The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > Does the public care about the public interest? > Comments

Does the public care about the public interest? : Comments

By Sean Regan, published 29/6/2012

With regard to public debate, the money-grubbers still clearly have the upper hand.

  1. Pages:
  2. Page 1
  3. 2
  4. All
The money-grubbing Rightists that you despise so much have merely stumbled inadvertently upon an important truth: before you can redistribute wealth you have to make it. If and when the enlightened, caring Left ever masters the art of making their own wealth rather than absorbing other people's, they will be entitled to distribute it any way they want.
Posted by Jon J, Friday, 29 June 2012 7:25:52 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
A great article and some good questions to ponder that "we" ought to treat as much more than rhetorical. It seems hopeless that any kind of change is coming, en masse, before a fall though. Another name that should have been mentioned is Erich Fromm, who wrote a series of books like "The Art of Being (and "of Loving")", "To Have or to Be" and "The Sane Society" back in the sixties, along with Herbert Marcuse selling essentially the same message. But the New Left degenerated into psychedelia--was in fact commodified--and capitalism/consumerism has ramped up infinitely since then; by comparison the consumers of the 60's and 70's were like monks! Humans seem to have an equally infinite capacity to adapt to any dispensation, though increasingly the era of decadent capitalism is leading to mental, emotional and social dysfunction. Of course it's impossible that the capitalist programm gone mad can continue; we are rapidly reaching, have probably already exceeded, the material and economic limits of the planet.
I see no hope of averting the catastrophe we're hell bent on, and as the article suggests, the only recourse, for "sensitive dispositions", is a kind of neo-transcendentalism (which has been my doctrine for many years). The Transcendentalists of yesteryear, like the Modernists, were and are criticised by culturalists as elitist, but when one lives in an obdurate world that refuses to accommodate those who aspire to modesty and an acute mind, and foists relentlessly the same vulgar gruel that's making the world sick, then one is justified in retreating into a makeshift inner sanctum.
It seems to me that just as humanity is capable of adapting to any dispensation, were we suddenly to find ourselves in a salubrious one, there's no telling what we could achieve. Such was the belief of the Transcendentalists, and the Romantics before them, but ours is a cynical age wherein we're wretched within our affluence (and effluence).
Posted by Squeers, Friday, 29 June 2012 9:27:16 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
public interest would of banned the NAtional Broadcasters from their socialist agenda and stopped the gw lies produced by the IPCC being used as a bible.
Posted by runner, Friday, 29 June 2012 9:36:38 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Hi Shaun,

Your quotes from so many authors may reinforce your academic credentials but do not add any extra gravitas to your assertions, unless you wish to use an appeal to authority as basis for your article.

Do you wish us to challenge/support for instance Keynes' and his teacher, Alfred Marshall or your interpretation and application of their opinions?

For instance, if the central critical case is that;

“Making money cannot be an end in itself “, wrong it is personal choice, nobody else’s business.

Unless of course you see yourself as superior, then you can justify saying “at least for anyone not suffering from acute mental disorder”. Ooops!

On and on goes the summary to which you subscribe. It is all about how some have a perspective that they see as superior, to which those who are not deemed superior should subscribe. It’s called socialization. Everything that others do must be seen through this prism.

You go on to confirm this with “The alternative is a revival of 'the old idea of economics as a moral science”. Ah! Now where have we heard this before?

In his 1959 Rede lecture, CP Snow highlighted that the Two Cultures of scientific and humanities studies were failing to communicate. In subsequent essays from 1962 onwards, various authors made it clear that this had escalated into open warfare. The two primary problems identified which are getting worse today are the “dumbing down of the educational curriculum” and the “socialization of sciences”.

It is now abundantly clear that we have a very public and open conflict between those representing scientific conclusions and the socialized perspectives held by those representing humanities. Sadly this includes you.

You further confirm my assertion with, “A similar outlook informs current misgivings about the direction taken by what are called the quality media and the problem of undue influence resulting from personal or institutional connections and ownership”.

Yep, we get your translation. You mean any media that does not conform with or challenges socialization must be subjected to a public interest test?

You blew it with the term “quality media”.
Posted by spindoc, Friday, 29 June 2012 10:41:15 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Spindoc,
Snow's juxtaposition has been inverted and the liberal rationalists are the new barbarians (to borrow from Arnold), but clearly you're with the philistines : )
Posted by Squeers, Friday, 29 June 2012 11:09:24 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
spindoc,

Small is Beautiful.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_is_Beautiful
Posted by Poirot, Friday, 29 June 2012 11:11:42 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. Page 1
  3. 2
  4. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy