On Jul 3, 2011, at 11:26 PM, 123hop at comcast.net wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "// ravi" <ravi at platosbeard.org>
>
>> "Why not “healthy” norm or better “aligned" behaviour, since the word ‘nature’ seems quite overloaded."
>
> Because then we'd still have to say "aligned with what?”
>
Aligned with our survival [instincts], and our desires?
> I understand that we must be careful about what we ascribe to nature. But we cannot give up the understanding that we have become alienated from nature and that this alienation also exacts a price....of false consciousness....of believing that we are alone, of believing that everything must be owned, of ignorance of interdependence, of the inability to be silent or still.
I think you can keep the powerful notion of alienation without attaching it to “nature”. EP types believe that it is our natural selfs (mental selves) that are in fact the cause of a lot of trouble, given that these natural instincts emerged in response to selection pressures of long forgotten times. As theories quite bizarre, for sure, but it does point to the problem with the word ‘nature’. As does the hint of Rousseauian romanticism.
It seems to me that the problem with the beliefs that we are alone, that everything must be owned, so on, is that they run counter to reality and/or the most beneficial arrangement of things (relations among them) - not to forget epistemology? - when measured by our own stated and unstated goals. You could make concrete claims (similar to what falls under the catch-all term ‘nature’) that would be more, well, concrete: e.g., country living is better than city living because it engenders blah-blah which leads to lesser conflict, more equity, longevity, whatever. (those are not your claims, of course).
At any rate, despite my thrashing about, I do get your point.
On Jul 3, 2011, at 11:39 PM, 123hop at comcast.net wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "// ravi" <ravi at platosbeard.org>
>
>
> Everyone in the USA gets a free subscription of LBO. And Zizek gets his own reality show.
>
> ------
> Zizek is his own reality show.
>
True, but the mainstream alternatives to Zizek (Biggest Loser, Bachelor, so on) have audiences in the millions!
On Jul 3, 2011, at 11:55 PM, shag carpet bomb wrote:
>
> please please please be scrum master. agile/scrum - solves everything!
>
Scrum master! Why I can only dream. I can’t even figure out whether I am a chicken or a pig. Agile/Scrum for sure, but why stop? The brochure and “About” page will be all the better served by throwing in Pair Programming, Test Driven Development, XP… ooh… I have always wanted to use “Cone of Uncertainty” in some sort of description of what I do!
—ravi