Allan
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-- On Fri, Sep 21, 2012 at 7:26 PM, archytas <nwterry@gmail.com> wrote:
I'm only guessing rigsy - but my feelings are that we are confused on
universals by literature that essentially copies itself. I like
Joseph Heller's 'Picture This' on the matter. The story I read in
history is that human beings get very confused about what matters and
do all kinds of mad, trivial stuff. I'm currently watching England
thrash Afghanistan at cricket. This is better than our involvement in
the sad country generally. Hannah Arendt once said we can manage
quite nicely without romantic love. I think technology could make us
distinct in history - but agree it hasn't. Our bombs aren't much more
lethal than heavy infantry with short swords in the last hours of
ancient battles, for instance. We still operate work through debt
peonage. Legal systems still operate through fictions like witness
credibility and, very importantly, lack of general ability to get
independent investigation.
I found Shakespeare hapless as a young boy - my reasons have changed
but I still find the stuff trivial - though I thought Deadwood was
hugely funny and somewhat revealing on human nature and language.
Some years back, if you had (say) a Brother printer, most of your apps
wouldn't work with the damn thing. You had to flip some dip switches
and make the machine think it was an Epson to print from your
wordprocessor. I actually think this tells us more (in conjunction
with genetics) about human nature than literature content - other than
that human beings like the same old repeated dross and very limited
plots. I agree the i-phone is little more than a modern cod-piece
accessory.
When I did systems engineering I always found that management were the
greatest barrier to management information systems. The literature
shows they always resist any equality if access, wanting to have
personal advantage. Stock trading is the current classic, with all
kinds of dodges in use to give time advantage just as in days of
yore. We have no problems with robots doing manual work or taking
over factory skills through embodied knowledge, but resist making
professions into utilities. We tried to do this through expert
systems in the late 1980s - I thought then we over-estimated the
skills involved and ignored the essential corruption of professions.
Modern films are usually dumber than westerns.
On 21 Sep, 02:05, rigsy03 <rigs...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Because human nature repeats itself? The classics are universal and
> timeless, aren't they? Strip away the surface differences- I think we
> are mistaken to think our modern gadgets make us unique, for instance.
>
> On Sep 19, 11:13 am, archytas <nwte...@gmail.com> wrote:
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> > I'm not sure human nature remains the same - it may be that literature
> > repeats itself.
>
> > On 19 Sep, 15:08, rigsy03 <rigs...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > > I'm in shock with your suggestion!
>
> > > I am reading "Le Rouge et le Noir" (Stendhal) and trying to avoid
> > > current events being more comfortable with 1830 France at the moment
> > > though there are many political similarities and human nature remains
> > > the same. It has had the effect of quashing my rash thoughts on the
> > > present.
>
> > > Not sure we share the same definition of leisure. Shouldn't I then be
> > > having more fun? Shock has melted into morning laughter...
>
> > > On Sep 18, 12:08 pm, archytas <nwte...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > > Suppose that a company earns $1 million dollars of profit in a year.
> > > > About $400,000 must be paid in income tax. A corporate raider will buy
> > > > the company's stockholders (equity owners), for $10 million in junk
> > > > bonds. The entire $1 million dollars of profit will now be paid to the
> > > > banker or the bondholder in the form of interest. The company won't
> > > > report a profit, so there is no tax payment. The financial manager
> > > > will hope to increase the company's price (to re-sell it on the stock
> > > > exchange) by cutting costs or selling off its pieces to make a capital
> > > > gain. This is how Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's Bain
> > > > Capital made money. It is "balance sheet" engineering, not aimed at
> > > > raising production or living standards.
> > > > Read more athttp://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/09/michael-hudson-on-how-finance-...
>
> > > > I worked for an asset-stripper in the 80s. The rationalisation back
> > > > then was that what we did was good for the economy because our
> > > > activities sharpened-up competitive practices and cleaned-up weak
> > > > companies with dud management. We knew this argument was a dud back
> > > > then. The essential way we worked was to use private detectives and
> > > > to bribe insiders to learn about likely targets. We did spend time
> > > > looking a company accounts and what Moody's records might have to
> > > > say. Key issues were to identify large cash drains to LOMBARDS (loads-
> > > > a-money but are right dicks), undervalued properties and 'dirt on
> > > > senior management leverage'.
>
> > > > I'd vote for Don or rigsy for President or PM well ahead of clowns
> > > > like Romney, Obama, Cameron and Blair (seriously - me and Al are mad
> > > > enough to be fit only for foreign policy jobs). The article the quote
> > > > above comes from says most of what is wrong - but I can remember the
> > > > time when Labour politicians in Britain sounded the same - talk was of
> > > > the 'Gnomes of Zurich', selective employment tax (to encourage
> > > > manufacturing) and investing North Sea Oil.
>
> > > > I take the criminality of financial services as read these days. The
> > > > metaphor in my head comes from the westerns in which the bad guys sold
> > > > whiskey and guns to the Injuns. The financial sector villains have
> > > > armed China and probably armed Hitler's Germany (see 'Conjuring
> > > > Hitler').
>
> > > > Germany is probably the most efficient manufacturing nation these
> > > > days, but the ultimate contradiction on all th urging towards
> > > > efficiency leads to super-manufacturing countries like Germany and
> > > > China (Britain and the US once) that have to sell products to
> > > > inefficient countries like Britain, the US, Greece, Spain and so on.
> > > > As a model this is an obvious non-starter.
>
> > > > You can get some idea where manufacturing now is by looking at steel
> > > > production here -http://www.worldsteel.org/statistics/statistics-archive/2011-steel-pr...
>
> > > > It's pretty obvious we have the rules of competition and money wrong
> > > > and that political discussion about this is either ignorant or just
> > > > plain lying. Backs have been broken for all kinds of pathological
> > > > leadership whim throughout history. Easter Island statues,
> > > > Stonehenge, Pyramids and all variety of ape wars we call history.
>
> > > > Economics lacks questions like 'how much work should rigsy have to do
> > > > to be able to live in peace and make blueberry pie'? I suspect the
> > > > answer in the broader case of what percentage of our effort goes to
> > > > providing water, food, shelter, proper protection from a hostile
> > > > environment (earthquakes, historical global warming etc.), the
> > > > advancement of science and technology and freedom from bandits,
> > > > religious and otherwise is less than a quarter of what we generally
> > > > think it is.
>
> > > > The issue is about producing a leisure society for all that works and
> > > > can make work happen given slacking potential and free-riding. I am
> > > > totally demotivated at the thought of both earning more per hour than
> > > > the next ten people around me in the pub and of contributing anything
> > > > to rich donkeys like Romney or some soccer star (which happens without
> > > > doing anything as direct as watching a soccer match). I also prefer
> > > > to holiday where the lager louts don't, where the attraction is a
> > > > brilliant German bakery with a couple of tables for coffee and
> > > > excellent cakes and a Bavarian lady who won't serve me more than two
> > > > and shares a chateaubriand with me in the evening. Sorry Don, it's
> > > > rigsy for President - I'm sure you follow the argument!- Hide quoted text -
>
> > - Show quoted text -
--
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|_D Allan
Life is for moral, ethical and truthful living.
I am a Natural Airgunner -
Full of Hot Air & Ready To Expel It Quickly.
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