A Commentary on the Passing Scene by
Robert Paul Wolff
rwolff@afroam.umass.edu
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
ENNUI, AND THEN SOME
When I was young, the go to phrase to express boredom was, “That’s
about as exciting as watching paint dry.”Along about now, I would pay for a livecam shot of paint drying!
While we are pondering listlessness and dissatisfaction, I'll guess that most people, most Americans, at least, are fatigued by all the polarization and angry rhetoric, and generally supportive of political compromise. Heck, probably more than one out of four are actually politically disengaged, but I imagine that most, more tend to stand apart from partisan antipathy than engage in it.
But not so bored as to take up a discussion of "The Future of Socialism" or to comment on the remark made by philosopher Elizabeth Anderson, somewhat later than Prof Wolff, that
There are no internal markets in the modern workplace. Indeed, the boundary of the firm is defined as the point at which markets end and authoritarian centralized planning and direction begin.
--Anderson, Elizabeth. Private Government (The University Center for Human Values Series) (p. 39). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.
(This observation seems to have elicited sputtering animadversion from an anonymous commenter in the form of a logically invalid comparison to slavery.)
The indeterminacy of general accounting methods cited in "The Future of Socialism" (this ought to be either a formal impossibility theorem or at least provably computationally intractable) strengthens the conclusion that executive decision making within the firm is quasi-political.
Well, that ostrich has taken off. Perhaps someone else will summon the energy.
My comments here are generally ignored by the in group, so I will let one of the regulars comment in my stead, as I imagine Goethe would do were he alive today. Nevertheless, I have derived too much from this blog and from Prof Wolff's publications* not to offer this diversion: the COVID-19 Voice Detector, developed by computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University (please read the disclaimers).
* Not only from "The Future of Socialism" but from his Autobiography, which really ought to be widely read.
Since you now know how to use Zoom, and since you once wrote that you would like your blog participants to gather for, say, a picnic, perhaps you can call a Zoom meeting of the folks who participate here. Might take the edge off the ennui?
My friend, meet Rule 34 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_34_(Internet_meme)
ReplyDeleteWhile we are pondering listlessness and dissatisfaction, I'll guess that most people, most Americans, at least, are fatigued by all the polarization and angry rhetoric, and generally supportive of political compromise. Heck, probably more than one out of four are actually politically disengaged, but I imagine that most, more tend to stand apart from partisan antipathy than engage in it.
ReplyDeleteBut not so bored as to take up a discussion of "The Future of Socialism" or to comment on the remark made by philosopher Elizabeth Anderson, somewhat later than Prof Wolff, that
ReplyDeleteThere are no internal markets in the modern workplace. Indeed, the boundary of the firm is defined as the point at which markets end and authoritarian centralized planning and direction begin.
--Anderson, Elizabeth. Private Government (The University Center for Human Values Series) (p. 39). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.
(This observation seems to have elicited sputtering animadversion from an anonymous commenter in the form of a logically invalid comparison to slavery.)
The indeterminacy of general accounting methods cited in "The Future of Socialism" (this ought to be either a formal impossibility theorem or at least provably computationally intractable) strengthens the conclusion that executive decision making within the firm is quasi-political.
Well, that ostrich has taken off. Perhaps someone else will summon the energy.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMy comments here are generally ignored by the in group, so I will let one of the regulars comment in my stead, as I imagine Goethe would do were he alive today. Nevertheless, I have derived too much from this blog and from Prof Wolff's publications* not to offer this diversion: the COVID-19 Voice Detector, developed by computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University (please read the disclaimers).
ReplyDelete* Not only from "The Future of Socialism" but from his Autobiography, which really ought to be widely read.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLOPygVcaVE
ReplyDeleteProfessor Wolff,
ReplyDeleteSince you now know how to use Zoom, and since you once wrote that you would like your blog participants to gather for, say, a picnic, perhaps you can call a Zoom meeting of the folks who participate here. Might take the edge off the ennui?