Michael Coghlan wrote:

>  overemphasized. We ignore other, more compelling evidence,
>  overemphasizing and overgeneralizing from the information
>  close at hand to produce a rough-and-ready realty."
>
>So if the die is so cast, should we aspire to anything else? Can we indeed
be anything else?

We can overcome much of our innate inability to make "rational"
decisions by utilizing social organization -- institutions.

As merely a large number of individual animals, there is
absolutely NO WAY for humanity to avoid the not-far-distant
crash and die off.  Humanity MUST invent new humaine,
cybernetic institutions to lead the human herd out of its
dead end.

---------------------------------------------------------

Don DeBar wrote:

>Cool with the footnotes going directly to links. Really didn't need to
>footnote "objective". I agree that it is necessary to put our resources to

It may seem silly to define "objective", but when discussing
"objective measures" of human welfare with economists, they
first insist that "objective" is defined as:  "Uninfluenced
by emotions or personal prejudices."  Then they proudly proclaim
that no such "objective measures" exist.

Economists are trained to transmogrify questions that might
cause them to question assumptions, and then answer the new
uestions instead!

"His mind slid away into the labyrinthine world of doublethink.
 To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete
 truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold
 simultaneously two opinions which canceled out, knowing them to
 be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic
 against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it,
 to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was
 the guardian of democracy, to forget, whatever it was necessary
 to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment
 when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and
 above all, to apply the same process to the process itself --
 that was the ultimate subtlety:  consciously to induce
 unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of
 the act of hypnosis you had just performed.  Even to understand
 the word 'doublethink' involved the use of doublethink."
                                          -- George Orwell, 1984

>bargain freely, etc., etc.)  And what is with your aversion to naming the
>beast? Capitalism, not "neo-classical economics" or any other pseudonym.

I am trying to "personalize" the problem.  I am sure you agree
that although Americans vote on "overt politics" every two years,
"covert politics" (economic theory) never appears on anyone's
ballots.

I am pointing out that the high priests of "covert politics"
are the neoclassical economists themselves.  Class politics
is so completely integrated into their education, thought,
and language that it becomes unconscious.

Every time an economist talks to the Chamber of Commerce,
Rotary Club, or appears on TV, they are serving as cheerleader
for covert politics.

The economist's message certainly is political and
controversial, perhaps someone should sue for equal time.
(That's what got cigarette advertising removed from TV.)

"Economics is politics in disguise."  -- Henderson
---------------------------------------------------------

Harry Veeder wrote:

>Any measure of human welfare is subjective, because it presupposes a
>social end which are always arrived at politically. You can only speak of

First, I define "objective" as: "Of or having to do with a
material object."  With MY definition (see above), there are
indeed "objective" measures of human welfare.

For example, medical doctors routinely use many "objective
measures" of human welfare: temperature, BP, cholesterol levels,
x rays, tissue samples, etc.  Thus, when a patient's fever has
been lowered by aspirin, a doctor (unlike economists) have a
"objective" reason to claim that aspirin made the patient
"better off".

The doctor's "objective measure" is the temperature of the
patient and anyone who can operate a thermometer can audit
the doctor.  There are also several "objective measures" for
society as a whole (e.g., global warming, falling water tables,
statistics on unemployment, education, leisure time, consumption,
etc.)

First experts must identify "objective measures" of human welfare,
then politics must decide WHICH objective measures are important
for society.

For a nice chart on human welfare, see:
 http://www.dieoff.org/page16.htm

To read about the Genuine Progress INdicator, see:
 http://www.dieoff.org/page11.htm


Jay -- www.dieoff.org
-------------------------------------------
Pluto (pluoo-toe) noun
1. Roman Mythology. The god of the dead
   and the ruler of the underworld.

2. American politics. The family of
   corporations that bought America's
   political system.