It is a type of power, a technology, that traverses every kind of apparatus or institution, linking them, prolonging them, and making them converge and function in a new way."[1]
Deleuze
Death breeds death
Ayn Rand 1905-1982
“It begins with the axiom that:
existence exists,
which means:
that an objective reality exists independent of any perceiver or of any perceiver’s emotions, feelings, wishes, hopes and fears.”
Objectivity she claimed “holds that reason is man’s only means of perceiving reality and his one guide to action. By reason, I mean the society which identifies and integrates the material provided by man’s senses.”
This encouraged faith in rational self interest and self responsibility, resting on the core belief that no one is any one else’s slave.
Advocating individualism and the need for constitutional protection
and the rights to life, liberty and property was a continuation of the old style liberal tradition.
Rand turned unselfishness and concern for others “Upside Down”
“Objectivists ethics in essence hold that man exists for his own sake, that the pursuit of his own happiness is his highest moral purpose, that he must not sacrifice himself to others, nor sacrifice others to himself.”
Selfishness was a virtue.
Happiness was the aim.
Self sacrifice was immoral.
Sounds like some drunks I know as the finger brushes my nose
I demand answers…
“The government should be concerned only with matters that involve force. Everything else should be privately run.”
and of course she never had children and from what I understand was incapable of orgasm…her young lovers mesmerized and not too smart.
Hannah Arendt 1906-1975
Under Hitler and Stalin, terror ceased to be an instrument of state policy; it became an end in itself.
The banality of such evil is what astounded her.
In both Germany and Russia existing society had sowed the seeds of its undoing, notably by allowing the usurpation of the state by the bourgeoisie in pursuit of its own narrow interest at the expense of democracy, freedom and liberty.
Totalitarianism has such broad appeal she argued because it offered a single clear and unambiguous idea to a disenchanted and disaffected people that accounted for their present woes and promised them a future free from danger and insecurity.
She believed by going back to the origins of democracy, ancient Greece, and noting how society had slowly but surely atrophisized it values one could reassert these values by living the vita activa (active life).
It would be possible for freedom to be a character of human existence.
*Adolph Eichmann, a Nazi, who was later tried for his part in implementing the final solution for the Jewish problem was incapable of the self-judgments that would have made him aware of his deeds.
He did not think or question. He simply obeyed.
…
Populist Politics
Percolating in the USA,
…
the rich are getting richer
the middle class is getting less so
the poor…have almost been forgotten
those dam “Mexicans” as
patriotism becomes nationalism
more homes are forclosed.
…
Police brutality…enforcement
over five million people
are under the restrictions
of the justice system…
over 2,000,000 incarcerated.
…
more money on jails
than colleges…
…
dissent becomes a bad word…
*the information on Rand and Arendt come for the book:
Philosophy; A Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great Thinkers
by Jeremy Harwood pages 154-157 published by Quercus
No comments:
Post a Comment