Re: Keynes the radical
G'day Michael, Whilst I am wholly aware of JMK's insistence that a fight between the bourgeoisie and the great unwashed would find him firmly on the side of the former, I still think there's room for a generous reading of all this. It seems, for instance, wholly consistent with the writings of, say, the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, to claim that a person of 'independent means' (ie one not tied to a boss and the draining work day the latter extracts) would develop all kinds of personal qualities that simply don't have the chance to fulfill themselves in a being lashed forever to the yoke. I think, for instance, Habermas's recounting of the significance of French salons and British tea houses (the 'bourgeois public sphere') is important stuff. There, the nascent bourgeoisie articulated and substantiated the great (bourgeois) revolutionary age. Humanity was redefined, and human culture enriched. From where I sit (poor historically contingent thing that I am) progress was made - and in giant leaps. That JMK and FAK implicitly persisted in some sort of racist classism, whereby it is not life experience that fashions the human, but the 'nobility' of the parental loins, does not altogether undo the point, I think. Marx would have agreed, I reckon, and then politely asked (if he could manage to control his unpredictable temper) 'what if all humans enjoyed the positive freedom to fulfill their potential? Would we not then have a world even richer in all you value?'. It would have been hard for the worthy gents to demur, I submit. Which is not to say they wouldn't have - just that even their formidable reasoning (for which they were justly lauded) might not have been up to covering this instance of narrow and unreflective bigotry. They might even have been moved to admit, if sufficiently in their crystal cups, that their being was determining their consciousness ... Cheers, Rob. Hayek, F. A. 1952. "Review of Harrod's Life of J. M. Keynes." Journal of Modern History, 24: 2 (June). 197: Keynes "had not long before coined the phrase of the "euthanasia of the rentier," and in a deliberate to draw him out I k the next opportunity to stress in conversation the importance which the man of independent means had had in the English political tradition. Far from contradicting me, this made Keynes launch out into a long eulogy of the role played by the propertied class in which be gave many illustrations of their indispensability the preservation of a decent civilization." -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Keynes the radical
Michael Perelman wrote: Hayek, F. A. 1952. "Review of Harrod's Life of J. M. Keynes." Journal of Modern History, 24: 2 (June). 197: Keynes "had not long before coined the phrase of the "euthanasia of the rentier," and in a deliberate to draw him out I k the next opportunity to stress in conversation the importance which the man of independent means had had in the English political tradition. Far from contradicting me, this made Keynes launch out into a long eulogy of the role played by the propertied class in which be gave many illustrations of their indispensability the preservation of a decent civilization." "We were not aware that civilisation was a thin and precarious crust erected by the personality and will of a very few, and only maintained by rules and conventions skilfully put across and guilefully preserved. We had no respect for traditional wisdom or the restraints of custom. We lacked reverence..." - JMK, "My Early Beliefs" "How can I accept a doctrine [Marxism] which sets up as its bible...an obsolete economic textbook which I know to be not only scientifically erroneous but without interest or application for the modern world? How can I adopt a creed which, preferring the mud to the fish, exalts the boorish proletariat above the bourgeois and the intelligentsia who, with whatever faults, are the quality in life and surely carry the seeds of all human advancement? Even if we need a religion how can we find it in the turbid rubbish of the Red bookshops? It is hard for an educated, decent, intelligent son of western Europe to find his ideals here, unless he has first suffered some strange and horrid process of conversion which has changed all his values." - JMK, CW IX, p. 258. Doug
Re: Re: Keynes the radical
On Wednesday, April 26, 2000 at 12:54:36 (-0400) Doug Henwood writes: Michael Perelman wrote: Hayek, F. A. 1952. "Review of Harrod's Life of J. M. Keynes." Journal of Modern History, 24: 2 (June). 197: Keynes "had not long before coined the phrase of the "euthanasia of the rentier," and in a deliberate to draw him out I k the next opportunity to stress in conversation the importance which the man of independent means had had in the English political tradition. Far from contradicting me, this made Keynes launch out into a long eulogy of the role played by the propertied class in which be gave many illustrations of their indispensability the preservation of a decent civilization." "We were not aware that civilisation was a thin and precarious crust erected by the personality and will of a very few, and only maintained by rules and conventions skilfully put across and guilefully preserved. We had no respect for traditional wisdom or the restraints of custom. We lacked reverence..." - JMK, "My Early Beliefs" "How can I accept a doctrine [Marxism] which sets up as its bible...an obsolete economic textbook which I know to be not only scientifically erroneous but without interest or application for the modern world? How can I adopt a creed which, preferring the mud to the fish, exalts the boorish proletariat above the bourgeois and the intelligentsia who, with whatever faults, are the quality in life and surely carry the seeds of all human advancement? Even if we need a religion how can we find it in the turbid rubbish of the Red bookshops? It is hard for an educated, decent, intelligent son of western Europe to find his ideals here, unless he has first suffered some strange and horrid process of conversion which has changed all his values." - JMK, CW IX, p. 258. Here there is one thing we shall be the last to deny: he who knows these "good men" only as enemies knows only *evil enemies*, and the same men who are held so sternly in check *inter pares* by custom, respect, usage, gratitude, and even more by mutual suspicion and jealousy, and who on the other hand in their relations with one another show themselves so resourceful in consideration, self-control, delicacy, loyalty, pride, and friendship --- once they go outside, where the strange, the *stranger* is found, they are not much better than uncaged beasts of prey. There they savor a freedom from all social constraints, they compensate themselves in the wilderness for the tension engendered by protracted confinement and enclosure within the peace of society, they go *back* to the innocent conscience of the beast of prey, as triumphant monsters who perhaps emerge from a disgusting procession of murder, arson, rape, and torture, exhilarated and undisturbed of soul, as if it were no more than a student's prank, convinced they have provided the poets with a lot more material for song and praise. One cannot fail to see at the bottom of all these noble races the beast of prey, the splendid *blond beast* prowling about avidly in search of spoil and victory; this hidden core needs to erupt from time to time, the animal has to get out again and go back to the wilderness: the Roman, Arabian, Germanic, Japanese nobility, the Homeric heroes, the Scandinavian Vikings --- they all shared this need. ---Nietzsche, "On the Genealogy of Morals," First Essay, Section 11, in *On the Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo*, Walter Kaufman, ed., pp. 40-41. Bill
Re: Re: Keynes the radical
Doug Henwood quoted Keynes as follows: "We were not aware that civilisation was a thin and precarious crust erected by the personality and will of a very few, and only maintained by rules and conventions skilfully put across and guilefully preserved. We had no respect for traditional wisdom or the restraints of custom. We lacked reverence..." - JMK, "My Early Beliefs" "How can I accept a doctrine [Marxism] which sets up as its bible...an obsolete economic textbook which I know to be not only scientifically erroneous but without interest or application for the modern world? How can I adopt a creed which, preferring the mud to the fish, exalts the boorish proletariat above the bourgeois and the intelligentsia who, with whatever faults, are the quality in life and surely carry the seeds of all human advancement? Even if we need a religion how can we find it in the turbid rubbish of the Red bookshops? It is hard for an educated, decent, intelligent son of western Europe to find his ideals here, unless he has first suffered some strange and horrid process of conversion which has changed all his values." - JMK, CW IX, p. 258. These passages point to the real basis of the difference between Keynes and Marx. As I've tried to show in previous posts, Keynes's view of the ideal republic was very close to Marx's (among other reasons, because it was rooted in a complex way in the same philosophic tradition). "The republic of my imagination," he once said, "lies on the extreme left of celestial space." Collected Writings (CW) IX, p. 309 He was not, however, much of a reader of Marx (and when he did read him, he did not read with good will). Marshall, in fact, was a much more astute reader of Marx than Keynes. Keynes had two central objections to what he took to be Marx's idea of how the ideal could be made actual. One was rooted in his "dialectical" view of interdependence. Where interdependence is dialectical, i.e. where relations are "internal", it will not be possible to reach reasonable conclusions about long run consequences including about the long run consequences of radical changes in existing arrangements. The only thing we can know for certain about the long-run is that in it we are all dead. This (from as early as a 1904 undergraduate essay on the topic) was one aspect of what he took to be the defensible in Burke's conservatism. Perhaps he was wrong about this. It may be possible rationally to justify "faith in the Big One". Many accounts of the ultimate crisis and its consequences read, however, like the Book of Revelation. On the other hand and as Doug's quotations show, he thought the working class was innately incapable of the kind of development required for life in the ideal republic. They were, therefore, incapable of playing the role of the "universal class". Also, this limitation made the republic of the imagination impracticable even in the very long run. Here it is Keynes who is being insufficiently dialectical. He ignores the possibility that developed capacities are the outcome of fetters present in existing social relations. Until the end of his life, he uncritically held that "chromosomes" were the main determinant of an individual's capacity for development to universality. As I also pointed out before, Marx (e.g. in the passage from The Holy Family) locates the capacity of the members of the working class to become the universal class in the developmental possibilities inherent in their location within the internal social relations that define capitalism. The inexorable operation of the law of value will, in the long run, both produce conditions of extreme alienation for the members of the working class and create in them the capacity to become the architects and makers of a new society from which the ultimate fetters to universal development have been removed. He nowhere explains, however, how the premise that "in the fully-formed proletariat the abstraction of all humanity, even of the semblance of humanity, is practically complete" is consistent with the conclusion that the fully-formed proletariat will also have developed the degree of rational self-consciousness required for it to play the role of the "universal class". Keynes, by the way, frequently points to Hayek's arguments as extreme examples of "Bedlamite economics", i.e. of the Ricardian vice. For instance, he says of Hayek's book *Prices and Production* that "The book, as it stands, seems to me to be one of the most frightful muddles I have ever read, with scarcely a sound proposition in it beginning with page 45, and yet it remains a book of some interest which is likely to leave its mark on the mind of the reader. It is an extraordinary example of how, starting with a mistake, a remorseless logician can end up in Bedlam." (XII, p. 252) The debate as to whether a super calculating machine can solve the Bedlamite problem as well as individual calculating machines
Re: Keynes the radical (fwd)
I think, for instance, Habermas's recounting of the significance of French salons and British tea houses (the 'bourgeois public sphere') is important stuff. There, the nascent bourgeoisie articulated and substantiated the great (bourgeois) revolutionary age. Humanity was redefined, and human culture enriched. From where I sit (poor historically contingent thing that I am) progress was made - and in giant leaps. In so far as the "bourgeois public sphere" is concerned, I would not simply disregard Habermas's early work too (which was his doctoral thesis btw). It is a profound historical inquiry into the categories of early bourgeois culture and modernity. Very many social details and sociological sensitivity. In my view, the importance of the work rather comes from its critical encounter with Weber and Frankfurt School's collapsing of rationality to instrumental rationality or the rationality of capitalism. Implicit in Habermas's theory is the possibility of rationalities other than instrumental reason (means-ends). Accordingly, he historicizes this possibility (as a counter-narrative reading of history) in this work, and then later develops as "communicative rationality in his recent works. The problem with the work lies in its "bourgeois idealism". This critique came from Gramscian historians studying the public sphere within the framework of sub-altern studies (See Geoff Elley, Mary Ryan, etc).By idealizing the revolutionary role of the bourgeoisie in sociological terms, Habermas disregards the public spheres other than the bourgeois public sphere (working class, women, peasent, etc..).there is no dicussion of marginalized publics in his work. Their voices are unheard. Actually,Habermas has encountered these critics recently..This is another discussion though.. Mine Doyran SUNY/Albany
Re: Re: Keynes the radical
Subject: Offer of Internship Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2000 13:16:23 +0200 From: "Christoph Erdmenger" [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Offer of Internship Assistant in ICLEIs Eco-Procurement and Eco-Efficient Economy Programme The International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) is seeking an intern for its Eco-Procurement Programme. The internship offers a wide range of activities, among them in particular editing of English texts for publications and web-sites. Relevant projects include the set-up of an Internet Info Shop on research projects on regional eco-efficient economy, the adaptation and translation of a German publication on green purchasing and the preparation of international EcoProcura® events. Furthermore ongoing activities for the EcoProcura® magazine and the European Municipal Green Purchasers Network will be in the scope of the internship. Please find further information at http://www.iclei.org/europe/ecoprocura. Internships at ICLEI are particularly interesting for all those who wish to later work in international organisations, local authorities and their associations, consultancies for local authorities and training institutions. Conditions The duration of the internship is 6 months and should begin between 1.5.00 and 1.6.00. A reimbursement of personal costs of 600/month is possible. Skills required Education:knowledge of environmental science, law, technology and/or economy e.g. through studies in a relevant field, such as law, political science, economics, administrative science, geography, etc., Editing skills in English language, Practical experience with political organisations, foreign countries and/or organisational tasks are welcomed, Organisational skills: communicative competence, ability to work in a self-organised way within a team, computing skills in MS Office and electronic communication Languages:very good English, preferably mother-tongue, as well as good command of German. Please apply before 10.05.00 in writing, including CV, motivation and photo. The International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), European Secretariat, Eschholzstrasse 86, D-79115 Freiburg/ Germany Fax:+49-761 / 36 89 2-19 E-mail:iclei-europe@iclei- europe.org What is ICLEI? As a membership association, ICLEI is an international community of about 350 local authorities dedicated to achieving tangible improvements in the global environment. In Europe some 140 local authorities and 9 national municipal associations have joined ICLEI. ICLEI members are interested in and working towards measurable environmental performance. These members work together to develop new models and tools for addressing priority environmental problems and disseminate these results through ICLEI's networks and international campaigns. ICLEI serves as the international environmental agency for local government, offering research, technical assistance and training services to its member local authorities as well as to other local, regional, national and European authorities. The types of services provided by ICLEI on a contractual basis include: pilot and demonstration projects, research, development projects as well as studies, organisation of international conferences, seminars, workshops, study tours and exchanges, development assistance projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America, fee-for-service technical consulting in key management areas to individual local governments. Rob Schaap wrote: G'day Michael, Whilst I am wholly aware of JMK's insistence that a fight between the bourgeoisie and the great unwashed would find him firmly on the side of the former, I still think there's room for a generous reading of all this. It seems, for instance, wholly consistent with the writings of, say, the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, to claim that a person of 'independent means' (ie one not tied to a boss and the draining work day the latter extracts) would develop all kinds of personal qualities that simply don't have the chance to fulfill themselves in a being lashed forever to the yoke. I think, for instance, Habermas's recounting of the significance of French salons and British tea houses (the 'bourgeois public sphere') is important stuff. There, the nascent bourgeoisie articulated and substantiated the great (bourgeois) revolutionary age. Humanity was redefined, and human culture enriched. From where I sit (poor historically contingent thing that I am) progress was made - and in giant leaps. That JMK and FAK implicitly persisted in some sort of racist classism, whereby it is not life experience that fashions the human, but the 'nobility' of the parental loins, does not altogether undo the point, I think. Marx would have agreed, I reckon, and then politely asked (if he could manage to control his unpredictable temper) 'what if all humans enjoyed the positive freedom to fulfill their
Re: Keynes the radical
Doug Henwood [EMAIL PROTECTED] 04/26/00 12:54PM "How can I accept a doctrine [Marxism] which sets up as its bible...an obsolete economic textbook which I know to be not only scientifically erroneous but without interest or application for the modern world? How can I adopt a creed which, preferring the mud to the fish, exalts the boorish proletariat above the bourgeois and the intelligentsia who, with whatever faults, are the quality in life and surely carry the seeds of all human advancement? Even if we need a religion how can we find it in the turbid rubbish of the Red bookshops? It is hard for an educated, decent, intelligent son of western Europe to find his ideals here, unless he has first suffered some strange and horrid process of conversion which has changed all his values." - JMK, CW IX, p. 258. ( CB: Is that "turbid" or "turgid" ?
