than I perceive our situation here to be:
>In the longer-term perspective the threat, and the real pain, are
>those of poverty, homelessness, vulnerability to every danger and
>pain for the unpropertied, the unprotected, without resource or
>recourse: the spectre of "failure", of the "gutter". Unemployment
>in an ungenerous society. Not even food stamps or welfare checks
>because you have an outstanding police warrant because you feared
>to appear in court on the appointed day to answer a charge by
>a police officer who had to justify an unjustified arrest or
>assault in his report, feared to return to lock-up, feared a
>jail where you'd be beaten, raped, humiliated by either guards
>or inmates or both ... These are not rare cases, but astoundingly
>common ones for males under 30, especially if African-American
>or some Spanish-speaking groups, and school failures (in the sense
>of having failed / been failed by school). ... No safe place to
>sleep, to shower, exploitation by the agents of the institutions
>which we middle-class people believe are there as a safety net
>to prevent the horrors of children turning to prostitution to
>save their lives, of formerly gentle souls turning to theft, to
>more violent crimes, to drugs of relief and thence to crimes to
>support habits ...
There is a lot of talk these days here that we might get "amerikanische
Verh=E4ltnisse" -- the big corporations like Daimler Benz planning
to import the strategy of "maximizing shareholder value", instead
of the still dominant strategy of "looking first at the safety
of workplaces".=20
We have our own problems here, and I find it very interesting to
compare with what the majority of xmca contributors exchange about
your situation over there. And, to be sure, I don't feel at all
*offended* by the use of "European roots", only "perturbed", to
use a word of Humberto Maturana...
Hoping that this reads more like an invitation,=20
and not as a reprimand like the last try:
Arne.