first, *bless you* Kathie for prodding - my thoughts of late seem so
damaged and tangled, I cannot find a way to make sense when I write. BAH!
Anyway, re Plato's dilemma & Socrates' solution: I remember Jay wrote in
the fall on this, on something similar, the autobiographical 'nature' of
history; that is Western history is a history of "great" individuals: and
how this is such a profoundly misleading cultural construction of time -
...and, I'd venture, a misleading construction of government...
>
>Power requires social interaction, how do you mean that the socially
>dysfunctional fill the roles of power? Dysfunctional for whom? Defined as
>. . .?
>
>Kathie
yes this desperately needs clarification doesn't it! yikes. I was thinking
rather broadly, about positions of institutional power - and the activity
of actively seeking to occupy positions of institutional authority: my
reasoning is wheezing, I admit: but basically,
ideally, I suppose I mean that the "just" person recognizes that absolute
power corrupts absolutely:
by this reasoning, the "just" person would resist seeking a position of
such power, yes? Resist corruption?
By this reasoning, those who do seek absolute power are dysfunctional - it
is a sign of antisocial functioning to seek a position of absolute power,
because it requires corrupting oneself, which is antisocial, breadly
speaking, flagrantly generalizing, as I am, that is...
Historically, the institution is organized dysfunctionally (structured as
privilege, e.g.) and participation with/in a dysfunctional organization, at
some level, means practice is dysfunctional; relations are dysfunctional;
and so on...
I don't mean dysfunctional in a psychotherapeutic terms, but in, say,
ethical terms; not functioning towards a social good... [but obviously many
folks recognize this and resist being corrupted, and are wonderful,
wonderful people; excellent professionals, and so on; obviously there are
ways for working within the system which resist corruption...]
by socially dysfunctional, I mean nerds, i suppose, and I shouldn't have
generalized the way I did; but certainly nerdiness is a part of academic
success, and nerdiness is, as far as I know, a cute term for socially
dysfunctional, -
diane
>
>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Life's backwards,
>Life's backwards,
>People, turn around.
>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Sinead O'Connor and John Reynolds
>Fire on Babylon: Universal Mother^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Katherine_Goff who-is-at ceo.cudenver.edu
>http://ouray.cudenver.edu/~kegoff/index.html