I agree that economic activities take place in a social and political and policing context (enforcement of contracts, weights and measures, forgery, etc., etc.)
I believe there was a time when the convergence we are seeing today was not so blatant. Academics were some steps removed from politics and economics (except of course during the McCarthy era...or when very wealthy benefactors really went after an outspoken prof.) Politicians still sold promises but didn't have to turn so blatantly to corporations for support, corporations who later take this bribery as a tax break. And there was a time when the business of business was business. Not about partnering with this or that charity so that they could appear as good "corporate citizens." An oxymoron. Brad also asks Call it whatever one likes, can there be any substitute for some kind of hierarchical coercive government on our hyper-populated little planet? Arthur suggests, I think civil society and social cohesion is what is offered as the alternative. When things fall apart "coercive government" is always ready to step in. -------- Political economy was the study of economics before all was made "scientific" with models, mathematics and econometrics. This produced the illusion of certainty but left out people, institutions and community. -----Original Message----- From: Brad McCormick, Ed.D. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2002 5:54 PM To: Cordell, Arthur: ECOM Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: GLOBAL DOWNSIDE [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > Yes, agree. A blurring of boundaries. Business is politics. And business > is academics too. > Soft money to politics and consulting arrangements with professors, and we > have an untalked about convergence. Everyone singing from the same song > book. Those who don't, don't get on TV or get on TV as entertainment > whackos. > > Gosh, I guess we are back to "friendly fascism" again. Two different important issues here (more?): (1) I think I am saying something stronger about "convergence": I am saying that economic activity is essentially political activity insofar as it is more than personal. I am arguing: Barter among Polynesians who have never heard of Europeans or Christianity is politics, e.g. So, on this point, I am not making a judgment against capitalism because of the entangling of military, business and government. I say all three are part of the same thing: the constitution of shared social life. The particular ways these interact in our present situation may be misfortunate [I think it is], but I am also arguing that the solution is not a *separation* of military, business and government (and academia), but rather an unobfuscated perspective on their intrinsic interconnection. Once again, the words: "splitting" and "alienation". Here's a question for you economists on this list: Does the phrase "political economy" refer to the discipline which it sounds to me like it refers to, i.e., the study of how human communicative interaction shapes productive labor? (e.g., how persons decide to "let an invisible hand" decide the allocation of resources in their social world) (2) "Friendly fascism". I have thought some more about this, and it seems more and more clear to me that the word "fascism" is a thought-stopper (if not for some of us on this list, at least for most "people" -- Heidegger's "Das Man", et n > 1 * 10 ** 9 al.). Call it whatever one likes, can there be any substitute for some kind of hierarchical coercive government on our hyper-populated little planet? It seems to me that one if not the only main avenue of hope is to get real democracy going at the micro level, e.g., in each face-to-face work group of employees and their first-line manager. I am not hopeful about this. I am currently observing myself in a discouraging situation in my own work situation (the 40+ hours per day I sacrifice in order to "live"). This includes such seeming trivialities as: Previously my "cube" was separated by a couple aisles from the other "people in my group" and from "my" manager. After the company moved last weekend, my "cube" is now part of the "pool" and the view out my first-line manager's office is directly to my "cube", so that he sees my every coming and going. I now have to summon more courage to come and go than when I was out of sight. Also, when "unbound" (that's a mathematics word) tar starts flying around, it cannot but be more likely to stick to me now than when I was out of sight so that especial effort was required for me to not be out of mind. Call it "friendly fascism" or "representative democracy", it's the same thing: Government *of* men rather than the men administering things [this is a paraphrase of Marx's definition of "communism"]. "Yours in discourse [which is something I have at this moment the luxury of having the fantasy of engaging in in my "free time", in our "representative democracy"...].... \brad mccormick > > arthur > > -----Original Message----- > From: Brad McCormick, Ed.D. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2002 5:52 PM > To: Cordell, Arthur: ECOM > Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: GLOBAL DOWNSIDE > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > > From > > > > http://www.newsscan.com/newsscan/newscup.html > > > > WORTH THINKING ABOUT: GLOBAL DOWNSIDE > [snip] > > It is no surprise to anyone to > > say that business has effectively become our government, and now rules > > American life on all levels." > [snip] > > Why isn't it obvious to everybody that business *is* > politics? Businesspersons make decisions about the > shape of shared social life, not just about their own > navels, so how can what they are doing not be > politics, i.e., constitutive of the life of the > polis? (Obviously, via the "bourgeois" obfuscation > of defining "politics" as what political parties do -- > "formal democracy".) > > There is more to the surface than meets the eye. > (--Aaron Beck) > > In plain sight -- the best hiding place of all. > (--WIlliam Safire) > > > \brad mccormick > > -- > Let your light so shine before men, > that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16) > > Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21) > > <![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
