[FRIAM] capitalism vs. individualism

[Eric Charles]

" A nihilist might adopt a campaign slogan like Any Functioning Adult 2020,
because the truly objectionable things are incompetence and stupidity. "


But there's the rub in this conversation. "Any Functioning Adult 2020"
could be intended as a joke, pointing out that the current president is so
incompetent that literally any functional adult would be better. OR, it
could be a low-level nihilistic joke, made by someone who knows full well
there are no functional adults in the race, and even if there were that
person wouldn't be elected, and we are all going to die meaningless deaths
no matter who wins. (I imagine that is what it sounds like translated into
Russian, based on my deep love of Dostoevsky). BUT, neither of those
positions is a relativist.

The relativist asserts that competence-incompetence and stupid-smart have
no tangible meaning.

Who is competent and who isn't? Eh, it depends on your point of view, and
no point of view is better than another. The designation of "competence" is
a colonialist activity providing illusory justification for the
marginalization already oppressed groups, and while it has a valence, it
has no basis in "reality" (i.e., it is bad, you should stop doing it, and
you should deeply hate yourself for ever having had done it). To label the
president as incompetent is to inappropriately invalidate his way of being
in the world; ways of being are all equally valid.

Who is stupid and who isn't? Eh, it depends on your point of view, and no
point of view is better than another.....

If you believe that SOME people ARE competent and/or smart, then you can't
be a relativist. If you believe there is still some chance that competent
and smart people can make a difference, you are not a nihilist.

Old Soviet Joke: A man walks into a shop and asks, "You wouldn't happen to
have any fish, would you?". The shop assistant replies, "You've got it
wrong – ours is a butcher's shop. We don't have any meat. You're looking
for the fish shop across the road. There they don't have any fish!"



-----------
Eric P. Charles, Ph.D.
Department of Justice - Personnel Psychologist
American University - Adjunct Instructor
<echarles at american.edu>


On Fri, Nov 15, 2019 at 12:13 AM Marcus Daniels <marcus at snoutfarm.com>
wrote:

> Nick writes:
>
>
>
> < What I see in much relativism is not fallibilism, which I endorse, but
> nihilistic fatalism**, which I deplore.  I am not sure I can argue either
> for my endorsement OR my condemnation, but them’s my values.  Nihilistic
> fatalism is endorsed opportunistically by people like Putin because, while
> they themselves are planning for the “inevitable” collapse, they are
> arguing that there is no future in planning.  >
>
>
>
> IThere can be goals without ideology.  I think a nihilist would also have
> to agree there is also no harm in one value system stomping on another
> value system since they are both just value systems and so impoverished and
> arbitrary.    In that spirit, a progressive can be a nihilist simply to
> collect a partial ordering of different kinds of premises that serve one
> defined purpose or another, without taking those purposes too seriously.
> A nihilist might adopt a campaign slogan like Any Functioning Adult 2020,
> because the truly objectionable things are incompetence and stupidity.
>
>
>
> Marcus
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