[Xmca-l] Re: Working for the Few | Oxfam International

Andy Blunden ablunden@mira.net
Tue Jan 21 16:07:57 PST 2014


But your foundation is active in combatting inequality through literacy. 
"Every step of real movement is more important than a dozen programmes," 
as one very serious theorist said.
Andy
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/letters/75_05_05.htm
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Andy Blunden*
http://home.mira.net/~andy/


Dr. Paul C. Mocombe wrote:
> At 38 I am differing to my elders on this one...albeit, I agree with 
> Andy...too young to be pessimistic, but what I have seen happen to 
> black america has really disappointed me.
>
>
> Dr. Paul C. Mocombe
> President
> The Mocombeian Foundation, Inc.
> www.mocombeian.com 
> www.readingroomcurriculum.com 
>
>
> -------- Original message --------
> From: Andy Blunden
> Date:01/21/2014 6:36 PM (GMT-05:00)
> To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity"
> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Working for the Few | Oxfam International
>
> David, you are quite correct that agreement on fundamentals of theory is
> by no means necessary for collaboration (though on the xmca list this is
> feasible). In a sense, the very meaning of "collaboration" is that such
> disagreement on fundamentals is suspended. Nonetheless, in raising the
> proposal on this list your are inviting collaboration on formation of
> the concept of this project, and I have accepted the invitation by
> criticising your concept of the proposal. You have propsed the writing
> of an article countering the narrative of Ayn Rand that "the
> ultra-wealthy are the engines of advancement and prosperity and the
> saviors of society" and to argue instead that "the gradual shift in
> political control of the economy over the past 50 years by the
> ultra-wealthy has reached a kind of tipping point in which the gains in
> disparity are so dramatic as to overwhelm any sense of actual
> self-interest." My response is "Well, hello!" This is hardly news,
> David. This has been argued (correctly) for several centuries. The
> wealthy have always been a class of parasites; social progress has
> always been only in the teeth of opposition from all but a few of that
> class. I would argue that it is better to enter some actual project
> aimed against capitalism and ineqaulity and participate in the argument
> about strategy and tactics. Being 68, after 50 years of such
> participation, I accept a somewhat arm's length participation, but the
> protagonists (wether real or imagined) are those actually engaged in
> that struggle in any formm about how best to further that struggle. Not
> the *generalities*, in my view. But I am pleased that you are taking up
> the battle and I wish you well. All I can do is offer my reflections on
> your object-concept, as others have and will.
>
> Andy
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *Andy Blunden*
> http://home.mira.net/~andy/
>
>
> David H Kirshner wrote:
> >> It would appear ...
> >>    
> >
> > Doesn't appear that way to me.
> > In fact, it's not clear to me, contrary to Andy and Paul, that in a 
> practical endeavor one has to come to terms with foundational issues, 
> at all.
> > The fact that social psychology may not have the foundations right 
> doesn't imply that it has no insight to offer, or that a make-shift 
> frame of reference can't provide a stable enough foundation to move 
> people forward (collectively and individually). Indeed, isn't that the 
> necessary way forward in any practical endeavor, given the absence of 
> fully worked out foundational perspectives (and given the need to 
> address the world as we find it, without the theorist's option of 
> restricting the domain of inquiry within tractable parameters)?
> > David
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu 
> [mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Dr. Paul C. Mocombe
> > Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2014 6:12 AM
> > To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity; ablunden@mira.net
> > Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Working for the Few | Oxfam International
> >
> > Andy and david,
> >
> > It would appear that any counter - narrative would have to be 
> anti-dialectical and counter-hegemonic, I.e., anti-individual, 
> anti-capitalist, anti-humanity...  Can such a counter - narrative come 
> from a humanity, including us academics, subjectified to reproduce 
> individual wealth, upward mobility, and status at the expense of the 
> masses of poor around the world, paradoxically, seeking our bourgeois 
> lifestyle? 
> >
> > I ask because,  it would appear that the earth,in marxian terms, as 
> a class for itself, has been begging for humanity to change the way it 
> recursively reorganize and reproduce it's being-in-it over the last 
> 100 years, but we consistently refuse.  Instead, turning to 
> dialectical measures, fracking, carbon credits, neoliberalism, etc., 
> to attempt to resolve our problems and maintain the protestant ethic 
> and the spirit of capitalism as an "enframing" (heidegger's term) 
> ontology.
> >
> > I am not a pessimistic person, but it appears that in this case we 
> are all dead we just do not know it yet.
> >
> >
> > Dr. Paul C. Mocombe
> > President
> > The Mocombeian Foundation, Inc.
> > www.mocombeian.com
> > www.readingroomcurriculum.com
> >
> > <div>-------- Original message --------</div><div>From: David H 
> Kirshner <dkirsh@lsu.edu> </div><div>Date:01/21/2014  2:50 AM  
> (GMT-05:00) </div><div>To: ablunden@mira.net,"eXtended Mind, Culture, 
> Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu> </div><div>Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: 
> Working for the Few | Oxfam International </div><div>
> > </div>Andy,
> > I suppose social psychology's unitary and a-historical ascription of 
> the human sense of material well-being as relative to other people 
> (rather than as relative to one's own past) gets it wrong from the 
> start. Still, I think it provides a way to understand the individual 
> pursuit of wealth, carried to its limits, as anti-social and 
> destructive; an effective counter-narrative to the libertarian ideal 
> of the individual unfettered by societal constraints. We badly need a 
> counter-narrative to regain some kind of political leverage for 
> ordinary citizens.
> > If anyone would like to help pull that together in the form of a 
> paper, please reply, on-line or off-.
> > Thanks.
> > David
> > dkirsh@lsu.edu
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu 
> [mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Andy Blunden
> > Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2014 12:13 AM
> > To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> > Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Working for the Few | Oxfam International
> >
> > I certainly hope so, David, or at least, I hope to read and 
> participate in acting out the opening chapter of that narrative.
> >
> > I do think that the "99%/1%" narrative was a project doomed to 
> failure however, as it conceived of itself as a linear expansion which 
> would somehow bypass social and ideological differences. It did not 
> conceive of itselfr as a project at all. Just a mesage about the one 
> true world which everyone had to come to. Truly magical realism. The 
> plot lies implicit in the opening chapter, but it is always far from 
> easy to see how the plot will unfold itself though the multiple 
> story-lines entailed in this conundrum, Andy
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > *Andy Blunden*
> > http://home.mira.net/~andy/
> >
> >
> > David H Kirshner wrote:
> >  
> >> The operative narrative, at least in the U.S. context, dictated by 
> Ayn Rand, is that the ultra-wealthy are the engines of advancement and 
> prosperity and the saviors of society. What is in their best interest 
> is in all of our best interests. We very badly need a counter-narrative.
> >> Andy, is this practical project something that can be undertaken 
> and completed in real-time as a theoretical project?
> >> David
> >>
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu
> >> [mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Andy Blunden
> >> Sent: Monday, January 20, 2014 11:06 PM
> >> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> >> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Working for the Few | Oxfam International
> >>
> >> David I have plenty of experience with desparate measures over teh
> >> past
> >> 50 years, and I have come very late to "the broader theoretical 
> project." It is absolutely essential that the practical project and 
> the theoretical project are one and the same.
> >>
> >> Andy
> >> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >> --
> >> *Andy Blunden*
> >> http://home.mira.net/~andy/
> >>
> >>
> >> David H Kirshner wrote:
> >>   
> >>    
> >>> Andy,
> >>> Sometimes, in order to create a counter-narrative that can be 
> effective in the here and now, one has to step outside of the broader 
> theoretical project. I guess, for some, this would constitute a 
> distraction from the real work, perhaps a violation of the true 
> mission of that scholarly endeavor. For others, it might be a 
> legitimate (even if imperfect) effort to apply what one has come to 
> understand from the larger project. For others, still, perhaps simply 
> a political activity undertaken with theoretical tools, but with 
> little actual relation to the theoretical project.
> >>> Perhaps these are desperate measures that these desperate times 
> call for.
> >>> David
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> -----Original Message-----
> >>> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu
> >>> [mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Andy Blunden
> >>> Sent: Monday, January 20, 2014 10:29 PM
> >>> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> >>> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Working for the Few | Oxfam International
> >>>
> >>> Well, that's the project I have been collaborating in since I was 
> a teenager, David, but it has its challenges, too, you know.
> >>>
> >>> First off, these observations about social psychology and well-being:
> >>> The point is to have a unit of analysis and one which is as valid 
> for making observations about psychology as it is for social theory. 
> And in general, this is lacking for what goes by the name of "social 
> psychology." People do not of course govern their behaviour by 
> evidence-based investigations of the likely results of their behaviour.
> >>> People don't set out to "grow a bigger economy" or "have more 
> wealth than someone else". The thinking of an individual has to be 
> understood (I would contend) within the contexts of the projects to 
> which they are committed. That is the reason for the relativity in the 
> enjoyment of wealth (which is itself of course relative). People make 
> judgments according to the norms of the project in which they are 
> participating, and that means semantic, theoretical and practical 
> norms. Understanding the psychology of political economy is as of one 
> task with that of building a project to overthrow the existing 
> political economic arrangements and build sustainable arrangements. 
> That requires a multitude of projects all willikng and able to 
> collaborate with one another.
> >>>
> >>> That's what I think.
> >>> Andy
> >>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>> -
> >>> --
> >>> *Andy Blunden*
> >>> http://home.mira.net/~andy/
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> David H Kirshner wrote:
> >>>   
> >>>     
> >>>      
> >>>> I've been sketching out in my mind, but not yet had time to 
> research and write, a paper tentatively titled:
> >>>> The Psychology of Greed: Why the Ultra-wealthy are Despoiling the
> >>>> Planet, Tanking the Economy, and Gutting our Culture In the Quest
> >>>> for More
> >>>>
> >>>> The premise is that the psychological metric of our sense of 
> material well-being is not accumulation, relative to our own past 
> wealth, but the comparative measure of our own wealth in relation to 
> that of others. (I believe this is a well-established principle of 
> social psychology.) So, for example, instead of trying to grow a 
> bigger economy which requires a large and healthy middle-class (this 
> is what would provide more actual wealth for the ultra-wealthy), they 
> are eroding the middle-class as quickly as they can--a strategy that 
> maximizes disparity.
> >>>>
> >>>> The major thesis (in the U.S. context) is that the gradual shift 
> in political control of the economy over the past 50 years by the 
> ultra-wealthy has reached a kind of tipping point in which the gains 
> in disparity are so dramatic as to overwhelm any sense of actual 
> self-interest. Hence, we see increasingly irrational and 
> self-destructive behavior by the ultra-wealthy (e.g., the fraudulent 
> housing bubble that created what U.S. economists refer to as The Great 
> Recession). The conclusion, of course, is a call to action to take 
> back control of our political systems so we can set more rational 
> policies for the economy.
> >>>>
> >>>> I don't know if this thesis extends so easily beyond the U.S. 
> situation to the world, but if this project appeals, I would welcome a 
> collaborative effort--perhaps even one that somehow encompasses the 
> whole XMCA listserv as co-authors.
> >>>>
> >>>> David
> >>>>   
> >>>>
> >>>>     
> >>>>       
> >>>>        
> >>>   
> >>>     
> >>>      
> >>
> >>   
> >>    
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >  
>
>



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