tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102937856333775840.post3353703964721818120..comments2023-12-23T19:04:18.739-05:00Comments on The Crow's Eye: GliberalsJack Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07499087036876745723noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102937856333775840.post-26697644008418030062011-04-06T17:39:38.273-04:002011-04-06T17:39:38.273-04:00Fucking Game Theorists, Wayne.Fucking Game Theorists, Wayne.Jack Crowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07499087036876745723noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102937856333775840.post-13655363292190597682011-04-06T16:30:32.406-04:002011-04-06T16:30:32.406-04:00Whenever technocratic liberals come to mind, I can...Whenever technocratic liberals come to mind, I can't avoid the image of Robert Macnamara.David K Waynehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10756535951359716522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102937856333775840.post-60576673352948128842011-04-06T07:45:29.064-04:002011-04-06T07:45:29.064-04:00I doubt an improvement, juan. They seem mostly use...I doubt an improvement, juan. They seem mostly useful idiots.Jack Crowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07499087036876745723noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102937856333775840.post-42374929953148187892011-04-06T05:54:32.914-04:002011-04-06T05:54:32.914-04:00Rarely mentioned 1976 Guatemalan 'quake killed...Rarely mentioned 1976 Guatemalan 'quake killed over 23,000, displaced hundreds of thousands in country the size of Ohio.<br /><br />'NGO' types, unable to speak with indigenous community leaders spoke instead with ladino assistants, so altered inter and intra-village power relations - effected the 78~84 wave of military/paramilitary terror, made EGP organizing/fighting more difficult, facilitated creation of govt sponsored 'anti-insurgent' individuals.<br /><br />Quite a bit of physical aid was expropriated by military and sold to those requiring it.<br /><br />One embassy report went into great detail - author was released, report 'buried'.<br /><br />Hopefully there has been improvement although perhaps too many NGOs today.juanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09891629364963900116noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102937856333775840.post-17667653283248010302011-04-06T00:08:47.072-04:002011-04-06T00:08:47.072-04:00Symbols don't get oil out of the ground.Symbols don't get oil out of the ground.Jack Crowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07499087036876745723noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102937856333775840.post-51570158295749236262011-04-05T23:41:35.446-04:002011-04-05T23:41:35.446-04:00Hey, it's not so complicated. We're in the...Hey, it's not so complicated. We're in the era of symbol manipulation (not products but exchanges, arbitrage, ROE); those who are good at it get to the top. Anyone anywhere in the system believes intuitively that command of symbols is power and familiarity with them a sign of power. Just like knowing what movies are in, what restaurants, what brand of vodka.senecalnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102937856333775840.post-63678444628442761622011-04-05T14:09:52.002-04:002011-04-05T14:09:52.002-04:00BBBB,
Sometimes I think it's more than that. ...BBBB,<br /><br />Sometimes I think it's more than that. I don't want to dismiss the idea that the two broad factions of the American ruling class are constantly looking to update their relevance, as a way of softening the interface with the client populations. They are. Their various factions are in constant conflict, and fluid in membership, but the form of power is demonstrably stable. As the client population changes - especially ones which are constantly compelled to do so by market and spectacle - the interface must be constantly updated.<br /><br />But, I wonder if what's more integral to that mode of life is an educated desire to feel ego as command.<br /><br />For all that schools have been Taylorized, the top tiers are still reserved for special persons, for sanctioned individuality, for people who Stand Out.<br /><br />The schools spend twelve years, at a minimum, ranking and grading children into tiers which somewhat overlap with the political and commercial hierarchies for which those schools prepare children.<br /><br />Those same schools produce the mangers, bright lights and leaders who will inhabit the various offices and positions within the social hierarchies by which the rest of us are ruled.<br /><br />And that education, specifically speaking to the leadership cultivated, is a continuous, unrelenting shaping of ego-as-controller.<br /><br />Or something like that.Jack Crowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07499087036876745723noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102937856333775840.post-16335674457202555492011-04-05T13:38:40.895-04:002011-04-05T13:38:40.895-04:00Techno-speak is chic the same way technology is.
...<i>Techno-speak is chic the same way technology is.</i><br /><br />The mantras of modernism, the koans of computerworld(imagine "Kraftwerk" link here). Establishment types of all stripes have a need to sound current, "with it", so they latch onto jargon, try to co-opt popular culture. The "liberal" spouting technobabble is the flip-side of the "conservative" desparately trying to make a case that a particular rock-song is "conservative". Both are desparately trying to claim the mantle of relevance.Big Bad Bald Bastardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01983025559556548658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102937856333775840.post-45327397838745396642011-04-05T12:54:06.795-04:002011-04-05T12:54:06.795-04:00Sen,
Perhaps. But, they're already both in do...Sen,<br /><br />Perhaps. But, they're already both in double digits, and neither has one.<br /><br />Nor do either of their parents. We don't ask them for behavior we won't first demonstrate.<br /><br />(Not that we've ever tossed footballs. The oldest and I run together, still. When we get into stride, it will be 5-7 miles a day. The younger boy prefers to draw, write stories and fix mechanical things with his mother.)Jack Crowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07499087036876745723noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102937856333775840.post-78611154026648296352011-04-05T11:35:13.950-04:002011-04-05T11:35:13.950-04:00I see where your interest in language came from th...I see where your interest in language came from this morning.<br /><br />Techno-speak is chic the same way technology is. In this huge alienated miasma we live in technology offers the hope of individual freedom and it's promoted that way. Somehow virtual reality is seen as maybe better than real reality. I dont know how old your kids are, but the time will come when they'll prefer to interact with a little hand device than toss a football with you.senecalnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102937856333775840.post-87122385235935732542011-04-05T09:23:44.082-04:002011-04-05T09:23:44.082-04:00drip,
Mi madre works for a charity. She also writ...drip,<br /><br />Mi madre works for a charity. She also writes the grant applications. And while my mother and I agree on next to nothing, we came to a moment of peaceful accord discussing the ridiculous language she had to use in order to beg for cash from corporate providers.<br /><br />It is, as you note, pervasive. "Suffused" describes it well.Jack Crowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07499087036876745723noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102937856333775840.post-42445083689288950302011-04-05T09:16:01.953-04:002011-04-05T09:16:01.953-04:00Right now I'm involved with two different char...Right now I'm involved with two different charities, one a very small local one and the other a large international one both of which fund (modestly) a small adult literacy/english as a second language program. The corporate goobledy-gook which the administrators must speak in order to communicate with their funding sources is astonishing. Programs must be "stand alone" and "entrepreneurial." They are "profit centers" which must support themselves and these are charities! Recently the administrators have required fingerprinting and criminal background checks ostensibly to insure that there are no pedophiles amongst us -- and this is for a program that teaches only adults. The people involved are well meaning and want to improve their own lives by making the world a little bit better and they are subjected to degrading treatment at the hands of the corporate funders. I cannot bear to think about these behaviors and the complicity they engender without wanting to shout "fuck you" and slamming a door on the way out. Liberal capitalism has suffused the environment to the point that no one even notices its presence. So, yeah.<br /><br />dripAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com