On Monday, November 29, 2004 at 16:16:08 (+0000) Carl Remick writes: >>From: "Devine, James" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> >>I don't think that this movie is "immers[ed] in ... the philosophy of Ayn >>Rand." Nor is it "fascist" as some leftist mag described it. It presents >>the standard individual (family) vs. society theme (along with the good >>guys vs. bad guy theme) that shows up in a lot of U.S. films, e.g., >>Westerns. And some of the rituals that schools have are pretty stupid: the >>one that "celebrates mediocrity" is a graduation ceremony from 4th grade. >>The bureaucrats -- including the one in the private insurance company -- >>are pretty bad, but one doesn't have to respond to that in an Ayn Randian >>way. Socialists and anarchists also have problems with bureaucrats. > >Not to mention that capitalism itself is the greatest engine for generating >mediocrity ever conceived. Wage discipline achieved through deskilling of >jobs and fungibility of workers is the essence of the system. As I always >say, capitalism doesn't tolerate mediocrity; it insists on it.
Well, not quite. Fordism is a moderated form of deskilling (Taylorism). Toyotism is a different approach that mixes multifunctional, though low-skill workers with highly-skilled workers. Not entirely accurate to say that mediocrity is all there is to capitalism. Bill
