View of humans
The Great Quail
quail at libyrinth.com
Mon Jun 23 10:03:00 CDT 2003
> In the end the hippies were just humans, like everyone else bound to error
> and failure. It's just an ideology but what makes "socialism" more
> sympathetic than every other ideology is that it has a generally positive
> view of humans, contrary to capitalism that sees humans only as part of the
> production line & as consumers and fascism that sees humans as generally bad
> & egoistic who must be terrorised to serve the state.
Well, you ascribe views to these ideologies that show your own biases, of
course. A much more sympathetic case could be made for capitalism, and
probably even fascism! Let alone the untenable elements latent in pure,
hippie socialism.
While I certainly am not sympathetic to fascism, I do think that capitalism
has something to do -- in theory -- with the worth of the individual, with
rewarding ingenuity and enterprise and talent. It's not all a view of humans
as cogs-in-the-machine! ;)
(And, yes, of course all ideologies become tainted and distorted through
mass practice and the abuse of power and privilege. I am not defending
sweatshops, Microsoft, or Starbucks here, and I doubt you are defending
Nazis, Maoists, Stalinists, Leninists, et al.)
Respectfully,
--Quail
More information about the Pynchon-l
mailing list