Re: Liberal vs. social democracy

From: <HealantHenry@xxxxxxx>
To: <heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2003 1:10 AM
Subject: Re: Liberal vs. social democracy


> >How do or did you describe this driving 
> >power? 
> 
> Very incompetently, obviously.
> It is what I read in Heidegger's texts
> on calculation and efficiency. 
> The driving power of our time is this 
> total mobilization of all beings toward 
> some arbitrary end that looks like inventory 
> or standing reserve, which is also an 
> exclusively quantifiable
> interpretation of all beings. 
 
Henry, 

Are you referring to the kind of aletheuein 
that comes with techne?

> This means that language closes 
> down to the quantified, and that which 
> is given is revealed only in terms 
> of calculation and efficiency.
 
Isn't there far more to the discoveries of
techne than the language of calculation 
and efficiency? 

In his days Taylor wanted us all to believe 
that this was the true language of techne       
but what about art and techne? About 
Heidegger lists? About National Geographic
(- when I was a kid I looked for hours in 
books with black and white pictures of
exotic animals and plants and trees)?     
 
> >What is driving us? Why is it 
> >first and foremost a corporate power? And
> 
> Henk, I am not sure it is that social institution 
> known as the corporation, per se.  But the 
> character of the corporation, perhaps 
> its essential being appears to me to be 
> defined by calculation and efficiency.  

> The power, then, is that all beings are 
> coming under the sway of this determination.
> Other institutions take on the character of 
> the corporation hewing down there  
> determinations of the things that are 
> dealt with more and more exclusively in 
> terms of calculation and efficiency.

This may have been so till the second world
war. 

These days most companies are selling 
services to clients. My bank has never 
before been so attentive to my personal 
needs. 
I am looking all over the world for one 
CD that is long out of print - and I am 
sure that I will find one day someone 
who does sell it.

If I were to think in quantitative terms,
I would call it an overdoses ... even in
terms of art and philosophy. 
There are more artists making more works
of art in the world than ever before and 
although I once made an attempt, I don't 
even try anymore to keep note of the 
latest publications on Heidegger.     

> >how does this power drive us to look at 
> >ourselves and the world in the way we do? 
> 
> That is the heaviest concern. 
> Cheapness and efficiency of valuation?
> More importantly, the growing cheapness and 
> efficiency of concern?
 
The fact that we may discuss the consequences 
of techne as a kind of aletheuein is cheap 
nor efficient. The same goes for the fact 
that I can visit my grandchildren whenever I 
feel like it. 

In other words, I don't see how I am driven 
by a power. I only see how new worlds are 
opened up - waiting for me.  

Of course, there is the EU making laws  I 
don't care about (and others I do), ... 
there is the way B&B are operating in general, 
and in particular in the Middle East, there 
is ...
there are Enron, Albert Heyn, Halliburton, 
Shell, derailing not because of efficiency 
and cheapness of concern in general but 
because of greed, arrogance and incompetence 
of individuals ...

> thanks
> and kindest regards,
> henry
> 
Good to hear from you again, Henry!

Henk



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