community? collective? both pharmakons

"in fact, when i consider any social system that prevails in the modern world, i can't, so help me god, see it as anything but a conspiracy of the rich to advance their own interests under the pretext of organizing society. they will think up all sorts of tricks and dodges, first keeping safe their ill-gotten gains, and then exploiting the poor by buying their labor as cheaply as possible. once the rich have decided these tricks and dodges shall be recognized by society, which includes the poor as well as the rich, they acquire the force of law. this an unscrupulous minority is led by its insatiable greed to monopolize what would have been enough to supply the needs of the whole population." thomas more. "utopia" i have read utopia any number of times rather closely and i still cannot decide if it is serious, satire, or subversion...more was under sheriff of london and i could see where he would want as much behavior as possible to be public...peer reinforcement of the prevailing social structure by self policing drones..it is, in some ways, a very catholic ( or maoist...take your pick ) document with tinges of the authoritarianism that the overly collectivized society brings along with it...true collective action can help the majority resist the control of a wealthy minority, however, in the end, the focus becomes maintaining the individual's loyalty to the collective by coercion...that "peer reinforcement"...still...this is as concise an explanation of hegemonic culture as gramsci could ever hope to come up with...the collective and the community are closely related and both are pharmakons...panaceas in small doses...toxic in overdose...henry may have had more reasons beyond his refusal to recognize the supremacy for wanting more dead.

some musingss from bill maclay

" 'if our new government does well,' said our vice-president, 'i shall be more surprised than ever i was in all my life.' mr. carrol said he hoped it would be sufficiently powerful. if it is,' said mr. adams, ' i know not from where it can arise. it has neither rewards or punishments.' mr.carrol replied that the people of america were enlightened. information and knowledge would be the support of it. mr. adams replied, information and knowledge were not the sources of obedience; that ignorance was a much better source. somebody replied that it had formerly been considered the mother of devotion, but the doctrine of late was considered rather stale. i began to think of what mr. morris had told me, that it was necessary to make mr. adams vice-president to keep him quiet." william maclay's journal of the first congress 28 may 1789...so...donnie dimwit wasn't the first american politician ( is he a politician? if he wasn't he is now i believe ) to "love the uneducated"...you can see why_________________"lawyers have a keenness and a fondness for disputation. wrangling is their business. but long practice in supporting any cause that offers has obliterated regard to right and wrong. the question only is, which is my side/" william maclay's journal of the first congress 5 june 1789...according to the congressional research service 170 representatives ( 39% ) and 60 senators ( 60% [as if you couldn't figure that one out] ) are attorneys...so 42.9% of congress has experience at "wrangling" as paid advocates who, in bill's eyes, might be ethically suspect...wondering who is doing the paying...not the salaries we taxpayers foot the bill for...i am talking about the "real" money.

ozzie has their number

“everyone demands something of the rest. We say thou ‘shalt’ in the conviction that so-and-so, in fact will, can, and must be changed or fashioned, or arranged conformably to the order, and our belief in both the efficacy of and our title to give such orders is unshakable…in the ethics of the West everything is direction, claim to power, will to affect the distant. Here Luther is completely at one with Nietzsche, Popes with Darwinists, Socialists with Jesuits ….he who teaches or thinks otherwise is sinful, a back-slider, a foe, and he is fought down mercilessly…even Nietzsche, that most passionate opponent of ‘herd morale’, was perfectly incapable of limiting his zeal to himself. He thought only of ‘mankind’ and he attacked everyone who differed from himself [and] he breathes from end to end the pain of seeing men to be other than he would have them be, and a deep, un-Classical desire to devote a life to their reform, his own sense of the word, naturally, being the only one.” Ozzie Spengler. decline of the west A couple of things…1. We are all mired in an ego viewpoint and struggle to see others’ viewpoints…2. Hegemonic culture is so structured that any substantive threat from below will unite disparate factions of the elite in defense of privilege and prerogative, and…3. Any attack on “the system” using its institutions or cultural vocabulary only validates it…the only way to escape it is to make it irrelevant and ignore it to the greatest extent possible…this may be the perceived ethos of the western united states…unfortunately they are guilty of using the hegemonic culture’s cultural vocabulary ( be independent, stand on your own two feet, work hard, prosper ) as a basis for that attack…they are inseparable from the mainstream and have no inking of it.