[Craic] Technocracy, Pandemic Response and Laudato Si. -- corrected version in pdf.

Sat Oct 17 11:45:27 PDT 2020

Remo

Thanks for your thoughtful response.

I was interested in learning more regarding your comments on 
neoliberalism at the zoom meeting.. Youmentioned two sources that you 
were reading I was wondering if you could share those sorces on the list.

Couple of years ago Brian Topp suggested this book. Explains the role of 
the Koch brothers in the development of neo-liberalism.

Art

<https://drive.google.com/file/d/14_QAJijPXt9g8Yw1Ai4a0oBHSRj9kBuR/view?usp=sharing> 

Authors:

Nancy MacLean 
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/14_QAJijPXt9g8Yw1Ai4a0oBHSRj9kBuR/view?usp=sharing>

Formats:

EPUB 
<action:7b2270617468223a2022433a5c5c55736572735c5c4172746875725c5c476f6f676c652044726976655c5c65626f6f6b735c5c4e616e6379204d61634c65616e5c5c44656d6f637261637920696e20436861696e73202831313429222c2022666d74223a202245505542222c202274797065223a2022666f726d6174222c2022666e616d65223a202244656d6f637261637920696e20436861696e73202d204e616e6379204d61634c65616e222c2022626f6f6b5f6964223a203131347d>

Path:

Click to open 
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/14_QAJijPXt9g8Yw1Ai4a0oBHSRj9kBuR/view?usp=sharing>

Winner of the Los Angeles TimesBook Prize Finalist for the National Book 
Award The Nation's "Most Valuable Book" "[A] vibrant intellectual 
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Also This Book.
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EKuqUxs5HeWYHkdKOKZ-LQ7yvYfg8KnC/view?usp=sharing> 

<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EKuqUxs5HeWYHkdKOKZ-LQ7yvYfg8KnC/view?usp=sharing>Alook 
at the top 200 most powerful players in world capitalism, who are at the 
controls of our economic future. 
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EKuqUxs5HeWYHkdKOKZ-LQ7yvYfg8KnC/view?usp=sharing> 
Who holds the purse strings to the majority of the world's wealth? There 
is a new global elite at the controls of our economic future, and here 
former Project Censored director and media monitoring sociologist Peter 
Phillips unveils for the general reader just who these players are. The 
book includes such power players as Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Jeff 
Bezos, Jamie Dimon, and Warren Buffett. As the number of men with as 
much wealth as half the world fell from sixty-two to just eight between 
January 2016 and January 2017, according to Oxfam International, fewer 
than 200 super-connected asset managers at only 17 asset management 
firms—each with well over a trillion dollars in assets under 
management—now represent the financial core of the world's transnational 
capitalist class. Members of the global power elite are the 
management—the...

On 10/16/20 7:48 a.m., Remo Brassolotto wrote:
> Hi Art,
>
> Thank you for the essay and bringing much needed attention to Laudato Si.
>
> I’ll just comment on “Technocracy” if I may. It’s not a widespread concept with general familiarity to provide insight into our world today. Francis quotes Romano Guardini whom he studied years ago and who died in ‘68. I would gravitate more to using the the neoliberal ideology as a better way to explain our situation. It has broader focus. As an economic theory that has bled into the political realm and beyond, it has more explanatory power.
>
> At its core - brought to us by Friedrich Hayek and Milton Freedman principally I believe, it states that a free and open marketplace is the best way for the economy to function. It will find the best, organic way to grow our economy and secure our freedom. Capitalism functions best with such a an approach to markets. The role of government is simply to insure an open marketplace is able to function. That means for the most part “hands off.” Small, stable government is best for markets. What has happened of course is that markets have become global and as such avoid controls or limitations being put on them. At that level regulation of their activities is much harder to enforce.
>
> Our liberal democracies in the West have moved over recent decades to try to reduce the size of government by finding efficiencies, deregulation, tax breaks, balancing budgets, and privatizing as much as possible. The contention is that the marketplace, the private sector, is the most efficient way of solving problems - whatever they are - healthcare, education, prisons, etc.
>
> But what about morals and values? Well, our traditional western morality has served us well and should be what we promote - family, individual freedom, etc. even though that morality is largely patriarchal, sexist, racist and so on. As for values, they have become unmoored from their base with little holding power because the focus remains on the open marketplace, and values don’t figure in.
>
> Having said that, it’s not always to the advantage of the neoliberal ideology to have instability and social unrest. That’s not good for markets. This unforeseen situation is unaccounted for except perhaps with a strong ‘law and order’ position.
>
> The upshot of this situation is that it is anti-democratic. It has allowed governments to accept the powerful lobbies of big money and what has been lost is the will of the people and the common good. They way forward may well involve many things for sure, but fundamentally regulation of markets and acceptance of current morals and values based on principle.
>
> Sorry, Art, this has gone in a direction that may not be the kind of response that is helpful. Getting back to technology, I think it remains a tool and it’s how we use it that is the issue. And science, too, needs to be respected and seen in perspective. Throughout the encyclical, Francis does rely and respect science. It’s how we know what the world has come to.
>
> Perhaps I’ll leave it there for now.
>
> Remo
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
>> On Oct 15, 2020, at 5:55 PM, Arthur Blomme <art at integralshift.ca> wrote:
>>
>> Hi all
>>
>> I am re-sending the essay on Technocracy, Pandemic Response and Laudato Si,  a PDF version this time.  The previous version  I sent you is missing a paragraph which disrupts the flow of the argument a bit.  It is a short paragraph but disruptive.
>>
>> In Solidarity
>>
>>
>> Art
>>
>>
>>
>> <Technocracy, Pandemic Response and Laudato Si.pdf>
>> _______________________________________________
>> craic mailing list
>> craic at lists.integralshift.ca
>> http://lists.integralshift.ca/listinfo.cgi/craic-integralshift.ca
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