[lbo-talk] Jerry Lewis as worst-case scenario

[Carl Remick]

>From: Miles Jackson <cqmv at pdx.edu>
>
>Carl Remick wrote:
>
>>Well, like PBS with its eternal fundraising pleas, I'd like to make a 
>>pitch yet again for my man Emerson.  I don't think there's any question 
>>that whatever democratic potential the USA had has been corrupted -- that 
>>American individualism has devolved into a narcissism that has made 
>>Americans atomized, selfish and frightened.  I think the only long-term 
>>solution to this problem is to abolish capitalism and whittle away 
>>differences in wealth and income among all citizens to virtually nothing.  
>>That change will require Americans to lose their solipsistic mindset.  I 
>>think Emerson, uniquely among all American writers, points the way -- 
>>encouraging people to look deeply within themselves, not to cultivate 
>>further egotism but to recognize the profundity of their connection with 
>>all humankind.
>
>I don't quite get this: we recognize and enact our connection with all
>humankind by actually interacting with people, not by solitary reflection.  
>Only in a hyperindividualist culture like ours could we claim that our 
>connection to others is a product of individual, independent, "deep" 
>thought.  --Emerson is a symptom of the (capitalist) disease, not the cure.

I don't think Emerson is calling for hermitic navel-gazing.  He himself 
interacted with people constantly as one of the most popular, widely 
traveled lecturers of his age.  I believe he is merely advising people to 
occasionally try to shut out the destructive, distracting noise of 
civilization -- notably, especially today, all the advertising and PR that 
describe selfish materialism as the natural state of human interaction.  
He's saying, look within yourself -- what is it that you *really* want?  A 
life filled with dignity, free of being dominated and humiliated?  A life 
filled with personal satisfaction, where you are free of excess drudgery and 
stress and able to exercise your natural gifts?  These deepest yearnings of 
yours are aspirations that *all* people share.  Society would be more 
harmonious in every way if it was structured so that all people, not just a 
few, could satisfy these needs.

I do not believe Emerson's thought is a symptom of capitalism.  It is an Rx 
to end capitalism.

Carl