woensdag 30 december 2009

A tale

Their minds so tainted by success,
They could not see their gross excess
Had played a very major role
In this colossal world own-goal.
Amnesia can be a sickness,
But this denoted arrant thickness

“It’s plain,” they said, “we do not need
Tough regulation. Do not heed
The cries of all those sad dimwits
Who want to break us into bits.
Our little hiccup now has passed.
Back to the gravy train – and fast!


“To moral hazard give no thought!
We see no need to get distraught.
Please rest assured God’s work we’re doing
(It’s merely taxpayers we’re screwing.)
The Lord to us has sent a sign:
Monopoly profits are just fine
"

dinsdag 29 september 2009

Knight: Freedom as fact and criterion

Knight merkt scherpzinnig op dat we Adam Smiths houding tegenover de overheid in de context moeten zien van de kwaliteit van de regering en parlement destijds. Men sprak van het "rotten-borough Parliament" en Thackeray maakte volgend gekruid rijm over de Hanoveriaanse koningen:

Vile George the First was reckoned;
Viler still was George the Second;
And what mortal ever heard
Any good of George the Third!
When George the Fourth to Hell descended,
Thank the Lord the George's ended.

Knight: Social science and the political trend

"The whole West-European social mind is tired of thinking and of argument which seems to lead nowhere." (Knight, 1934, p 26)

"The first business of a political leader is to keep on being a political leader, and his acts and words are to be appraised solely from the point of view of their effectiveness to that end."

dinsdag 8 september 2009

Knight on principles

The plea of Communism, like that of Christianity, is justice, under absolute authority, ignoring freedom. (The former does extol progress, and progress through science, both of which Christianity despised; by the same argument. Communism is overtly less devoted to law and tradition, more openly claims the right to ignore or break the law.)

Knight on politics

Knight expresses concern about the influence in democratic politics of the capacities for public persuasion and political organization, which he maintains are "'more unequally distributed among men by nature than is economic ability or power of any other kind", "tend more strongly to cumulative increase through their own exercise" and correlate poorly with "competence to counsel and to lead". (Knight, 1935, Economic theory and nationalism", 277)

Frank Knight's ethics of competition

Economic and other activities will always be organized in all possible ways, and the problem is to find the right proportions between individualism and socialism and the various properties of each and to use each in its proper place (1923, p58)

"in the conditions of real life no possible social order based upon laissez faire policy can justify the familiar ethical conclusions of apologetic economics (1923, p 49)

"'Giving the public what it wants' ususally means corrupting popular taste (1923, p57)

"The ownership of personal or material productive capacity is based upon a complex mixture of inheritance, luck, and effort, probably in that order of relative importance." (p 56)

zondag 6 september 2009

Frank Knight on Freedom of want

In any case freedom from want is no freedom; it means the right to consume without producing, implying coercion of somebody else to do the opposite thing. That is the opposite of free association. This, I repeat, does not deny the right in question, but its nature and extent ought surely to be discussed on the merits of the policy issues raised, and not begged by an indefensible definition.

.....

But freedom-from-want, stated as a social imperative, without reference to definition or limition or method of provision, opens the door to assertion of claims and policies that run into the impossible and the fantastic. The consequence, offering the highest bid for the votes of the "disadvantaged", or "forgotten men", identified by themselves or by self-appointed spokesmen.

maandag 31 augustus 2009

Levinas en de oorlog

Levinas kende een onbeschrijfelijk gevoel van onttovering door het geweld van de oorlog waarbij de mens ondergeschikt werd gemaakt aan het systeem. De totaliteit van het Zijn bleek te ontaarden in de Wrede Mens. Alles wordt te veel (le mailaise du besoin) waarbij de mens denkt te moeten vluchten, maar men is echter gedoemd om te bestaan. Dit kent zijn expressie in slapeloosheid, het naakte "er zijn" wat de mens de neus drukt op het absurde. De kern van het leven wordt het pogen te ontsnappen aan de absurditeit. De slaap red ons van het dwangmatige denken (il y a) en het onbewuste maakt het bewustzijn mogelijk.

Het wordt noodzakelijk om zich af te zetten van het zich verliezen in extases. Genieten in de reƫele dingen van het bestaan zoals slapen en wonen trek ons uit de anonimiteit en zinloze van het bestaan en zorgt voor zelfbevestiging. De Ander is een appel: de confrontatie met zijn weerloosheid zorgt voor een authentieke schuldervaring en radicale twijfel over de eigen gerechtigheid zodat niets vanzelfsprekend is. Volgens Nietzsche onderwerpt het zwakke ons terwijl de medemens ons juist toe laat onszelf te ontplooien via een verantwoordelijk engagement voor hem. De Ander is niet mijn gelijke, maar mijn Meester in zijn armoede. Ik word pas zijn gelijke als ik hem dien wat een totale omkering is van de wet van de sterkste.

donderdag 13 augustus 2009