Neoliberalism: Transactions versus relationships

Submitted by arendt on Tue, 04/17/2018 - 5:43pm

I have spent the better part of today in phone queues, trying to sort out a financial problem. As I sat on these queues, I was constantly propositioned with questionaires asking me how I like the service. Every time I walk in a store, I get asked if I have/want the "club card". Every day I get junk mail from every corporation I have so much as done a Google search on. All these robo-invitations are trying to get me to be in a "relationship" with a faceless corporation.

But, wait. Everytime I have interacted with a corporation, they treat me like a non-entity. I get to talk to "Jim" or "Jane". My interactions is dumped into a file for the next time I call. I will never talk to "Jim" or "Jane" again. Because corporations only want to extract money from you, or personal data so they can find better ways to fleece you the next time you contact them.

I got this quote from somewhere:

neoliberal ideology renders all relationships transactional, and all community monetarily determined and market-defined,

I guess you can square the transaction vs relationship circle by re-defining the meaning of "relationship". And that is precisely the goal of neoliberalism - to reduce all human relationships to atomic monetary transactions.

If you are offered a justification for this humanity-lobotomy, it is usually along the lines of utilitarianism. "The greatest good for the greatest number." That is, if you add up all the winners and all the losers, as long as winners minus losers is greater than zero, what was done was "moral".

(utilitarianism) presupposes a very concrete theory of nature as well as human nature: an understanding of human beings not as unique, irreplaceable beings—as neighbors, friends, or members of a community oriented toward justice and fairness—but rather as nameless, faceless, calculating, hedonistic, atomistic units. Alongside of this it understands nature and the natural world of plants, animals, trees, oceans and mountains not as intrinsic goods in themselves, but merely as ‘things’ that have only human use-value.

This gives us a clue to understanding why utilitarianism is so attractive to a modern bureaucratized, consumerist culture that is prepared to uphold profit maximization over human health, environmental safety, clean water and nutritious food. In other words, utilitarianism is widely embraced precisely because it replaces the living, breathing, emotional and experiencing human being with the human as pleasure or profit maximizing machine; it prizes the quick technical fix over the difficult task of understanding the human condition; it valorizes thoughtless calculation over thoughtful ethical discernment and practical wisdom. Of course, you will not hear proponents speak of it in this way. Instead they will say utilitarianism is ubiquitous and valuable because it is, at heart, a truly ‘democratic’ moral principle. This bit of subterfuge is precisely, however, what renders the dark origins of what I have called ‘the moral view from nowhere’—utilitarianism—invisible. This happens the moment one begins to look at the historical origins of utilitarianism in the convergence of two very foundational theses, which derive from the 16th century figures, Galileo Galilei and Thomas Hobbes, and then situates the later within the political context of extractivist-industrialist, imperialist-colonialist expropriations of indigenous lands by various European nation-states.

The first, Galilean thesis, is that the world is discoverable and ultimately ‘knowable’ because it is just like a ‘machine’ that can be taken apart, measured and mathematicized. The second, Hobbesian thesis is that the human, just like the world, is very much like the Galilean machine that can be taken apart, measured and mathematicized. So why is this an advantage, and how does it connect up with utilitarianism? It is all too obvious: the moment you have a picture of the human being as no more than a pleasure-seeking, pain-avoiding mathematizable, measurable machine, you have all the ingredients you need in order to make numerous calculations regarding what maxims or proposed actions will best realize the most amount of pleasure and the least amount of pain for all. Of course if you have a few sociologists and behavioral psychologists on your team, even better! And if you could feed all of this data into a modern computer where human pleasure=1 and human pain=0 you would have the hit the utilitarian jack-pot—the moral life of binary machine-like beings determined by the binary machine code.

- Fred Guerin, The Magical Invisibility Cloak Utilitarianism Wears in the Age of Neoliberal Capitalism

The critique above is very important. So, excuse me for going off on one of my rants about economic theory.

RANT:
It gripes me that rightwing economists bounce people back and forth between the "greatest good for greatest number" (GG4GN) argument and the Pareto Optimality(PO) argument (that a "good" transaction is "win-win", or at least no one loses.) As I remarked in an earlier essay, the PO argument is used to fight progressive taxation. That is, it is some kind of "theft" to take a dollar away from a billionaire for whom it is not even a roundng error and give it to a poor person. That would be an un-PO transaction for the billionaire.

Well, which is it? GG4GN or PO? Once again, the answer is to redefine. Redefine GG4GN to mean GG4GN so long as it is PO.

The more of our life is forced onto the transactional internet, the more these utilitarian/PO arguments can be forced onto the user. Just don't give them any non-PO choices. Don't let them express a "value" other than monetary.
/RANT

Just FYI, I composed this entire essay while sitting on one phone queue. The idea, of course, is to discourage you from using the phone - to move you onto the transactional internet, where your request/inquiry can be deformed into the pigeonholes that are profitable.

When the end comes for this sick excuse for a society, it will start by someone shooting up a call center boiler room, instead of a school. The women who attacked YouTube is just the first of many people who, at least, are blaming the right people for our society's problems. (Of course, the poor drones who slave away in boilerrooms are proles themselves; so they are victims too. But, victims who, by horrible circumstance, have taken a miserable job just to keep their heads above water.)

Tags:

neoliberalism

utilitarianism

pareto optimality

Corporatism

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Comments

Submitted by longtalldrink on Tue, 04/17/2018 - 6:06pm

I read an article today

Regarding the 10 happiest countries on earth, and why they are so "happy". Turns out that every one of those happier countries believe in social democracy. They use the taxpayers money actually FOR the greater good, and the article specified that these happy countries consciously choose NOT to invest in their military. The article also said that the U.S.'s happy meter dropped 4 points since 2012. So, uh, looks like we are headed in the wrong direction. FYI, Russia and China's "happy" meter is in the basement, right along with Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and the Sudan.

—

Well done is better than well said-Ben Franklin

Submitted by CB on Tue, 04/17/2018 - 8:05pm

You have to be careful on how the data is used

@longtalldrink
According to the Happy Planet Index, the US ranks lower than Russia. But both are at the low end. True happiness is not the American ideal - money, money, money to buy lots of "stuff".

Here's a Ted talk that explains why.

https://www.ted.com/talks/nic_marks_the_happy_planet_index

Statistician Nic Marks asks why we measure a nation's success by its productivity -- instead of by the happiness and well-being of its people. He introduces the Happy Planet Index, which tracks national well-being against resource use (because a happy life doesn't have to cost the earth). Which countries rank highest in the HPI? You might be surprised.

Submitted by janis b on Wed, 04/18/2018 - 12:40am

Interesting talk by Nic Marks.

@CB

I really enjoyed his perspective, and especially the 5 points he related regarding how to improve individual and universal wellbeing.

My only question was in regard to his choice of highlighting Cormac McCarthy’s novel, The Road. The Road, was my favourite McCarthy novel of many I have enjoyed by the author. Yes, it is bleak in its apocalyptic vision, but in my experience the theme of the book had most to do with the power of love in these times. So maybe it was a relevant introduction.

Submitted by mimi on Wed, 04/18/2018 - 1:39am

Wanna know where the happiest Germans live?

@longtalldrink
Here's where Germany's happiest people live
See, I know how to choose... Seniors here like to dance, like folks in the US, square dance and stuff like that. It's funny for me to watch. They say dancing is a good method to fight against beginning stages of dementia. Well, we are not only happy, but smart too. There you go.

—

https://www.euronews.com/

Submitted by longtalldrink on Wed, 04/18/2018 - 9:06am

I know exactly what you mean

@mimi I once lived in Germany for 3 years. Best time of my life. Germans live like they mean it. I had grandmothers come over to visit bringing apple cakes that were delicious. (Apfelkuchen?)

—

Well done is better than well said-Ben Franklin

Submitted by arendt on Wed, 04/18/2018 - 9:50am

I recently had reason to google about German culture

@mimi

for a potential job, which I did not get after two interviews. Could you perhaps correct me if the impression I took away was wrong?

My sense is that, at work, the Germans are hyper-focused and perfectionistic. They are direct and blunt. This works very well for the companies, but it makes the workers rather self-critical.

Also, socially, the same "one right way to do it" attitude is in play. I read story after story about grocery store checkouts - bring your own bags and catch the food as fast as the checker throws it down the belt. Holding up the line is a prime sin.

My takeaway is that German public life is very regimented. My guess is that German private life is more relaxed. But this all a complete outsider's view. (I have a German friend in the US; but as an expat, he is an outlier from the culture.)

Any insight you may offer would be appreciated.

Submitted by mimi on Wed, 04/18/2018 - 12:54pm

ha, ha, you hit the nail on the head,

@arendt @arendt

interview for a potential job, which I did not get after two interviews.

I am sorry you didn't get the job, but may be it was 'a blessing'?

Could you perhaps correct me if the impression I took away was wrong?

My pleasure, especially because I have a lot of adjustment problems after 35 years in the US as an expat, and cry every night in my pillow here in Germany (before I log into the EB...)

I feel in many respect lousy about the Germany I see today, because it's too perfect. I liked the Germany of the sixties and early seventies much better. More soul, more noise, more imperfect, more humane.(at least in West=Berlin, where I lived back then for 12 years)

My sense is that, at work, the Germans are hyper-focused and perfectionistic. They are direct and blunt. This works very well for the companies, but it makes the workers rather self-critical.

True, especially the direct and blunt. Simply said, Germans can be really rude to ears that are not used to it. Germans themselves don't know anything else, so they either don't realize their own bluntness, or take it with some eyebrow raised, or if they really think someone went too far, they tell you. All in all workers are not that scared and not that easily intimidated because they can't lose their jobs that easily, especially not because of verbal 'inappropriateness' (unless you work in services service sectors and deal with customers like in banks etc).

I always shake my head, because compared to the US, I feel the Germans have it very good at their jobs. I can't get used to the way the employees are protected and yet they still complain. I rather think the workers try to catch up on fun and being lazy outside of their jobs. American workers and in general are more cheerful verbally and just more respectful in the way they interact in small things of everyday life.

Also, socially, the same "one right way to do it" attitude is in play. I read story after story about grocery store checkouts - bring your own bags and catch the food as fast as the checker throws it down the belt. Holding up the line is a prime sin.

I know what you mean, when I came to the US I remember how really amazed I was about customer friendliness at the grocery stores and their check-out procedures. What a luxury to have a person to pack the groceries in a bag for you. No hassle to be not fast enough for yourself to throw all the groceries back in your cart, no people behind you in the line getting all frustrated about you, because you are too slow. No searching in haste for a place where you could pack the bags yourself. I hate it.

And they try to make a dime with every little thing. To get a grocery cart, you have to put in a little coin worth 50 cents or an an euro. Hassle, you get the coin back when you leave the store and empty out the cart, but why the hassle to begin with, I don't know. If you need to pee, be prepared to have the coin ready, It's clean, but it costs. Your impression is absolutely right. Always have your coins ready and be prepared that often you can pay only in cash.

My takeaway is that German public life is very regimented. My guess is that German private life is more relaxed.

Yes. When I came back last year, I had the feeling Germany functions perfectly in a weird sense, like a swiss clock. It was so terribly perfect, I got scared and almost a little upset.

Using the crowded public transportation system in Hamburg just left me in awe, it works perfectly with huge crowds using them (and it has to work the crowds are overwhelming). I was not so much in awe, because I found it so great, but because everything seemed to be so overdone.

Ride the metro system (underground or above ground) and the announcer will tell you in English and in German where you are, at which side to exit the train, what will be the next station, what kind of connection trains you will have, what the tourist attractions to see there. They make the announcements as if you were in an airplane of the upper-class kind like Swiss Air, Air France or Lufthansa (not the cheap ones).

And you get all that in a frigging little metro train, which people use daily to commute to work and know by heart. You have TV monitors with the latest news headlines to look at and it's just all too perfect. In a way soul-less perfectionism. People talk very little in the trains and hang over the smart phones. Taking the bus is nicer. You can start a conversation more easily.

And everything MUST function, if not, that's just like 'completely unacceptable' and a reason to complain loudly and over and over again, even if it really doesn't do anything to bother your daily activities.

But they manage to process huge crowds of people on time and mostly without glitches. And it is not too expensive either. I can ride the whole public transportation system, all buses and trains of the larger Hamburg area (which is huge) as a senior for 63 euro a month and literally I can get everywhere with it.

So you have to admit that as positive. I don't need a car. If you are not a senior, you are are student or something else, which gives you a well priced monthly card for your transportation needs.

Germans like to complain and to whine, but at home they are usually much more willing "to allow everything to happen a little bit more humane". Our TV is much more 'relaxed' and often too 'relaxed' (nothing for the prude) not as regimented as you would think.

But this all a complete outsider's view. (I have a German friend in the US; but as an expat, he is an outlier from the culture.)

I have become a outsider to my home country, or let's say I don't know anymore which country is my home country. The only advantage I see to be in my country of birth is that I understand the people better, don't get cheated as easily as I would in the US and are a bit more trusting and understanding, if a lawyer is serious or not. For me it's hard to judge and understand Americans. Even after all these years. There you go. Oh boy, you got me talking ...

To be a little cheesy:
Home is where the heart is. I suffer from a broken heart, it breaks like a pretzel these days. So, that's it. I am looking for my home and don't know where it is. Just to make it perfectly clear.

—

https://www.euronews.com/

Submitted by arendt on Wed, 04/18/2018 - 1:57pm

Thanks for all the detail.

@mimi

I have become a outsider to my home country, or let's say I don't know anymore which country is my home country.

I feel the same way, and I never left my home country. What an overarmed, dumbed-down, overweight, celebrity-addled army of ants we have been transformed into. The US is China without the family-networks. We are coolies now, but we don't realize it.

The pretentious BS in all the so-called restaruants (Hi, I'm jody I'll be your server.) The paranoid parents who have to drive their kid ten feet to the corner. It all hides the fact that just about everyone is terrified of falling into the underclass and clings ever more tightly to the symbols of middle class life.

Hey, at least Germany functions; and they make consumer goods; and the infrastructure isn't falling apart; and they have tons of culture. Symphony orchestras everywhere. Of course, they have the Ost-Deutsch problem, which has been ?deliberately? exacerbated by the overly generous embrace of refugees (OTOH, it could have been a genuine attempt to further atone for the Nazi atrocities. I don't have enough info to decide.) But, I think that the neo-Nazi revival was jump started by the crap that was mailed in by US-based neo-nazis.

I suffer from a broken heart, it breaks like a pretzel these days.

If i added to your sadness, I apologize. This sense of displacement (worse than loneliness) is affecting so many people in so many places. I wish you well in Hamburg. (P.S. The job was in Munich, which looked terrific.)

#1.2.2 #1.2.2 interview for a potential job, which I did not get after two interviews. I am sorry you didn't get the job, but may be it was 'a blessing'? Could you perhaps correct me if the impression I took away was wrong? My pleasure, especially because I have a lot of adjustment problems after 35 years in the US as an expat, and cry every night in my pillow here in Germany (before I log into the EB...) I feel in many respect lousy about the Germany I see today, because it's too perfect. I liked the Germany of the sixties and early seventies much better. More soul, more noise, more imperfect, more humane.(at least in West=Berlin, where I lived back then for 12 years) My sense is that, at work, the Germans are hyper-focused and perfectionistic. They are direct and blunt. This works very well for the companies, but it makes the workers rather self-critical. True, especially the direct and blunt. Simply said, Germans can be really rude to ears that are not used to it. Germans themselves don't know anything else, so they either don't realize their own bluntness, or take it with some eyebrow raised, or if they really think someone went too far, they tell you. All in all workers are not that scared and not that easily intimidated because they can't lose their jobs that easily, especially not because of verbal 'inappropriateness' (unless you work in services service sectors and deal with customers like in banks etc). I always shake my head, because compared to the US, I feel the Germans have it very good at their jobs. I can't get used to the way the employees are protected and yet they still complain. I rather think the workers try to catch up on fun and being lazy outside of their jobs. American workers and in general are more cheerful verbally and just more respectful in the way they interact in small things of everyday life. Also, socially, the same "one right way to do it" attitude is in play. I read story after story about grocery store checkouts - bring your own bags and catch the food as fast as the checker throws it down the belt. Holding up the line is a prime sin. I know what you mean, when I came to the US I remember how really amazed I was about customer friendliness at the grocery stores and their check-out procedures. What a luxury to have a person to pack the groceries in a bag for you. No hassle to be not fast enough for yourself to throw all the groceries back in your cart, no people behind you in the line getting all frustrated about you, because you are too slow. No searching in haste for a place where you could pack the bags yourself. I hate it. And they try to make a dime with every little thing. To get a grocery cart, you have to put in a little coin worth 50 cents or an an euro. Hassle, you get the coin back when you leave the store and empty out the cart, but why the hassle to begin with, I don't know. If you need to pee, be prepared to have the coin ready, It's clean, but it costs. Your impression is absolutely right. Always have your coins ready and be prepared that often you can pay only in cash. My takeaway is that German public life is very regimented. My guess is that German private life is more relaxed. Yes. When I came back last year, I had the feeling Germany functions perfectly in a weird sense, like a swiss clock. It was so terribly perfect, I got scared and almost a little upset. Using the crowded public transportation system in Hamburg just left me in awe, it works perfectly with huge crowds using them (and it has to work the crowds are overwhelming). I was not so much in awe, because I found it so great, but because everything seemed to be so overdone. Ride the metro system (underground or above ground) and the announcer will tell you in English and in German where you are, at which side to exit the train, what will be the next station, what kind of connection trains you will have, what the tourist attractions to see there. They make the announcements as if you were in an airplane of the upper-class kind like Swiss Air, Air France or Lufthansa (not the cheap ones). And you get all that in a frigging little metro train, which people use daily to commute to work and know by heart. You have TV monitors with the latest news headlines to look at and it's just all too perfect. In a way soul-less perfectionism. People talk very little in the trains and hang over the smart phones. Taking the bus is nicer. You can start a conversation more easily. And everything MUST function, if not, that's just like 'completely unacceptable' and a reason to complain loudly and over and over again, even if it really doesn't do anything to bother your daily activities. But they manage to process huge crowds of people on time and mostly without glitches. And it is not too expensive either. I can ride the whole public transportation system, all buses and trains of the larger Hamburg area (which is huge) as a senior for 63 euro a month and literally I can get everywhere with it. So you have to admit that as positive. I don't need a car. If you are not a senior, you are are student or something else, which gives you a well priced monthly card for your transportation needs. Germans like to complain and to whine, but at home they are usually much more willing "to allow everything to happen a little bit more humane". Our TV is much more 'relaxed' and often too 'relaxed' (nothing for the prude) not as regimented as you would think. But this all a complete outsider's view. (I have a German friend in the US; but as an expat, he is an outlier from the culture.) I have become a outsider to my home country, or let's say I don't know anymore which country is my home country. The only advantage I see to be in my country of birth is that I understand the people better, don't get cheated as easily as I would in the US and are a bit more trusting and understanding, if a lawyer is serious or not. For me it's hard to judge and understand Americans. Even after all these years. There you go. Oh boy, you got me talking ... To be a little cheesy: Home is where the heart is. I suffer from a broken heart, it breaks like a pretzel these days. So, that's it. I am looking for my home and don't know where it is. Just to make it perfectly clear.

Submitted by mimi on Wed, 04/18/2018 - 4:10pm

no, you didn't add to my sadness, au contraire

@arendt
you gave me ample opportunity to just talk and chat, and that helps me. Here is the only place I talk on the internet. That's why I am talking too much here, but folks are very generous and patient with me here. I am grateful for it.
As for the Ost-Deutsch and Neo-Nazi or right-winger problem, that's for another time. I have no nerves for it and few clues what that is all about. I really just want to leave and not think about it.

—

https://www.euronews.com/

Submitted by Wink on Wed, 04/18/2018 - 2:16pm

I was there in the

early '70s and loved that I could simply walk the 75, 80 meters to the bus stop,
@mimi
hop on a bus that stopped there every 15-20 mins., take a 5 min. ride to the trolley car stop, which stopped there every 10-15 mins., and take that to the downtown train station, wait 10-15 mins. for the next train to Heidelberg to kill the day there, then reverse order for the way home. Worked like clockwork. I would Love to drop my $220 /mo. car payment for a $175 /mo. local / northeast corridor Pass! In a heartbeat.

#1.2.2 #1.2.2 interview for a potential job, which I did not get after two interviews. I am sorry you didn't get the job, but may be it was 'a blessing'? Could you perhaps correct me if the impression I took away was wrong? My pleasure, especially because I have a lot of adjustment problems after 35 years in the US as an expat, and cry every night in my pillow here in Germany (before I log into the EB...) I feel in many respect lousy about the Germany I see today, because it's too perfect. I liked the Germany of the sixties and early seventies much better. More soul, more noise, more imperfect, more humane.(at least in West=Berlin, where I lived back then for 12 years) My sense is that, at work, the Germans are hyper-focused and perfectionistic. They are direct and blunt. This works very well for the companies, but it makes the workers rather self-critical. True, especially the direct and blunt. Simply said, Germans can be really rude to ears that are not used to it. Germans themselves don't know anything else, so they either don't realize their own bluntness, or take it with some eyebrow raised, or if they really think someone went too far, they tell you. All in all workers are not that scared and not that easily intimidated because they can't lose their jobs that easily, especially not because of verbal 'inappropriateness' (unless you work in services service sectors and deal with customers like in banks etc). I always shake my head, because compared to the US, I feel the Germans have it very good at their jobs. I can't get used to the way the employees are protected and yet they still complain. I rather think the workers try to catch up on fun and being lazy outside of their jobs. American workers and in general are more cheerful verbally and just more respectful in the way they interact in small things of everyday life. Also, socially, the same "one right way to do it" attitude is in play. I read story after story about grocery store checkouts - bring your own bags and catch the food as fast as the checker throws it down the belt. Holding up the line is a prime sin. I know what you mean, when I came to the US I remember how really amazed I was about customer friendliness at the grocery stores and their check-out procedures. What a luxury to have a person to pack the groceries in a bag for you. No hassle to be not fast enough for yourself to throw all the groceries back in your cart, no people behind you in the line getting all frustrated about you, because you are too slow. No searching in haste for a place where you could pack the bags yourself. I hate it. And they try to make a dime with every little thing. To get a grocery cart, you have to put in a little coin worth 50 cents or an an euro. Hassle, you get the coin back when you leave the store and empty out the cart, but why the hassle to begin with, I don't know. If you need to pee, be prepared to have the coin ready, It's clean, but it costs. Your impression is absolutely right. Always have your coins ready and be prepared that often you can pay only in cash. My takeaway is that German public life is very regimented. My guess is that German private life is more relaxed. Yes. When I came back last year, I had the feeling Germany functions perfectly in a weird sense, like a swiss clock. It was so terribly perfect, I got scared and almost a little upset. Using the crowded public transportation system in Hamburg just left me in awe, it works perfectly with huge crowds using them (and it has to work the crowds are overwhelming). I was not so much in awe, because I found it so great, but because everything seemed to be so overdone. Ride the metro system (underground or above ground) and the announcer will tell you in English and in German where you are, at which side to exit the train, what will be the next station, what kind of connection trains you will have, what the tourist attractions to see there. They make the announcements as if you were in an airplane of the upper-class kind like Swiss Air, Air France or Lufthansa (not the cheap ones). And you get all that in a frigging little metro train, which people use daily to commute to work and know by heart. You have TV monitors with the latest news headlines to look at and it's just all too perfect. In a way soul-less perfectionism. People talk very little in the trains and hang over the smart phones. Taking the bus is nicer. You can start a conversation more easily. And everything MUST function, if not, that's just like 'completely unacceptable' and a reason to complain loudly and over and over again, even if it really doesn't do anything to bother your daily activities. But they manage to process huge crowds of people on time and mostly without glitches. And it is not too expensive either. I can ride the whole public transportation system, all buses and trains of the larger Hamburg area (which is huge) as a senior for 63 euro a month and literally I can get everywhere with it. So you have to admit that as positive. I don't need a car. If you are not a senior, you are are student or something else, which gives you a well priced monthly card for your transportation needs. Germans like to complain and to whine, but at home they are usually much more willing "to allow everything to happen a little bit more humane". Our TV is much more 'relaxed' and often too 'relaxed' (nothing for the prude) not as regimented as you would think. But this all a complete outsider's view. (I have a German friend in the US; but as an expat, he is an outlier from the culture.) I have become a outsider to my home country, or let's say I don't know anymore which country is my home country. The only advantage I see to be in my country of birth is that I understand the people better, don't get cheated as easily as I would in the US and are a bit more trusting and understanding, if a lawyer is serious or not. For me it's hard to judge and understand Americans. Even after all these years. There you go. Oh boy, you got me talking ... To be a little cheesy: Home is where the heart is. I suffer from a broken heart, it breaks like a pretzel these days. So, that's it. I am looking for my home and don't know where it is. Just to make it perfectly clear.

—

the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

Submitted by mimi on Wed, 04/18/2018 - 4:16pm

true, I lived in Berlin 12 years,

@Wink
without a car and with a child, full-time working and no help. I could do everything by bus and train. I think I paid 45 Deutsche Mark for a student monthly public transportation card, which covered all the trains and buses back in the late sixties and early seventies.

—

https://www.euronews.com/

Submitted by longtalldrink on Wed, 04/18/2018 - 7:31pm

I too was there in the 70's

@Wink And reading all the remarks about this "new" Germany makes me sad and dashes all my fantasies about living there again. This "new" Germany is all "perfect" and I suppose that is not good? I guess I like things with a little bit of unexpectedness also, but I just wish, wish, wish the U.S. had a "perfection" problem.

—

Well done is better than well said-Ben Franklin

Submitted by Wink on Wed, 04/18/2018 - 8:08pm

I have to say I miss

the beer.
@longtalldrink

—

the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

Submitted by Wink on Wed, 04/18/2018 - 2:26pm

Well, you prolly feel

cheated here more than there becuz this country was founded by thieves, cheats, crooks, liars and n'er do wells kicked out of Europe
@mimi
never to return again. One sort of grows up in the "System" here expecting to get ripped off.
We're rarely disappointed.

#1.2.2 #1.2.2 interview for a potential job, which I did not get after two interviews. I am sorry you didn't get the job, but may be it was 'a blessing'? Could you perhaps correct me if the impression I took away was wrong? My pleasure, especially because I have a lot of adjustment problems after 35 years in the US as an expat, and cry every night in my pillow here in Germany (before I log into the EB...) I feel in many respect lousy about the Germany I see today, because it's too perfect. I liked the Germany of the sixties and early seventies much better. More soul, more noise, more imperfect, more humane.(at least in West=Berlin, where I lived back then for 12 years) My sense is that, at work, the Germans are hyper-focused and perfectionistic. They are direct and blunt. This works very well for the companies, but it makes the workers rather self-critical. True, especially the direct and blunt. Simply said, Germans can be really rude to ears that are not used to it. Germans themselves don't know anything else, so they either don't realize their own bluntness, or take it with some eyebrow raised, or if they really think someone went too far, they tell you. All in all workers are not that scared and not that easily intimidated because they can't lose their jobs that easily, especially not because of verbal 'inappropriateness' (unless you work in services service sectors and deal with customers like in banks etc). I always shake my head, because compared to the US, I feel the Germans have it very good at their jobs. I can't get used to the way the employees are protected and yet they still complain. I rather think the workers try to catch up on fun and being lazy outside of their jobs. American workers and in general are more cheerful verbally and just more respectful in the way they interact in small things of everyday life. Also, socially, the same "one right way to do it" attitude is in play. I read story after story about grocery store checkouts - bring your own bags and catch the food as fast as the checker throws it down the belt. Holding up the line is a prime sin. I know what you mean, when I came to the US I remember how really amazed I was about customer friendliness at the grocery stores and their check-out procedures. What a luxury to have a person to pack the groceries in a bag for you. No hassle to be not fast enough for yourself to throw all the groceries back in your cart, no people behind you in the line getting all frustrated about you, because you are too slow. No searching in haste for a place where you could pack the bags yourself. I hate it. And they try to make a dime with every little thing. To get a grocery cart, you have to put in a little coin worth 50 cents or an an euro. Hassle, you get the coin back when you leave the store and empty out the cart, but why the hassle to begin with, I don't know. If you need to pee, be prepared to have the coin ready, It's clean, but it costs. Your impression is absolutely right. Always have your coins ready and be prepared that often you can pay only in cash. My takeaway is that German public life is very regimented. My guess is that German private life is more relaxed. Yes. When I came back last year, I had the feeling Germany functions perfectly in a weird sense, like a swiss clock. It was so terribly perfect, I got scared and almost a little upset. Using the crowded public transportation system in Hamburg just left me in awe, it works perfectly with huge crowds using them (and it has to work the crowds are overwhelming). I was not so much in awe, because I found it so great, but because everything seemed to be so overdone. Ride the metro system (underground or above ground) and the announcer will tell you in English and in German where you are, at which side to exit the train, what will be the next station, what kind of connection trains you will have, what the tourist attractions to see there. They make the announcements as if you were in an airplane of the upper-class kind like Swiss Air, Air France or Lufthansa (not the cheap ones). And you get all that in a frigging little metro train, which people use daily to commute to work and know by heart. You have TV monitors with the latest news headlines to look at and it's just all too perfect. In a way soul-less perfectionism. People talk very little in the trains and hang over the smart phones. Taking the bus is nicer. You can start a conversation more easily. And everything MUST function, if not, that's just like 'completely unacceptable' and a reason to complain loudly and over and over again, even if it really doesn't do anything to bother your daily activities. But they manage to process huge crowds of people on time and mostly without glitches. And it is not too expensive either. I can ride the whole public transportation system, all buses and trains of the larger Hamburg area (which is huge) as a senior for 63 euro a month and literally I can get everywhere with it. So you have to admit that as positive. I don't need a car. If you are not a senior, you are are student or something else, which gives you a well priced monthly card for your transportation needs. Germans like to complain and to whine, but at home they are usually much more willing "to allow everything to happen a little bit more humane". Our TV is much more 'relaxed' and often too 'relaxed' (nothing for the prude) not as regimented as you would think. But this all a complete outsider's view. (I have a German friend in the US; but as an expat, he is an outlier from the culture.) I have become a outsider to my home country, or let's say I don't know anymore which country is my home country. The only advantage I see to be in my country of birth is that I understand the people better, don't get cheated as easily as I would in the US and are a bit more trusting and understanding, if a lawyer is serious or not. For me it's hard to judge and understand Americans. Even after all these years. There you go. Oh boy, you got me talking ... To be a little cheesy: Home is where the heart is. I suffer from a broken heart, it breaks like a pretzel these days. So, that's it. I am looking for my home and don't know where it is. Just to make it perfectly clear.

—

the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

Submitted by mimi on Wed, 04/18/2018 - 4:26pm

no, that I don't believe, most who

@Wink
came to the US from Europe were political, economic and religious refugees. They were exploited, poor and persecuted in Europe. One of my anchestors was in debt and couldn't pay off the debt and was threatened with prison time. He rather fled to the US.

Heh, why did you say this? Did you want to test me? US gave white folks from Europe and Russia and the Jewish population, under threats of being killed and murdered from all over a safe haven and a new future and livelihood.

—

https://www.euronews.com/

Submitted by The Aspie Corner on Tue, 04/17/2018 - 7:00pm

Everything is for sale. Just as Libert-Aryans always wanted.

But Libert-Aryans are still pissed because 'Big Gubmint' still exists.

—

Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

Submitted by lizzyh7 on Tue, 04/17/2018 - 7:49pm

They NEED big government

@The Aspie Corner for them, and only them. All their utter bullshit to the contrary.

—

Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

Submitted by UntimelyRippd on Tue, 04/17/2018 - 7:56pm

who the hell wants to be in a relationship with

"someone" that you know is trying to cheat you?

this is for me one of the most mystifying aspects of commerce. "you're asking 149,900 for this condo? and that's because you know potential buyers are going to perceive that as meaningfully less than the 150K that it really is? doesn't that make you a deceitful liar, a merciless exploiter of human weakness?" and of course it does, which is exactly why we hire real estate agents, who are allowed to excuse their unethical behavior under the authority of a higher ethical obligation to their clients.

who in god's name ever responds to a radio ad that says, "the first N callers ... etc" What is wrong with someone who is willing to engage with a seller who is obviously an unethical, untrustworthy liar?

—

The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

Submitted by UntimelyRippd on Wed, 04/18/2018 - 1:55pm

i will also note that taking that dollar from the billionaire

in the form of legalized taxation is only non-PO if one fails to recognize that one obvious alternative is to drag the billionaire out onto his lawn, beat him to death, burn his house to the ground, and declare all of his [sorry, edit, wrote creditors, but meant:] debtors free of obligation.

which is something that "everybody else" has the power to do anytime they happen to decide that they're sick and tired of the billionaire's bullshit. (ref: Paris, 1789)

the fundamental problem is with people who refuse to comprehend that property and debt are indulgences that the mass of humanity have no obligation to sustain when they become non-PO from the perspective of those masses.

—

Submitted by arendt on Wed, 04/18/2018 - 9:34am

I like how you think. :-)

@UntimelyRippd

only non-PO if one fails to recognize that one obvious alternative is to drag the billionaire out onto his lawn, beat him to death, burn his house to the ground, and declare all of his creditors free of obligation.

Yes, that item is not something the oligarchs want in the vending machine, but it is there.

Submitted by QMS on Tue, 04/17/2018 - 9:11pm

Thanks Arendt

A lot of good thinking in here. Fight the data miners and market thieves. There is no value added by 'liking' some meaningless exchange of money. It is quite shallow. Yeah, they can tracebook our fritters, but the info will only support their capital nets. There are some good ones out there like purple pillows in Utah. B corps worker owned makes all kinds of good social improvements.

Submitted by Mark from Queens on Tue, 04/17/2018 - 11:11pm

We have the same kind of ruminations about the degradations

of one of the other Great Lies of Propaganda - the worship of the deity known as the "Free Market."

I thought Taibbi captured so perfectly the malaise of life lived in modern capitalist America in "The Divide," most spectacularly in the chapter called "Little Frauds." I featured that as part of an Open Thread last year. Speaks to the inhumanity of the transactional dystopia that touches almost every facet of our daily lives:

Here's a couple of passages:

What's different now is that these quaint old inequities have become internalized in that "second government" – a vast system of increasingly unmanageable bureaucracies, spanning both the public and private sectors. These inscrutable, irrational structures, crisscrossing back-and-forth between the worlds of debt and banking and law-enforcement, are growing up organically around the pounding twin impulses that drive modern America: burning hatred of all losers and the poor, and breathless, abject worship of the rich, even the talentless and undeserving rich.

No one is managing these bureaucracies anymore. They are managing us. Just as corporations are brainless machines for making profits, this sweeping the complex system of public – private bureaucracies that constitutes our modern politics is just a giant, brainless machine for creating social inequity.

A predatory system on the poor, marginalized and overworked:

What keeps the poor poor and rushes the money upward is the complexity of the bureaucracy. If you have the wrong kind of person and you get caught up in the criminal justice system, we're stuck in the welfare of bureaucracy, or mired in debt, you can't get out without navigating a maze so complex and dispiriting and irrational that it can't possibly even be mapped. It's not brains that you need to get on get through it, but time, energy, strength. You have to stand on line after line, send letter after letter, make call after call.

And if you want to change even the smallest law, and your home state or in Washington, you need an army of thousands of lobbyist to get it done. And even in the rare case that you succeed, you then need to commit to ten years or more furiously boring legal battles and inane bureaucratic rule-writing sessions and fend off tens or hundreds of thousands of pages of dissenting reports and comment letters and policy papers, all developed mechanically by an industry that responds not by human decision, but bureaucratic reflex.

On the other side of the coin, the secret to conquering the financial bureaucracy is in savvy and business sense, or the ability to spot a good entrepreneurial idea. Instead, it's pure bureaucratic force, the ability to throw 100 lawyers at every problem, to file 1000 motions and never get tired, to file ten thousand, a hundred thousand, one million lawsuits.

In other words, you need to be a bureaucracy and order to survive one. This is the overwhelming narrative of modern American economics, that the individual, particularly the individual without a lot of money, is inherently overmatched. He's a loser. And if he falls into any part of the machine, it goes straight to the bottom.

By the way, thanks for linking, in your last essay on propaganda, that concept of "exformation." I was elated to read of that and completely agree.

—

"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

Submitted by arendt on Wed, 04/18/2018 - 9:56am

Thanks for the Taibbi ref. Missed that one.

@Mark from Queens

Exformation is a cool concept. The Norretranders' book "The User Illusion", which created the word, is a fantastic popularized read about brains, consciousness, and information theory.

Brain science has advanced immensely in the last twenty years; but in the popular mind, its just pretty pictures of MRI scans. I wish that one of these psuedo-science shows on TV would tackle the brain in a non-superficial way. They could talk about the "default mode network" (what parts of the brain are active when you are doing nothing - interestingly correlated with regions that fail first in Alzheimer's), small-world networks (how the regions are interconnected), what are the determinants of consciousness (global workspace theory, especially the "masking" experiments done by Dehaene)...

of one of the other Great Lies of Propaganda - the worship of the deity known as the "Free Market." I thought Taibbi captured so perfectly the malaise of life lived in modern capitalist America in "The Divide," most spectacularly in the chapter called "Little Frauds." I featured that as part of an Open Thread last year. Speaks to the inhumanity of the transactional dystopia that touches almost every facet of our daily lives: Here's a couple of passages: What's different now is that these quaint old inequities have become internalized in that "second government" – a vast system of increasingly unmanageable bureaucracies, spanning both the public and private sectors. These inscrutable, irrational structures, crisscrossing back-and-forth between the worlds of debt and banking and law-enforcement, are growing up organically around the pounding twin impulses that drive modern America: burning hatred of all losers and the poor, and breathless, abject worship of the rich, even the talentless and undeserving rich. No one is managing these bureaucracies anymore. They are managing us. Just as corporations are brainless machines for making profits, this sweeping the complex system of public – private bureaucracies that constitutes our modern politics is just a giant, brainless machine for creating social inequity. A predatory system on the poor, marginalized and overworked: What keeps the poor poor and rushes the money upward is the complexity of the bureaucracy. If you have the wrong kind of person and you get caught up in the criminal justice system, we're stuck in the welfare of bureaucracy, or mired in debt, you can't get out without navigating a maze so complex and dispiriting and irrational that it can't possibly even be mapped. It's not brains that you need to get on get through it, but time, energy, strength. You have to stand on line after line, send letter after letter, make call after call. And if you want to change even the smallest law, and your home state or in Washington, you need an army of thousands of lobbyist to get it done. And even in the rare case that you succeed, you then need to commit to ten years or more furiously boring legal battles and inane bureaucratic rule-writing sessions and fend off tens or hundreds of thousands of pages of dissenting reports and comment letters and policy papers, all developed mechanically by an industry that responds not by human decision, but bureaucratic reflex. On the other side of the coin, the secret to conquering the financial bureaucracy is in savvy and business sense, or the ability to spot a good entrepreneurial idea. Instead, it's pure bureaucratic force, the ability to throw 100 lawyers at every problem, to file 1000 motions and never get tired, to file ten thousand, a hundred thousand, one million lawsuits. In other words, you need to be a bureaucracy and order to survive one. This is the overwhelming narrative of modern American economics, that the individual, particularly the individual without a lot of money, is inherently overmatched. He's a loser. And if he falls into any part of the machine, it goes straight to the bottom. By the way, thanks for linking, in your last essay on propaganda, that concept of "exformation." I was elated to read of that and completely agree.

Submitted by earthling1 on Tue, 04/17/2018 - 11:42pm

I've taken to overmining

When asked my phone number at the checkout line I give a fake one.
When asked for a email address, fake. Street address, I give the neighborhood a**holes address.
Even when using cash they will sometimes ask for a name, and its always some movie star or a fake.
If everybody gave fake info it would make their data mining worthless.

—

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by arendt on Wed, 04/18/2018 - 9:38am

Mrs. Arendt does that...

@earthling1

she goes to the same place for coffee, and they keep asking for a name for the order. Every day she gives a different name, pays cash. Its a good idea.

You know the databases have to be full of dreck at this point. Unless GAF are running massive AI-driven merge programs, they probably have you living in bigamy. But that doesn't stop the flood of advertising.

Submitted by janis b on Tue, 04/17/2018 - 11:58pm

Yours is an interesting and perceptive observation

as a result of something so tedious as waiting on line to communicate with a soul-less system.

I heard a radio interview on my way out this morning with comedian James Veitch. He very cleverly presents strategies for relating to faceless corporations (as well as online criminal activity) that we inevitably at times must confront.

Maybe we could be more creative in our 'relationship' with faceless corporations and tedious bureaucracy since they're probably here to stay.

[video:https://youtu.be/J3MAv5LuMfU]

Submitted by Wink on Wed, 04/18/2018 - 8:07am

bing! Great post into

the minds of the heartless futhermuckers who run this place!
It's not just Ayn Randian brute greed that rules their compass.
They operate on some whacked out equation that "greed is good."

—

the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

Submitted by dkmich on Wed, 04/18/2018 - 8:42am

soul less is only the beginning

Don't ever forget how much of a favor they are doing you by being willing to take your money in return for whatever crap they're pushing.

neoliberal ideology renders all relationships transactional, and all community monetarily determined and market-defined

Really says a mouthful.

—

"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Submitted by arendt on Wed, 04/18/2018 - 10:04am

People simply do not understand the neoliberal agenda

@dkmich

The agenda is to destroy democracy and replace it with a market for everything. Everything for sale. Your vote, your health, your sanity, your children. No government preventing child labor or slave labor(already achieved that with private prisons), selling your organs for a profit, etc.

There is a huge propaganda campaign underway to convince the sheeple that "neoliberal" is nothing more than a curse word invented by snowflake liberals to be used against anything they don't like. Identity Politics fake-liberals help that propaganda campaign by doing exactly what the propaganda meme says.

In reality, neoliberalism is a sneaky, decades long, shape-shifting assault on the middle class democracies put in place after WW2. They are well on their way to mutating the government. They have neutered the legislature, and made it subservient to lobbyists. They have enlarged the anti-democratic imperial executive. And, they have stuffed the judicial branch full of "natural law", Federalist Society monsters, like Gorsuch.

The democracy is 90% of the way to being murdered and the populace hasn't even got a clue who is doing it.

Submitted by travelerxxx on Wed, 04/18/2018 - 2:05pm

The Cliff Notes version

@arendt

In an attempt to simplify matters in day-to-day living, I've condensed this entire topic in my mind and attempt to live by this rule: Be a citizen rather than a consumer.

Now, the neo-liberals hate this as they want exactly the opposite. Often I fail in regard to my own mantra, but I try. Further, I attempt to persuade others to join me. I have varying degrees of success with this persuasion, finding that the more wealthy are the least likely to advance the idea of citizenship and community. Perhaps it's always been this way, but it seems more acute as of late.

Submitted by Snode on Wed, 04/18/2018 - 5:15pm

This all started in earnest

@arendt about the time Eisenhower gave his warning. This is so depressing because with all the data floating around on us for sale there is no real way to drop out. It's like we have the "capitalist flu" and the doctors are more concerned with preserving the disease than us, and we're all infected. In my flitting around different "economic experts" and economists, very few touch on citizens other than as profit centers or labor, the anti profit center, I guess. No real mention of the well being of the citizens or the nation, or what this money transfer machine is good for. So we have a system that boils down to worshiping an mutant accounting system, and every day it demands more tribute. All that counts is what's in your wallet.

Submitted by mimi on Wed, 04/18/2018 - 4:44pm

Shame is that no one is strong enough to boycott the internet

The more of our life is forced onto the transactional internet, the more these utilitarian/PO arguments can be forced onto the user. Just don't give them any non-PO choices. Don't let them express a "value" other than monetary.

The boycott has to start by NOT engaging in any monetary transactions over the internet. It's hopeless, but it's necessary. I just saw a piece on German TV, how local regional online shopping platforms develop in Germany to fight against amazon.com's worldwide destructive, oppressive, exploiting, imposing shopping platform. Amazon.com must be destroyed. Seriously, it has destroyed all individual businesses world wide and there needs to be a boomerang coming back at them and knock them out. It's the most disgusting business model one can imagine. Mr. Bezos is my favorite asshole.
Boycott isn't even enough.

—

https://www.euronews.com/