Chomsky on Employment

... and way before the enlightenment...
"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind." Aristotle
"...vulgar are the means of livelihood of all hired workmen whom we pay for mere manual labor, not for artistic skill; for in their case the very wage they receive is a pledge of their slavery." Cicero

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Slavery
• wage slavery
• Chomsky
• educational
• anarchy

[justintempler]

Now if only Chomsky's "freedom" had not of come at the expense of the tax slaves that have been forced under the threat of imprisonment to pay his salary and research funding.

[tossit2emraw]

@justintempler You wish it was under the threat of imprisonment. It's under the threat of death, 'cause if you resist the arrest, they'll kill ya. That's exactly what we're talking 'bout. There's no freedom, and no justice.

But at lease there's people that thinks and talks 'bout a better world that is possible. Don't let'em tell ya that's a dream. Going to the moon was a dram...

[adamitshelanu]

Chomsky has a screw loose.

[tossit2emraw]

@adamitshelanu May be. I'm feelin'em short of loose too lately. But you know what? It's a great feelin'. I was startin' to hate myself...

[steve032981]

could use the volume a notch or two higher on Chomsky's voice and a notch or two lower on the music, but otherwise an eloquent statement, brilliant in its simplicity. the music accompaniment IS nice

[tossit2emraw]

@steve032981 You're right. I've could have done that better. I had that Chomsky speech. But I found a video with that sample, and kinda liked it. So i used it. Damn it, I'm a fraud. Sorry

[KrugmanTheKing]

@justintempler

If you put people who try to be better off as much as possible, if you consider that freedom is what brings any sort of value to human life, you can't go around the thing: that hierarchical structure is self-destructive, plain wrong.

I just noted it's my and not the... Chomsky is indeed paid in a system that is wrong, but he's at least using that money to educate people as much as he can.

[KrugmanTheKing]

@justintempler

What I understand of the Marxist analysis, the Enlightenment and of what Chomsky explains here is that all form of power that allow for the person above to benefit of those bellow is unjustifiable because it constituted the basis for exploitation.

Further, it means there no longer is an equal ground of power from which people associate, but a hierarchical system wherein people above used people bellow. I think in matters of incentives here...

[KrugmanTheKing]

@justintempler

What is the classical argument for free trade? People are inherently good, they all pursue their well-being. If they are free, even if they only work for their selfish interests, they will necessarily yield public benefits in doing it.

But the condition for that to happen is freedom and private ownership of the means of production constitutes an autocratic rule. Under that structural condition, pursuit of individual interest becomes pursuit of the owner's interests.

[justintempler]

@KrugmanTheKing You miseed my point entirely. Thanks for playing.

[KrugmanTheKing]

@architect333

But as noted, more than often, power is used for the sake of maintaining power and pursuing carelessly the ends of those who stand above at the expenses of those who stand bellow them. So, let's be sensible and careful if we ever devise an alternative.

[KrugmanTheKing]

@architect333

All of that is very clear, even with Plato when he tells some people are thought of as powerful when they cannot do even what they will. He tells us that you should want better people to live by your side and, hence, tyrants who abuse of their power, who use it in any other way than to improve its citizens, were actually weak.

If you want freedom, you need to put an end to the institutions and social relations which allow people to use power for anything except benefiting people.

[KrugmanTheKing]

@architect333

It is the concentration of power to an extent that cannot be justified in the hands of an elite which is not held accountable or only partly so that makes problems -- which we all despise -- arise in a social reality. It is not only industries and the social relations of production that constitutes an impairment to freedom: so does any unjustified an unanswerable, unaccountable, position of dominance... Power should be used to benefit people bellow or else it's exploitation.

[KrugmanTheKing]

@architect333

The idea, as truly defended, was that humans were naturally good and that all human value stems out of freedom. It was thought that free humans would inevitably yield good results -- and I have yet to verify if it is true, but I might say the opposite situation has been proven to yield the opposite results. If you have men work for someone above them, inevitably, the pursuit of self-interest no long yield public good, but constitutes exploitation. Hence, the essence of greed.

[KrugmanTheKing]

@justintempler

The freedom Chomsky defends isn't a governmental, yet imposed justice; if you follow the line of thought, replacing private elites who own you by a group of people who own you, you are still a slave -- and this solution was highly criticized way before the Bolsheviks: a wealth imposed threat can't be replaced by a politically imposed threat and grant us hope things will change. It's still a ruling elite. You need to have both economic and political elites to fall.

[billob212]

Why the shitty music?