Law in Contemporary Society

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AndrewGradman-FirstPaper 6 - 17 Feb 2008 - Main.AndrewGradman
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"A functionalist morality play"

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"How a functionalist farce became a modern morality play"

 By AndrewGradman
Word count: If you turn my table of contents on its side, you will see the Hong Kong skyline. The paper on globalization portrayed therein is worth exactly as many words.

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Act I. How a functionalist farce became a modern morality play

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Act I. A functionalist farce

 

I.1 Man's search for a paper topic

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 Yet in his reflexive dismissiveness, I recognized myself: a smuggler rushing to judgment, hiding his pet beliefs from logic.
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Seeing my mulishness in his shook my confidence in my masculinity (for, what distinguishes man from the animals, is our patience to articulate phrases like "what distinguishes man from the animals"; plus, mules are sterile). I groped for a path from mulehood to manhood; I remembered Eben saying that the path to insight passes through stillness; my hoof jerked one involuntary hoofstep inward, towards rumination.
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Seeing my mulishness in his shook my confidence in my masculinity (for, what distinguishes man from the animals, is our patience to articulate phrases like "what distinguishes man from the animals"; plus, mules are sterile). I groped for a path from mulehood to manhood; I remembered Eben saying that the path to insight passes through stillness; I jerked one involuntary hoofstep inward, towards rumination.
 And a miracle came to pass: two mules ruminated together.
Line: 34 to 34
 Nationalism is a tautology ("an audience pursuing whatever vision it circled on the museum map") until measured with respect to an outside stimulus. Rousseau called that stimulus the "lawgiver," but it's just a name.
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Conversely, we can define a nation as a group with a consistent social reaction to a known stimulus. Its identity is that reaction. The national axes against which anthropologists measure identities—attitudes towards God, poverty, death, leisure—were entrenched long before corporate cutters mounted their virgin shores.
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Conversely, we can define a nation as a group with a consistent social reaction to a known stimulus. Its identity is that reaction. The national axes against which anthropologists measure identities—attitudes towards God, poverty, death, leisure—were entrenched long before corporate cutters mounted our virgin shores.
 

I.2.iii A Functionalist Defines Capitalism

Line: 65 to 65
 These marriages seem more stable, and more volatile, than the one-night stand the Nazis pulled on the Communists. Yet the one thing socialism and solipsism still won't discuss at pillow talk is how to actually measure the utilities they claim to be adding. They can't.
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Let's ask a question we can answer.
 

I.4 His tragedy

I.4.i While the national folkdance is still getting its shoes on ...

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If business is "That government which markets its brand through sales contracts"—and the marriage of business and government is a never-ending alimony battle—we may restate my question thus: whether corporations (transferable-contractual-solipsistic-private spirited) or constitutions (territorial-democratic-socialist-public spirited) can market (legitimize) themselves better to you, the judge.
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If business is "That government which markets its brand through sales contracts"—and the marriage of business and government is a never-ending custody battle—we may restate my question thus: whether corporations (transferable-contractual-solipsistic-private spirited) or constitutions (territorial-democratic-socialist-public spirited) can market (legitimize) themselves better to you, the judge.
 Capitalism already captured TV; if you're a zombie, come claim your plunder: forever may you cherish this dividend of childhood, memories of meals eaten in a frontfacing row with your parents alongside.
Line: 79 to 81
 Alas, the storm in this corner will fizzle out like all the others. We've long drifted from Jeffersonian democracy into the feudal schizophrenia of corporate contracts.
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* It is old-fashioned to argue that the owner of a media channel controls its content, when some corporate "brand" owns the owner's mind. A neurologist can literally trace the scar where that brand was seared into his optical cortex.
* Every day you vote in several elections—or at least push-polls—in which corporate brainwashing machines compete to renew these property rights.
* Marketing is not sales. It is the rationing of identity. Marketing names us and the mall breathes life into us.
* Long after fallout kills even the cockroaches, our brands will still scar the earth.
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* It is old-fashioned to argue that you control the content of your website, when some corporate "brand" owns your mind. A neurologist can literally trace the scar where that brand was seared into your optical cortex.
* Every day you vote in several elections—or at least push-polls—in which corporate brainwashing machines compete to renew these property rights.
* Marketing is not sales. It's the rationing of identity. Marketing names us; the mall breathes life into us.
* Long after fallout kills the cockroaches, our brands will still scar the earth.
 

I.4.iii ... so face it, we're fucked.

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I never dreaded the offspring of this dialectical marriage more than when I read Ernst Bloch, who argued that the rhetoric of fascism ("advanced capitalism") is more alluring than Communism's, therefore it would usher in the Revolution, therefore Communists should remove Democrats from Fascism's path to power.
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I never dreaded the offspring of this dialectical marriage more than when I read Ernst Bloch, who argued that the rhetoric of fascism ("advanced capitalism") is more alluring than Communism's, therefore it will usher in the Revolution, therefore Communists should remove Democrats from Fascism's path to power.
 I fear that our own strain of public-spirited narcissism (conspicuous consumption) will become incurable the day our rough utilitarian synthesis slouches toward the last tribe on earth.

AndrewGradman-FirstPaper 5 - 17 Feb 2008 - Main.AndrewGradman
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META TOPICPARENT name="FirstPaper%25"

"A functionalist morality play"

By AndrewGradman
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I.1 Man's search for a paper topic

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I.1.i Question: "Does nationalism conflict with globalism?"

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I.1.i Question: "Does nationalism conflict with globalization?"

 What impressed me, when I asked this of a FedSoc classmate, was his quick reflexes: “Obviously!” Then again, a libertarian is an adult who still believes an invisible hand will catch him, no matter which way he leaps.
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 An Ism is a vision that empowers an audience to lead itself somewhere.
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Nationalism is a tautology ("an audience pursuing whatever vision it arrives at") until measured with respect to an outside stimulus. Rousseau called that stimulus the "lawgiver," but it's just a name.
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Nationalism is a tautology ("an audience pursuing whatever vision it circled on the museum map") until measured with respect to an outside stimulus. Rousseau called that stimulus the "lawgiver," but it's just a name.
 
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The converse feels equally true: we can define a nation as a group with a consistent social reaction to a known stimulus. Its identity is that reaction. The national axes against which anthropologists measure identities—attitudes towards God, poverty, death, leisure—were entrenched long before corporate cutters mounted their virgin shores.
>
>
Conversely, we can define a nation as a group with a consistent social reaction to a known stimulus. Its identity is that reaction. The national axes against which anthropologists measure identities—attitudes towards God, poverty, death, leisure—were entrenched long before corporate cutters mounted their virgin shores.
 

I.2.iii A Functionalist Defines Capitalism

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In other words, today the external stimulism is globalism. By which I mean Globalization, by which I mean Capitalism.
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In other words, today the external stimulus is globalization. By which I mean Capitalism.
 
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Marx defined capitalism as everything between the French and Communist Revolutions.
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Capitalism is everything between the French and Communist Revolutions.
 
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I prefer to let capitalism denote consumerism, profit's enslavement of thought, marketing's enslavement of man. Capitalism functions as a vector for fetishism, which is just one's expectation to find more delight in things than in people.
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But it is more useful to let capitalism denote consumerism, profit's enslavement of thought, marketing's enslavement of man. It functions as a vector for fetishism, the expectation to find more delight in things than in people.
 

I.3 His Question Answered

Line: 52 to 52
 

I.3.ii Nationalism vs. Capitalism = socialism vs. solipsism = Us vs. Me

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The tide of globalism has been rising since World War II. It drowns ancient cultures, has displaced the sea of faith, is a reverse land bridge for the global migration of Chinese-sourced tchotchkes.
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The tide of globalism has been rising since World War II, drowning ancient cultures, displacing the sea of faith. It is a bloodstream for the metastasis of Chinese-sourced tchotchkes.
 
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The Amish invite every member to enjoy the city before choosing local communalism or urban narcissism. But they postpone his informed decision until sixteen years of communal inculcation. Under globalism, the international agents of industrial stockholders invade the communes; glut the next generation's infant fetishes; indoctrinate by addiction.
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The Amish invite every member to sample urban narcissism. But his informed decision awaits sixteen years of communal inculcation. Under globalism, the international agents of industrial stockholders invade the communes; glut the next generation's infant fetishes; indoctrinate by addiction.
 

I.3.iii Nationalism vs. Capitalism→colonialism = socialism vs. solipsism→utilitarianism

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But even if the answer to my question is "yes," it cannot be a "yes" of the form, "and the winner will be ..." Rather, the industrial world is reconciling these symbolic foes dialectically:
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But even if the answer to my question is "yes," it cannot be a "yes" of the form, "and the winner will be ..." Rather, the peace-loving industrial world reaches settlements through roadmap negotiations:
 * nationalism vs. capitalism→colonialism
* socialism vs. solipsism→utilitarianism
Line: 71 to 71
 If business is "That government which markets its brand through sales contracts"—and the marriage of business and government is a never-ending alimony battle—we may restate my question thus: whether corporations (transferable-contractual-solipsistic-private spirited) or constitutions (territorial-democratic-socialist-public spirited) can market (legitimize) themselves better to you, the judge.
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Let me conjure the stakes for you. Capitalism already captured TV; if you're a zombie, come claim your plunder; forever may you cherish this dividend of childhood, memories of meals eaten in a frontfacing row with your parents alongside.
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Capitalism already captured TV; if you're a zombie, come claim your plunder: forever may you cherish this dividend of childhood, memories of meals eaten in a frontfacing row with your parents alongside.
 
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And so Bloch turns to the Internet to stir the "storm corner for the revolution".
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Bloch flees to the Internet to stir the "storm corner for the revolution".
 

I.4.ii ... Globalization gets halfway around the world ...

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Alas, I suspect the storm in this corner will fizzle out like all the others. We've long drifted from Jeffersonian democracy into the totalitarian feudalism of corporate contracts.
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Alas, the storm in this corner will fizzle out like all the others. We've long drifted from Jeffersonian democracy into the feudal schizophrenia of corporate contracts.
 
Changed:
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* It is old-fashioned to argue that the owner of a media channel controls its content, when some corporate "brand" owns the owner's mind. A neurologist can literally trace the scar where that brand was seared into his optical cortex.
* Every day you vote in several elections—or at least push-polls—in which corporate brainwashing machines compete to legitimize their mental property in you.
* Marketing is not sales. It is the rationing of identity. Marketing names us and the mall breathes life into us.
* Long after fallout kills even the cockroaches, our billboards will still scar the earth.
>
>
* It is old-fashioned to argue that the owner of a media channel controls its content, when some corporate "brand" owns the owner's mind. A neurologist can literally trace the scar where that brand was seared into his optical cortex.
* Every day you vote in several elections—or at least push-polls—in which corporate brainwashing machines compete to renew these property rights.
* Marketing is not sales. It is the rationing of identity. Marketing names us and the mall breathes life into us.
* Long after fallout kills even the cockroaches, our brands will still scar the earth.
 

I.4.iii ... so face it, we're fucked.

Changed:
<
<
I never dreaded the offspring of this dialectical marriage more than when I read Ernst Bloch, who argued that the rhetoric of fascism ("advanced capitalism") is more alluring than Communism's, therefore it would usher in the Revolution, therefore Communists should remove Democrats from Fascism's path to power. In our own time, I fear that our own strain of public-spirited narcissism (conspicuous consumption) will become incurable the day our rough utilitarian beast slouches toward the last tribe on earth.
>
>
I never dreaded the offspring of this dialectical marriage more than when I read Ernst Bloch, who argued that the rhetoric of fascism ("advanced capitalism") is more alluring than Communism's, therefore it would usher in the Revolution, therefore Communists should remove Democrats from Fascism's path to power.

I fear that our own strain of public-spirited narcissism (conspicuous consumption) will become incurable the day our rough utilitarian synthesis slouches toward the last tribe on earth.

 

I.5 His catharsis

I.5.i But maybe he said "We're in luck"? I can't hear so well over the harping cherubs

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And yet, I'm still an optimist. The mall is cheery.
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And yet, I'm still an optimist.
 

I.5.ii Legitimacy

Line: 101 to 103
 

I.5.iv No ancestors! We're freeeeee! ! !

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While writing this paper, I imagine Eben looking out at our classroom, our generation, our future. I would not be able to restrain my temper so well.
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I imagine Eben looking out at our classroom, his generation's legacy. I'm glad I'm not in his position. I would not be able to restrain my temper so well.
 

Act II. Modern morality play : messiah :: Functionalist farce : overman

Line: 109 to 111
 "That's why I love America," said the other. "It invented pragmatism because it doesn't like the truth. Now we can invent the truth too." As if to demonstrate, he took another drag from his reefer.*
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"Then tell your professor I said this," brayed the first: "Our generation may have degenerated into stubborn mules, but if we're supposed to have sterilized ourselves as well, then I deny being a mule at all!"
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"Then tell your professor I said this," brayed the first: "Our generation may have degenerated into stubborn mules, but if that means we sterilized ourselves as well, then I deny being a mule at all!"
 [*Editorial note: the actual author just has a headcold.]

AndrewGradman-FirstPaper 4 - 16 Feb 2008 - Main.AndrewGradman
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META TOPICPARENT name="FirstPaper%25"

"A functionalist morality play"

By AndrewGradman
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Word count: Turn my table of contents on its side, notice the Hong Kong skyline. Thus my paper on globalization is worth exactly 1,000 words.
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Word count: If you turn my table of contents on its side, you will see the Hong Kong skyline. The paper on globalization portrayed therein is worth exactly as many words.
 
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Act I. How a functionalist's farce became a modern morality play

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Act I. How a functionalist farce became a modern morality play

 

I.1 Man's search for a paper topic

Line: 16 to 16
 

I.1.ii Method: informal colloquy (aka magic)

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Yet in his reflexive dismissiveness, I recognized myself: hiding my beliefs from logic, smuggling to judgment.
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Yet in his reflexive dismissiveness, I recognized myself: a smuggler rushing to judgment, hiding his pet beliefs from logic.
 
Changed:
<
<
Seeing my mulishness in his shook my confidence in my masculinity (for, what distinguishes man from the animals, is our patience to articulate phrases like "what distinguishes man from the animals"; plus, mules are sterile). I groped for a path from mulehood to manhood; I remembered Eben saying that the path to judgment passes through understanding; my hoof jerked one evolutionary hoofstep towards rumination.
>
>
Seeing my mulishness in his shook my confidence in my masculinity (for, what distinguishes man from the animals, is our patience to articulate phrases like "what distinguishes man from the animals"; plus, mules are sterile). I groped for a path from mulehood to manhood; I remembered Eben saying that the path to insight passes through stillness; my hoof jerked one involuntary hoofstep inward, towards rumination.
 And a miracle came to pass: two mules ruminated together.
Changed:
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I.2 His question

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I.2 His Question Questioned

 

I.2.i Is it even a valid question?

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"It becomes a valid question when I answer it," I brayed. "Wait for the answer."
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"A question becomes valid when it's answered," I brayed. "Wait for the answer."
 
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I.2.ii Defining Nationalism functionally

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I.2.ii A Functionalist Defines Nationalism

 An Ism is a vision that empowers an audience to lead itself somewhere.
Changed:
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Nationalism is a tautology ("an audience pursuing whatever vision it arrives at") until measured against an independent variable. Rousseau called that outside stimulus a "lawgiver," but it's just a name.
>
>
Nationalism is a tautology ("an audience pursuing whatever vision it arrives at") until measured with respect to an outside stimulus. Rousseau called that stimulus the "lawgiver," but it's just a name.
 
Changed:
<
<
The converse feels equally true: we can define a nation as a group with a consistent social reaction to a known stimulus. Its identity is that reaction. The national axes against which anthropologists measure identities—attitudes towards God, poverty, death, leisure—were long entrenched by the time global corporations disembarked on native shores.
>
>
The converse feels equally true: we can define a nation as a group with a consistent social reaction to a known stimulus. Its identity is that reaction. The national axes against which anthropologists measure identities—attitudes towards God, poverty, death, leisure—were entrenched long before corporate cutters mounted their virgin shores.
 
Changed:
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I.2.iii Defining Capitalism functionally

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I.2.iii A Functionalist Defines Capitalism

 
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Today, the external stimulism is globalism. By which I mean Globalization, by which I mean Capitalism. ("Arghhh," brayed my classmate. "You strain for parallelism.") Marx defined capitalism as the phenomenon unfolding between the French and Communist Revolutions. I prefer to let it denote consumerism, profit's enslavement of thought, marketing's enslavement of man. Capitalism functions as a vector for fetishism, which is just one's expectation to find more delight in things than people.
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In other words, today the external stimulism is globalism. By which I mean Globalization, by which I mean Capitalism.
 
Changed:
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I.3 His Answer

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Marx defined capitalism as everything between the French and Communist Revolutions.

I prefer to let capitalism denote consumerism, profit's enslavement of thought, marketing's enslavement of man. Capitalism functions as a vector for fetishism, which is just one's expectation to find more delight in things than in people.

I.3 His Question Answered

 

I.3.i Nationalism - Capitalism = armies+highways+lighthouses = Love

Line: 49 to 52
 

I.3.ii Nationalism vs. Capitalism = socialism vs. solipsism = Us vs. Me

Changed:
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The tide of globalism has been rising since World War II. It drowns ancient cultures, has tapped out the sea of faith, is a reverse land bridge for the global migration of Chinese-sourced tchotchkes.
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The tide of globalism has been rising since World War II. It drowns ancient cultures, has displaced the sea of faith, is a reverse land bridge for the global migration of Chinese-sourced tchotchkes.
 
Changed:
<
<
The Amish invite every member to enjoy the city before he must choose local communalism or urban narcissism. But they postpone his informed decision until sixteen years of communal inculcation. Under globalism, the international agents of industrial stockholders invade the communes; glut the next generation's infant fetishes; indoctrinate by addiction.
>
>
The Amish invite every member to enjoy the city before choosing local communalism or urban narcissism. But they postpone his informed decision until sixteen years of communal inculcation. Under globalism, the international agents of industrial stockholders invade the communes; glut the next generation's infant fetishes; indoctrinate by addiction.
 

I.3.iii Nationalism vs. Capitalism→colonialism = socialism vs. solipsism→utilitarianism

Line: 66 to 69
 

I.4.i While the national folkdance is still getting its shoes on ...

Changed:
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If business is "That government which markets its brand through sales contracts," we may restate my question thus: whether corporations (transferable-contractual-solipsistic-private spirited) or constitutions (territorial-democratic-socialist-public spirited) can market (legitimize) themselves better.
>
>
If business is "That government which markets its brand through sales contracts"—and the marriage of business and government is a never-ending alimony battle—we may restate my question thus: whether corporations (transferable-contractual-solipsistic-private spirited) or constitutions (territorial-democratic-socialist-public spirited) can market (legitimize) themselves better to you, the judge.

Let me conjure the stakes for you. Capitalism already captured TV; if you're a zombie, come claim your plunder; forever may you cherish this dividend of childhood, memories of meals eaten in a frontfacing row with your parents alongside.

 
Changed:
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Let me conjure the stakes for you. Capitalism already captured TV: if you're a zombie, you won; forever may you cherish your memories of childhood, eating dinner in a frontfacing row with your parents alongside. But Bloch would look for the "storm corner for the revolution" in the Internet.
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And so Bloch turns to the Internet to stir the "storm corner for the revolution".
 

I.4.ii ... Globalization gets halfway around the world ...

Alas, I suspect the storm in this corner will fizzle out like all the others. We've long drifted from Jeffersonian democracy into the totalitarian feudalism of corporate contracts.

Changed:
<
<
* It is old-fashioned to argue that the owner of a media channel controls its content, when some corporate "brand" owns the owner's mind. A neurologist can literally trace the scar where that brand was seared into your optical cortex.
* Marketing is not sales. It is the rationing of identity. Marketing names us and the mall breathes life into us.
* Every day you vote in several elections—or at least a push-poll—in which corporate brainwashing machines fight to legitimize their mental property in you.
* Marketing is like bacteria, it is everywhere. Long after fallout kills even the cockroaches, our billboards will scar the earth like the flag on the moon.
>
>
* It is old-fashioned to argue that the owner of a media channel controls its content, when some corporate "brand" owns the owner's mind. A neurologist can literally trace the scar where that brand was seared into his optical cortex.
* Every day you vote in several elections—or at least push-polls—in which corporate brainwashing machines compete to legitimize their mental property in you.
* Marketing is not sales. It is the rationing of identity. Marketing names us and the mall breathes life into us.
* Long after fallout kills even the cockroaches, our billboards will still scar the earth.
 

I.4.iii ... so face it, we're fucked.

Changed:
<
<
I never dreaded the offspring of the dialectical marriage more than when I read Ernst Bloch arguing that the rhetoric of fascism ("advanced capitalism") is more alluring than Communism's, therefore it would swiftly sublate the Revolution, therefore Communists should remove Democrats from Fascism's rise to power. In our own time, I fear that public narcissism becomes irrevocable the day we let our own rough Orwellian beast (utilitarianism) slouch over the last tribe on earth.
>
>
I never dreaded the offspring of this dialectical marriage more than when I read Ernst Bloch, who argued that the rhetoric of fascism ("advanced capitalism") is more alluring than Communism's, therefore it would usher in the Revolution, therefore Communists should remove Democrats from Fascism's path to power. In our own time, I fear that our own strain of public-spirited narcissism (conspicuous consumption) will become incurable the day our rough utilitarian beast slouches toward the last tribe on earth.
 

I.5 His catharsis

Changed:
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I.5.i But maybe he said "We're in luck"? I can't hear well over the harping cherubs

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I.5.i But maybe he said "We're in luck"? I can't hear so well over the harping cherubs

 And yet, I'm still an optimist. The mall is cheery.

AndrewGradman-FirstPaper 3 - 16 Feb 2008 - Main.AndrewGradman
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META TOPICPARENT name="FirstPaper%25"
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PLEASE COMMENT
Rough outline:
I will use Arnold's framework (still a bare skeleton in my mind) to analyze today's changing "social order", in which globalization is challenging "national identities" and national values. Viewing business as that government which markets (legitimizes) its brand through sales, my question is whether corporations or governments are better at marketing themselves, and in which arenas -- grassroots organization, advertising, improving the quality of life, etc -- using nationalism and consumerism, tools available to both. (Nationalist attitudes include pre-existing (historic) attitudes towards work, leisure, God, poverty, economic and social class, nationalism and consumerism themselves, etc.)
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"A functionalist morality play"

By AndrewGradman
Word count: Turn my table of contents on its side, notice the Hong Kong skyline. Thus my paper on globalization is worth exactly 1,000 words.
 
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The question is relevant because I personally think we're drifting into a libertarian world governed by corporate contracts instead of democratic legislation, as corporations use their marketing (brainwashing) machines to entrench the legitimacy of their property rights. (Inspired by the fatalism of Eduard Bernstein and Ernst Bloch [whose actual arguments I barely remember]). However, I think a world governed by contracts will do rather nicely, as long as the public sphere ("We the People") remains somehow empowered to change the rules of the game (inspired by Peter Drucker). (But how do you organize a planet of billions of people?)

-- AndrewGradman - 09 Feb 2008

 
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Paper Title

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Act I. How a functionalist's farce became a modern morality play

I.1 Man's search for a paper topic

I.1.i Question: "Does nationalism conflict with globalism?"

What impressed me, when I asked this of a FedSoc classmate, was his quick reflexes: “Obviously!” Then again, a libertarian is an adult who still believes an invisible hand will catch him, no matter which way he leaps.

I.1.ii Method: informal colloquy (aka magic)

Yet in his reflexive dismissiveness, I recognized myself: hiding my beliefs from logic, smuggling to judgment.

Seeing my mulishness in his shook my confidence in my masculinity (for, what distinguishes man from the animals, is our patience to articulate phrases like "what distinguishes man from the animals"; plus, mules are sterile). I groped for a path from mulehood to manhood; I remembered Eben saying that the path to judgment passes through understanding; my hoof jerked one evolutionary hoofstep towards rumination.

And a miracle came to pass: two mules ruminated together.

I.2 His question

I.2.i Is it even a valid question?

"It becomes a valid question when I answer it," I brayed. "Wait for the answer."

I.2.ii Defining Nationalism functionally

An Ism is a vision that empowers an audience to lead itself somewhere.

Nationalism is a tautology ("an audience pursuing whatever vision it arrives at") until measured against an independent variable. Rousseau called that outside stimulus a "lawgiver," but it's just a name.

The converse feels equally true: we can define a nation as a group with a consistent social reaction to a known stimulus. Its identity is that reaction. The national axes against which anthropologists measure identities—attitudes towards God, poverty, death, leisure—were long entrenched by the time global corporations disembarked on native shores.

I.2.iii Defining Capitalism functionally

Today, the external stimulism is globalism. By which I mean Globalization, by which I mean Capitalism. ("Arghhh," brayed my classmate. "You strain for parallelism.") Marx defined capitalism as the phenomenon unfolding between the French and Communist Revolutions. I prefer to let it denote consumerism, profit's enslavement of thought, marketing's enslavement of man. Capitalism functions as a vector for fetishism, which is just one's expectation to find more delight in things than people.

I.3 His Answer

I.3.i Nationalism - Capitalism = armies+highways+lighthouses = Love

Thus the phrase "private property" carries a double meaning: capitalism invites the individual to cannibalize his public spirit, to digest love and reconstitute it as onanism.

I.3.ii Nationalism vs. Capitalism = socialism vs. solipsism = Us vs. Me

The tide of globalism has been rising since World War II. It drowns ancient cultures, has tapped out the sea of faith, is a reverse land bridge for the global migration of Chinese-sourced tchotchkes.

The Amish invite every member to enjoy the city before he must choose local communalism or urban narcissism. But they postpone his informed decision until sixteen years of communal inculcation. Under globalism, the international agents of industrial stockholders invade the communes; glut the next generation's infant fetishes; indoctrinate by addiction.

I.3.iii Nationalism vs. Capitalism→colonialism = socialism vs. solipsism→utilitarianism

But even if the answer to my question is "yes," it cannot be a "yes" of the form, "and the winner will be ..." Rather, the industrial world is reconciling these symbolic foes dialectically:

* nationalism vs. capitalism→colonialism
* socialism vs. solipsism→utilitarianism

These marriages seem more stable, and more volatile, than the one-night stand the Nazis pulled on the Communists. Yet the one thing socialism and solipsism still won't discuss at pillow talk is how to actually measure the utilities they claim to be adding. They can't.

I.4 His tragedy

I.4.i While the national folkdance is still getting its shoes on ...

If business is "That government which markets its brand through sales contracts," we may restate my question thus: whether corporations (transferable-contractual-solipsistic-private spirited) or constitutions (territorial-democratic-socialist-public spirited) can market (legitimize) themselves better.

Let me conjure the stakes for you. Capitalism already captured TV: if you're a zombie, you won; forever may you cherish your memories of childhood, eating dinner in a frontfacing row with your parents alongside. But Bloch would look for the "storm corner for the revolution" in the Internet.

I.4.ii ... Globalization gets halfway around the world ...

Alas, I suspect the storm in this corner will fizzle out like all the others. We've long drifted from Jeffersonian democracy into the totalitarian feudalism of corporate contracts.

 
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-- By AndrewGradman - 09 Feb 2008
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* It is old-fashioned to argue that the owner of a media channel controls its content, when some corporate "brand" owns the owner's mind. A neurologist can literally trace the scar where that brand was seared into your optical cortex.
* Marketing is not sales. It is the rationing of identity. Marketing names us and the mall breathes life into us.
* Every day you vote in several elections—or at least a push-poll—in which corporate brainwashing machines fight to legitimize their mental property in you.
* Marketing is like bacteria, it is everywhere. Long after fallout kills even the cockroaches, our billboards will scar the earth like the flag on the moon.
 
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I.4.iii ... so face it, we're fucked.

 
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I never dreaded the offspring of the dialectical marriage more than when I read Ernst Bloch arguing that the rhetoric of fascism ("advanced capitalism") is more alluring than Communism's, therefore it would swiftly sublate the Revolution, therefore Communists should remove Democrats from Fascism's rise to power. In our own time, I fear that public narcissism becomes irrevocable the day we let our own rough Orwellian beast (utilitarianism) slouch over the last tribe on earth.
 
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I.5 His catharsis

 
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I.5.i But maybe he said "We're in luck"? I can't hear well over the harping cherubs

 
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And yet, I'm still an optimist. The mall is cheery.
 
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I.5.ii Legitimacy

 
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When I'm not at the mall, I snuggle up with the late sociologist Peter Drucker.
 
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I.5.iii Oversight

 
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When whistleblowers are the only law-enforcement, we're gonna wish we passed that journalist shield law.
 
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I.5.iv No ancestors! We're freeeeee! ! !

 
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While writing this paper, I imagine Eben looking out at our classroom, our generation, our future. I would not be able to restrain my temper so well.
 
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Act II. Modern morality play : messiah :: Functionalist farce : overman

 
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"What we just did," said one mule to the other, massaging under his bootstraps, "is impossible. Mules don't ruminate."
 
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"That's why I love America," said the other. "It invented pragmatism because it doesn't like the truth. Now we can invent the truth too." As if to demonstrate, he took another drag from his reefer.*
 
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"Then tell your professor I said this," brayed the first: "Our generation may have degenerated into stubborn mules, but if we're supposed to have sterilized ourselves as well, then I deny being a mule at all!"
 
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[*Editorial note: the actual author just has a headcold.]
 
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TO BE CONTINUED ...


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If the first time I tried to create this paper I wrote on someone else's by mistake, Sorry, I have no idea how that happened. Work in progress.
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PLEASE COMMENT
Rough outline:
I will use Arnold's framework (still a bare skeleton in my mind) to analyze today's changing "social order", in which globalization is challenging "national identities" and national values. Viewing business as that government which markets (legitimizes) its brand through sales, my question is whether corporations or governments are better at marketing themselves, and in which arenas -- grassroots organization, advertising, improving the quality of life, etc -- using nationalism and consumerism, tools available to both. (Nationalist attitudes include pre-existing (historic) attitudes towards work, leisure, God, poverty, economic and social class, nationalism and consumerism themselves, etc.)

The question is relevant because I personally think we're drifting into a libertarian world governed by corporate contracts instead of democratic legislation, as corporations use their marketing (brainwashing) machines to entrench the legitimacy of their property rights. (Inspired by the fatalism of Eduard Bernstein and Ernst Bloch [whose actual arguments I barely remember]). However, I think a world governed by contracts will do rather nicely, as long as the public sphere ("We the People") remains somehow empowered to change the rules of the game (inspired by Peter Drucker). (But how do you organize a planet of billions of people?)

 -- AndrewGradman - 09 Feb 2008
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It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted.
 

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If the first time I tried to create this paper I wrote on someone else's by mistake, Sorry, I have no idea how that happened. Work in progress. -- AndrewGradman - 09 Feb 2008 It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted.

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-- By AndrewGradman - 09 Feb 2008

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