Problems, Tyrannical and Transcendent
by tdaxp ~ July 23rd, 2008
In response to a lamentation on Florida provided to me by Michael:
The difference between optimism and pessimism, is, I think, whether one takes the following line from the Communist Manifesto:
The bourgeoisie has disclosed how it came to pass that the brutal display of vigor in the Middle Ages, which reactionaries so much admire, found its fitting complement in the most slothful indolence. It has been the first to show what man’s activity can bring about. It has accomplished wonders far surpassing Egyptian pyramids, Roman aqueducts, and Gothic cathedrals; it has conducted expeditions that put in the shade all former exoduses of nations and crusades.
The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society. Conservation of the old modes of production in unaltered form, was, on the contrary, the first condition of existence for all earlier industrial classes. Constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real condition of life and his relations with his kind
as glorious or not.
I don’t like places with too many people, so that Florida will pay for faster-than-sustainable growth with lower-than-otherwise growth does not concern me too much.
Every problem we now have, with the exception of the high cost of labor, will fade into nothingness.
The one remaining problem will only get worse.
July 23rd, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Marx was right in that excerpt. I have no idea why you stopped at “high cost of labor”. Do you not think that little “problem” won’t be solved too? We are currently refactoring ourselves out of existence. Have you read any Alasdair MacIntyre?
http://www.iep.utm.edu/p/p-macint.htm
http://www.culturism.us/booksummaries/AfterVirtue.htm
July 24th, 2008 at 6:23 am
Capital compounds faster than labor.
I’ve previously discussed the implications of this this with respect to professionalism. [1]
Incorrect.
Though we are rendering certain tasks, jobs, and careers obsolete, in order to better exploit the increasingly precious supply of labor.
It appears his hobby is comining Catholicism, Marxism, and the pagan idea of Virtue. [2] His idea of collapsing virtue appears analogous to the problem of dumbing professionalism down. [3]
[1] http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/5945.html#comment-246052
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alasdair_MacIntyre
[3] http://zenpundit.com/?p=2801
July 24th, 2008 at 7:33 am
Did you read more than wikipedia? You get nothing out of that, read the encyclopedia article. As for the “pagan idea of Virtue”, please point out the non-pagan ethical system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normative_ethics
July 25th, 2008 at 5:56 am
yarrr,
I’m really not to interested on vague references to bundles of baseless claims that are either truisms or unfalsifiable. Is MacIntyre anything more than this?
Love. [1,2]
[1] http://www.tdaxp.com/archive/2006/03/30/jesusism-paulism-introduction-the-revolution-of-early-christianity.html
[2] http://www.amazon.com/Revolutionary-Strategies-Early-Christianity-Counterinsurgency/dp/193484036X