Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Resilience Against Fraud
It's always interesting to see how the economic technicians think, but frankly, the only phrase I found promising in recent discussions was "resilience against fraud". And as the proponent himself put it, the symptoms we are experiencing go much deeper than managerial solutions can address.
Where we part ways is in the diagnosis, and thus the prescription. Even the structural deficiencies are a symptom of a behavioral problem based on moral shortcomings, ethics if you will, and the requisite philosophical corollary.
All the soothing bromides usurping the language of ecology won't overcome the fundamental corruption of spirit embedded in capitalistic culture. Indeed, fraud as a way of life in the US is so pervasive that to create a sustainable economic system would cause our society to have a nervous breakdown.
That may already be in progress, but predictions aside, the only justifiable remedy, based on the historic record, is to institute what indigenous philosophers call the "law of generosity". Of course, as long as the policy and management of economic systems remains an essentially anti-democratic process, the results can only be expected to fail.
After all, the international elitists begin with the assumption that they are the brightest and best-educated. By whose standards?
Where we part ways is in the diagnosis, and thus the prescription. Even the structural deficiencies are a symptom of a behavioral problem based on moral shortcomings, ethics if you will, and the requisite philosophical corollary.
All the soothing bromides usurping the language of ecology won't overcome the fundamental corruption of spirit embedded in capitalistic culture. Indeed, fraud as a way of life in the US is so pervasive that to create a sustainable economic system would cause our society to have a nervous breakdown.
That may already be in progress, but predictions aside, the only justifiable remedy, based on the historic record, is to institute what indigenous philosophers call the "law of generosity". Of course, as long as the policy and management of economic systems remains an essentially anti-democratic process, the results can only be expected to fail.
After all, the international elitists begin with the assumption that they are the brightest and best-educated. By whose standards?
