By Michael J. Smith on Wednesday December 5, 2007 06:29 AM
(Originally posted, as a comment, by Owen Paine, but too good to forget.
Owen is notoriously an admirer of the eloquent and laconic Archy, and his characteristic mode of presentation has been respectfully preserved. -- Editor)
"what if the People are too stupid to know their own best interests?" do you know your "own best interests"? i doubt i do aren't best interests forever over the horizon of social thought? we can only know what has been discovered by our collective actions, right? in fact i hold the possibilities contained in our ignorance of what's best for us to be ultimately in we the People's favor --------------- here's my piss off credo: in the sublime notion of people's gubmint we have the only sound application of white america's favorite moral imperative "take responsibility" taken itself to its own highest station where it actually has social application that is to say at the level of the whole people the wholesomeness of this imperative is acutely and self evidently true the people ever and always by their collective actions and or inactions self determining whether they know it or not like it or not fear it or not whether they back slide or not along the way stumble turn in circles run from their destiny like a drunk from pink elephants they... we... are bound to reach eden eventually we just can't stop it from happening we got no exit from our "quest" even if we must for a very very long spell and then some pay for the loops and knottings in our passage with nasty installments of blood and pain and constant ground rent of misery have faith in the one thing we are familiar with that's actually worthy of our faith the people we are our own gods and avatars devils dickheads and dolls always almighty right or wrong in active marching mode or on our knees in passive worship of our illusions have hope in the workings of endless time we will discover and rediscover every one of our possibilities over and over and in the fullness of time our bataan march thru incarnations of bondage and liberation will so much wise us up that i owen claymore paine believe enough in fact in our capacity for self rule that eventually our millenia of class folly will serve as a jest among our distant eloi offspring
Comments (3)
what if the People are too stupid to know their own best interests?
Wrong question. Turn it around, and instead ask: does stupidity serve the self-interest of the people? Or: is ignorance strength?
In fact, the readiness on the part at least a significant minority of the general population to accept indoctrination, combined with sufficient ruthlessness and deceit on the part of their rulers together form an instrument of power for the society as a whole. (The majority think of the soldier as 'noble', while people like Kissinger see them as stupid pawns...)
To the extent that this power is directed successfully against other societies, ignorance can literally be strength.
While we're paraphrasing Hitler, we might as well recall his remark about how people find it hard to be consciously evil. The problem is that we have this thing called a conscience which may be a practical necessity for a livable society, but which becomes completely superfluous at the level of whole societies, hence the otherwise inexplicable notion that 'we' bomb the daylights out of 'them' out of altruism.
Such ideas don't spring from stupidity, per se, although they have most of their appeal among the stupid, or persons who allow emotion more or less complete freedom to dictate the contents of their minds.
Posted by RLaing | December 6, 2007 2:53 PM
Posted on December 6, 2007 14:53
"To the extent that this power is directed successfully against other societies, ignorance can literally be strength."
great line
mephisto laing
yes stupid is relative
ignorant is absolute ...
indeed a far better rock to stand on
but maybe you deduce
too much from this
maybe you confuse
a large part of the people
a large part of the time
for lincoln's conjecture
you only confirm
your sense of radical majority depravity
by a counter example
to the wisdsdom of the people conjecture
not an unbiased sampling
of clio's record book
lets belabor the obvious here
human class cloven history
proceeds thru its very contradictions
the empires thug units from the metrapole are indeed a class eddy
so what complexity only makes the final scenes more gratifying
then again
the point of history
is to make it
not just enjoy it ..right ??
given
a state of affairs
like we have
with a gaggle of class cloven societies
of uneven size and development
on an etnically fragmented unevenly resourced planet ... why ....
given even the golden fact
that ignorance comes in mutually antagonistic class and ethnic forms ...
there will be contrary to pour soi actions by classes
that classes acting at
cross purposes with itself
will come
to an awakening clash
and a rebirth of mission and agency
is only
an uncertainty as to when and how
now lets debate whether or not
the history of class society
can be said to proceed somewhere
world historically speaking that is
Posted by op | December 6, 2007 3:34 PM
Posted on December 6, 2007 15:34
"..persons who allow emotion more or less complete freedom to dictate
the contents of their minds."
that on the otrher hand
is not a very good line
either
it buckles under its own nullifying
conviction is an emotion
or it privileges some emotions over others
spock syndrome ???
wing nut cults
and left lobo mutterings
both never travel far from
the kool logic and fact stoked
eagle's nest
i'm sure u agree with me
crusoe heads of all flavors and texture
be damned
Posted by op | December 6, 2007 3:42 PM
Posted on December 6, 2007 15:42