> > >=============
> > >What are the undistorted values of which capitalism wreaks havoc?
> >
> >You're implying that all values are distorted, are you? Never mind.
> >Take loyalty, which, under capitalism, is more likely to be expressed (as
> >dd joked the other day) in the form of brand loyalty than loyalty to
> >other people.
>==============
>Joanna,
>
>No, that's not what I was implying, but I do agree with your response.
>What I was intimating with my minimalism was the problems we face in
>saying capitalism distorts some values. We certainly can't blame
>capitalism directly when people don't manifest loyalty, whether to kin
>or others who are "deserving", because it doesn't seem to me we can
>blame "it" for everything, because then we're on the slippery slope to
>agentless structure or structuration so dominating "real" agency can't
>break out of it. It also suggests that there is some form of possible
>society where no values are distorted. What would that mean? What is
>the baseline of non-distortion with which to make judgements regarding
>distortions? It's kind of like the old idea that tragedy isn't the
>conflict of good vs. evil but conflicting goods that aren't always
>compossible in all the contexts we wish were realizable.
That's what I thought you meant. If no values exist independent of their circumstances, then all values can be said to be distorted by those circumstances. But I'd prefer to say that all values are creatures of their circumstances...which is to say there's no such thing as a clean slate (a state of valuelessness) when it comes to right and wrong. Any more than there exists such a thing as free will. Nonetheless societies define themselves, don't they, at least in part by the attitudes and actions that they collectively decide are more and less right or acceptable or good? Even while acknowledging the relativity of everything, we can (and must, for the purposes of cohesion and cooperation) come to an agreement, when it comes to the important stuff, about what we will despise and what we will hold dear.
Of course, we have to decide what's important, too. It sometimes seems that, among lefties more than among righties, what's most important is establishing boundaries for "OK" and "not OK": establishing your little bit of territory and pissing all around the perimeter, setting up a pale and deciding who's beyond it. Which may make being a lefty seem like hard work. Unless of course you love nothing better than making fine distinctions...
cheers, Joanna S
www.overlookhouse.com