At 9:33 PM 11/26/96, Tom Walker wrote: >With all due respect, if you're going to react to a message, read it first. >I didn't write the words you quoted, B.C. Premier Glen Clark said them. And you'll note that I corrected the misattribution in the response I posted to LABOR-L. This Rifkin line - or in its fancier Aronowitz-Di Fazio version - is all too popular on "the left" these days. Work is not disappearing. The future is not jobless. As it has for centuries, capitalism draws millions newly into paid work, and capitalizes previously nonmarket activities. It never creates enough jobs to satisfy demand, but that's another story. Yes many, even most, of the new jobs suck. But to write entire books based on an error, and to influence masses of people thereby, is a pretty serious offense. >And, besides, what's so new about your April 1996 critique of Rifkin? For an >earlier -- albeit post-modern -- view see >http://mindlink.net/knowware/strega.htm Postmodern? Nothing postmodern about this conclusion: "This wisdom requires us to learn to read Rifkin's story -- and the unnamed Fortune 500 CEO's story -- as stories. It requires us to ask whether a particular story is compelling because of its facts or simply because of its beguiling form. And, most importantly, it enables us to tell new stories, metanarratives, that help us understand the coincident plausibility of conflicting, even contradictory, stories." Metanarratives are evil, man. Just ask Lyotard. Doug -- Doug Henwood Left Business Observer 250 W 85 St New York NY 10024-3217 USA +1-212-874-4020 voice +1-212-874-3137 fax email: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> web: <http://www.panix.com/~dhenwood/LBO_home.html>
