At 17:48 03/01/2011 -0500, REH wrote:
So Friedman was denying that business that existed in a society had no
responsibility to the systems of that society? That it only had a
responsibility to itself? Harry, Keith and many of the others on this
list have continually argued that business and the market place was a
central process in all social activities from monkeys to the
present. I'm confused. Your description of Friedmans beliefs sounds
like he doesn't agree about the centrality and responsibility for the
wealth of everything that almost all of the economic books I own claim as
a justification for the definition of value being wealth. Isnt that THE
basis for Utilitarianism? Couldnt I use this argument as a basis for
an economie of crime? The justification for declaring bankruptcy and
walking away from the Uranium Mines in Navajo land or giving the pollution
problem in Picher back to the Quapaw? Tell this poor dumb SOB Cherokee
Artist who is confused by all of this pale faced horse trading. For
the life of me it sounds like cancer. Its a system within a
system that has no connection or responsibility to the system beyond its
own growth.
Tell me where I'm wrong boys.
Where you're wrong is that you want to categorize everyone into goodies and
baddies, into thises and thats. Everyone alive on earth is the same in his
or her basic instincts and motivations. Where we all differ is in our
culture, class, inherited epigenes (call them memes if you like) and the
particular accidents and opportunities each of us has in childhood,
adolescence and early adulthood -- the opportunities for change funnelling
down with every passing day. We become increasingly stuck in our roles and
act accordingly. Unfortunately, one of the deep traits we've inherited in
our genes from millions of years of evolution in quite small groups is to
stand on our boundaries and shout "Yaboo!" to the other group. "We're
better than you are. You are evil people. We're the good people" we hurl at
the others. No great harm was done in hunter-gatherer days apart from a bit
of symbolic warfare from time to time or even the odd fatality -- and also
our daughters rushing across the no-man's land and marrying a male in the
other group. This shouting match is no use any longer in the complicated
mess we find ourselves in.
And the complicated mess in which we find ourselves is no-one's fault
either. The only thing we can blame it on are those mutations which cause
our frontal lobes to grow more than they needed to for mere survival. We're
far too curious for our own good. But that being said, there's nothing we
can do about it except hope that our frontal lobes -- our extra rationality
-- might get us out of a mess, too. It's rational arguments we need, not
categorizing people because they're superficially different.
KSH
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