Interesting response, Keith. I think Freud also had something to say about this. The tendency to project on others some of our own repressed or disliked impulses.
arthur From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Keith Hudson Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2011 7:39 AM To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION Subject: [Futurework] Don't categorize! -- was Re: Economists to Consider Ethics Code 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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