Thanks for the reminder about Escape from Freedom, Mike. It's a book that bears periodic re-reading.
And, yes, it is relevant to our discussions here. I fear that we are producing a population of cognitive mediocrity. Jobs will go to the brightest, wherever they are. Cognitive excellence lies so much in the individual's hands (subject to degrees of excellence in parenting) that it is hard for me to sympathize with those who sit around watching TV, munching toxic snacks, and complaining how no one wanna hire them. And at some point, they reach a state of ill-being that they can no longer recover from. They have doomed themselves to perpetual ineptitude. Of course, some are born into inescapable patterns of failure -- bad parenting, utter poverty, a culture that aggressively applauds ignorance and entitlement. Society has struggled with what to do for these folks. Teachers struggle, social services struggle, conscientious parents struggle. And, i think, the situation for these folks is getting worse. Cheers, Lawry On May 24, 2012, at 2:31 AM, Mike Spencer wrote: > > Here is a piece on art that possibly illustrates some of what Ray has > said about the current state of art in a corporate/capitalist-dominated > world: > > http://www.cato.org/pubs/policy_report/v20n5/culture.pdf > > that probably will make Ray's blood boil. > > And here is a squib I stumbled over: > > It is vain to summon a people who have been rendered so > dependent on the central power to choose from time to time the > representatives of that power; this rare and brief exercise of > their free choice, however important it may be, will not > prevent them losing the faculties of thinking, feeling, and > acting for themselves, and thus gradually falling below the > level of humanity. -- Alexis de Tocqueville, in > Democracy in America, 1840 > > while looking for background on Eric Fromm's _Escape from Freedom_. > Fromm's thoughts about the conditions that contribute to a propensity > to submit to authoritarian regimes leads me to wonder if the growing > number of un- and under-employed, especially educated people in > inescapable student-debt servitude, will contribute to such a > propensity or to a contrary effect of increased "authenticity"[1]. > > Given the "average" number of weekly hours spent watching TV > (under-reported in proportion to the (unknown) number of folks whose > viewing time is close or equal to zero), I wonder what amount of > unpleasant reality is needed to offset the contribution to de > Tocqueville's loss of "the faculties of thinking, feeling, and > acting for themselves" that is engendered by 25 or 30 hours of TV a > week. > > Am I off topic here? Dunno... > > - Mike > > [1] ...the degree to which one is true to one's own personality, > spirit, or character, despite external pressures... > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authenticity_(philosophy) > > -- > Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~. > /V\ > [email protected] /( )\ > http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/ ^^-^^ > _______________________________________________ > Futurework mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
