Kenneth Burke (was Re: geeks)

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Sat Sep 16 16:53:53 PDT 2000


Kelley wrote:


>The ``utility function'' Linux hackers are maximizing is not
>classically economic, but is the intangible of their own ego
>satisfaction and reputation among other hackers. (One may call their
>motivation ``altruistic'', but this ignores the fact that altruism
>is itself a form of ego satisfaction for the altruist). Voluntary
>cultures that work this way are not actually uncommon; one other in
>which I have long participated is science fiction fandom, which
>unlike hackerdom has long explicitly recognized ``egoboo''
>(ego-boosting, or the enhancement of one's reputation among other
>fans) as the basic drive behind volunteer activity.

Critiques of professions are necessary, but the debunking of motives isn't the best route toward such critiques. Kenneth Burke wrote:

***** A supernatural scheme of motives too quickly misleads the social critic by serving as a "eulogistic covering" for utilitarian interests [Yoshie: I believe this "eulogistic covering" is what you are criticizing in the geek thread]. But the antithetical scheme, of purely "debunking" motives, makes co-operation difficult, since it sees utilitarian motives everywhere. The "debunking" frame of interpretation becomes a colossal enterprise in "transcendence downwards" that is good for polemical, _disintegrative_ purposes, but would make that man a fool who did anything but spy upon his colleagues.... (_Attitudes Toward History_, 3rd ed., Burkeley: U of California P, 1984, pp. 92-93) *****

Yoshie



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