From: Kevin (kevin@xap.com)
Date: Mon Feb 10 2003 - 21:00:13 GMT
Platt quotes various sources:
RORTY:
"The best rebuttal to this suggestion is Oscar Wilde's "The soul of man
under socialism". The message of that essay parallels those of Mill's
On Liberty and of Rawls' A Theory of Justice. It is that the only point
of
getting rid of the priests and the kings, of setting up democratic
governments, of taking from each according to her abilities and giving
to
each according to her needs, and of thereby creating the Good Global
Society, is to make it possible for people to lead the sort of lives
they
prefer, as long as their doing so does not diminish the opportunities of
other humans to do the same thing." (The Decline of Redemptive Truth
and the Rise of Literary Culture)
KARL MARX
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."
OSCAR WILDE
"Socialism, Communism, or whatever one chooses to call it, by
converting private property into public wealth, and substituting co-
operation for competition, will restore society to its proper condition
of a
thoroughly healthy organism, and insure the material well being of each
member of the community. (the soul of man under socialism)
COMMUNIST MANIFESTO
"In one word, you reproach us with intending to do away with your
property. Precisely so; that is just what we intend."
Platt concludes:
Will leftist intellectuals like Rorty ever learn? If not from Pirsig, at
least
from the millions of slaughtered dissidents rotting in unmarked graves
in
Eastern Europe, Russia, Cambodia, Cuba, China, Vietnam and North
Korea?
Kevin:
You seem to have completely misread the Rorty quote. Not only drawn it
out of context, but completely ignored it's content as well.
As to context, Rorty is speaking to the claim that his idea of a
Literary Culture would be inherently decadent and "a culture of languid
and self-involved aesthetes". He points out several authors who would
demonstrate that it is not necessary for society to be based on uniform
ideas of Foundational Morality in order to achieve a utopia. Namely,
Wilde, Mill, and Rawls. Now reread the quotation from Rorty and you see
that he is saying that the point of each of these positions comes to a
similar conclusion. Namely, the point of each approach (Wilde, Mill or
Rawls) is the same goal--The Good Global Society.
In other words, we need not divine the Ultimate Answer To Life, The
Universe And Everything in order to work towards making an ideal society
for ourselves. In fact, arguing over the Ultimate Answer (as the
foundation for such a society) is probably the Ultimate Obstacle to
building such a society for ourselves.
Rorty:
"For we humans need not agree about the Nature or the End of Man in
order to help facilitate our neighbor's ability to act on her own
convictions on these matters, just so long as those actions do not
interfere with our freedom to act on our own convictions."
So the true goal of our effort towards a Good Global Society is "to make
it possible for people to lead the sort of lives they prefer, as long as
their doing so does not diminish the opportunities of other humans to do
the same thing" and a common agreement on Metaphysics isn't necessary to
achieve this.
Later on in the essay, Rorty also says:
"In utopia, the religious or philosophical need to live up to the
non-human, and the need of the literary intellectuals to explore the
present limits of the human imagination will be viewed as matters of
taste. They will be viewed by non-intellectuals in the same relaxed,
tolerant and uncomprehending way that we presently regard our neighbor's
obsession with birdwatching, or macrame, or collecting hubcaps, or
discovering the secrets of the Great Pyramid."
Insidious isn't it? All that Liberty and Individualism....
I suspect that Platt suffers from apoplectic rage whenever he notices
certain words within a conversation (socialism, communism, Marx, etc)
and simply refuses to see how these terms are being used to illustrate a
larger point. Even when they are in the same sentence that praises
"setting up democratic governments".
Will yellow-dog Right Wingers ever learn? If not from Rorty or Pirsig,
at least from the millions living in peace and prosperity in Canada,
France, Germany, Scandinavia, Switzerland, etc...
At any rate, I hope anyone curious will read the Rorty essay in
question. It's a wonderful argument for not waiting for the Ultimate
Answer before we begin to build a better society for ourselves. In
short, it's a call to "practicality" and "action" rather than debate,
much like Mari and others have been making.
-Kevin
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