From: Matt Kundert (pirsigaffliction@hotmail.com)
Date: Thu Dec 01 2005 - 18:39:40 GMT
gav said:
poverty can't exist if you know yourself. poverty of the soul is the root
of all poverty. know thyself bro, as a kiwi socrates would have said.
Matt:
That's exactly the kind of Platonic conception of the self that I think we
should avoid, one that I think Anthony would also suggest we avoid (at least
his comment earlier didn't quite imply something that drastic). I think it
a very bad idea to suggest, for instance, that slavery occured because
African-Americans didn't know themselves. That racism occurs because people
don't know themselves well enough, that something deep down in themselves
would tell them not to be racist. I think it much more plausible to say
that getting to know your fellow human beings is more important to ending
racism then getting to know yourself. I think there are institutional
reasons for a lot of poverty and I don't think its the case that all people
need to do is look inside to see the truth, and then they'd decide to
eliminate some of the systemic problems. I think they need to look outside,
at the ghettos, or read books like Kotlowitz's There Are No Children Here,
Kozol's Savage Inequalities, or Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed. I think
people for the most part need to have some basic comforts before they can
know themselves, in any sense of the idea.
Matt
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