Re: Collectivism... GOOD!!

Yak Wax (yakwax@yahoo.com)
Tue, 17 Mar 1998 13:34:07 -0800 (PST)


Michael Lorrey wrote:

> > 'Out of control' isn't always such a 'bad' thing.
> > BTW, roads are also centralist.
>
> Currently, for the most part. In many states there
> are currently privatization proposals for the major
> highways. I recall that one was afoot a few years
> ago in Washington State. Recall that the original
> roads in America were, in fact, private concerns.

Slapping the word "private" on to something doesn't make it any less
centralist (that's what *they* would like you to believe :-), the
concept of the 'road' is a very centralist notion. Planning in
general is centralist.

> Thats my point. Any system with only positive feedback
> will tend to cycle out of control. "out of control" being
> economic cycles that, over time, occilate into things
> like huge Boom and Bust cycles.

I'm not entirely sure what a 'boom' or 'bust' would look like in a
non-monetary system that had no specific goal (i.e. the systems goal
is a result of the goals of the individuals involved.) Would progress
stop? What is 'progress' anyway? The aim of a decentralised system is
that the whole system cannot crash unless every component crashes -
something that would be very hard to do.

[...]
> the boom of the 1920's and the Great Depression were not
> caused by the Reserve system, as that system was not in
> place until the Depression was well underway, though it
> is understandable that with the pathetic economic
> knowledge of the time that the Reserve systems initial
> steps to fix things only served to make things worse.

I'm not too familiar with the history behind this, but I wonder whom
they were fixing it for. When something goes "out of control" that's
generally another way of saying "makes life harder." And when a
system gets a little chaotic (for better or worse) someone's their to
step in to control it (for better or worse.)

[...]
> > I wouldn't call it "surveillance" because the
> > information is recorded by the people for their own
> > benefit.
>
> Ah, like Mr. Halperin's devices from _The First
> Immortal_?

I haven't read it, but as I understand it, he used some kind of
voluntary surveillance for the greater good. Mines more real-time
autobiographical publishing for selfish greed.

--Wax
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