From: Ron Winchester (phaedruswolff@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Jan 31 2005 - 23:51:20 GMT
>I'm beggining to think my knowledge of motorcycle mechanics isn't going to
>help much in the technological world we have built.
Arlo;
You're wrong. And I take it you ride. If you are anywhere near central PA,
we
should hit the backroads this spring. Only two months away!
Hi Arlo,
That statement was from my frustrations of how Corporate America is using
technology; not technology itself.
Excellent thoughts all, and I may very well take you up on your offer to
ride the back roads of PA. If my CRS memory serves me, there is a little
town, Devon, PA, that I rode up to some 30 years ago with a friend I had met
a few years earlier who just dropped by on his way back home from Florida. I
don't remember the exact route, but we rode the Blue Ridge Parkway most of
the way up, and when getting into PA, on the back roads, I was quite
surprised to find it was no different than here. People did actually sit out
on front porches with waves ready for any passers by.
The way you describe it, I imagine it is still as beautiful now as it was
then.
It sounds like your neighbors have found a way around the machine, as the
Cherokees in the mountains of NC have. It does seem to me that the 'Noble
savage' (as dmb calls them) have managed to keep their little reservation
secure from this Capitalist machine, taking only what they need from it, but
not surrendering to it.
This may be the key; just don't surrender to it.
Thanks for your well thought out reply to my rant.
Ron
>From: "Arlo J. Bensinger" <ajb102@psu.edu>
>Reply-To: moq_discuss@moq.org
>To: moq_discuss@moq.org
>Subject: Re: MD Capitalism -vs- the Noble savage
>Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 00:44:32 -0500 (EST)
>
>Ron, DMB, All...
>
>I hate to even pick a "highlight" of this post :-), but...
>
> > What concerns me is the move toward Capitalism that is leaving the
>workers
> > disconnected from the company they work for. The advancement of
>technology
> > is a bit more serious than it was pictured in ZMM.
>
>I have been devoting significant time looking at alienation in ZMM and how
>it
>relates to many things Marx wrote about. I realize "Marx" cannot be spoken
>of
>in America, lest one invision Russian Stalinists coming for your daughters
>over
>the hills, but I think there is a lot of "collusion" between the alienating
>aspect of SOM depicted in the workplaces of ZMM and the Marx's caution over
>removing the worker from direct, primary "involvement" with his/her labor.
>
>
> The use of computers for
> > dealing with the employees as far as benefits and human relations and
>saftey
> > training, etc., leave me with a feeling that the employee/employer
>relations
> > are going in a direction away from Quality.
>
>Yes, agreed. And connected to this is the euphamistic, de-humanizing
>language of
>the workplace. I don't think "technology" is to blame, but I think we can
>look
>to an idea of "structuration", in which technology does not "cause" a
>result,
>but in contexts has certain trajectory. In the context of SOM, as Pirsig
>lamented in ZMM, technology has an alienating aspect. I don't think the
>world
>has changed much since ZMM, we have fancier technology, but I don't see the
>environment as noticabley improved.
>
>
> > More than just with the employees and the customers who must deal with
> > computers to handle customer relations as well, and lacking in the
>customer
> > service area, I also see a trend toward another area lacking
>communication,
> > and this with animals, and society in general.
>
>Amen. You know, I wrote recently in another place about the motive to ride
>(motorcycling), using Pirsig's metaphorical description "in the scene".
>Pirsig
>says: On a cycle the frame is gone. You're completely in contact with it
>all.
>You're in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of
>presence is
>overwhelming.
>
>What I fear, is that the "frame" is becoming even more encompassing.
>People, in
>their labor and leisure, are allowing themselves to be removed from direct,
>primary experience in the world. "In the scene" could easily describle a
>worker
>in contact with his labor, an artist in the midst of creation, a biker
>crossing
>South Dakota, or a human resources manager consider that these are people,
>not
>"resources".
>
>You talk about animals, and I think this equates to comparing supermarkets
>to
>automobiles. Everything is prepackaged, prefabricated and boxed. You, the
>"eater" are completely removed from any primary contact with your food.
>Here in
>central Pennsylvania, we are fortunate to have many local "CSA Farms"
>(Community Supported Agriculture). Besides supporing local farmers, and
>eating
>local produce (hell, i have started to really love kale and celeriac), and
>supporing organic farming (all our csa's are organic here), we have access
>to
>organic, free range animals. Several tims a year I take my daughter to go
>and
>help out on the farm. I want her to have this "in the scene" experience
>with
>her food. Moreso, I want to break her out of the "frame", the box, the
>walls of
>alienation, whatever you call them. If you, or anyone reading this, can
>find
>similar farms in your area, I think you will find them abounding with
>Quality.
>And you will realize that Kraft boxed macaroni and cheese will become the
>same
>"fake" crap that Pirsig lamented in Chicago.
>
>
> > The small farmers also took care of the environment by rotating pasture
> > areas and crop areas to manage the waste as natural fertilizer. The
>small
> > 'One Light' towns are becoming Ghost Towns, and the farms waste land.
>
>An interesting tangent to this: I ride often in the farm land around here,
>and
>it is always the small farms where people wave and kids are playing. The
>large
>farms are always like Pirsig's deathforce. No one waves, they just stare
>ahead
>(like the cars Sylvia saw leaving Minnesota). Evidence that they are no
>longer
>"in the scene", but alienated and removed from the world, and hence DQ is
>not
>getting through.
>
>
> > With 1% of the population holding 99% of the wealth, and no concern for
>the
> > rest of the population, I'm wondering how bad it might be to live on a
> > reservation ;o)
>
>We are convinved by advertising that we couldn't live without all the
>"stuff" we
>have. Our psychological distances to our neighbors are decreasing to near
>zero.
>We spend very little time in "civic space", instead we live in boxes, drive
>our
>boxes to other boxes, shop in boxes, and let our "things" placate us.
>Marx's
>"opiate of the masses" may have been religion, but I think now it is safe
>to
>say "consumption" is the opiate of our masses.
>
>But think about it, what would you miss? The plasma tv? The cellphone? The
>200
>channels? What if you could replace it with a place where people and their
>neighbors were family, and talked, and cared? I'd trade it in a heartbeat.
>
>
> > I fear the technological advances that are based on bottom-line
>Capitalism
> > is causing a loneliness throughout America. Corporate America is
>distancing
> > itself from the little guy; the dispensible entity the machine uses up
>and
> > tosses out. The little guy may be carrying the lonliness with him into
>after
> > work activities of family and friends (or friendless society).
>
>I could not say it any better. Very well said.
>
>
> > I'm beggining to think my knowledge of motorcycle mechanics isn't going
>to
> > help much in the technological world we have built.
>
>You're wrong. And I take it you ride. If you are anywhere near central PA,
>we
>should hit the backroads this spring. Only two months away!
>
>Arlo
>
>
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