Auto-immunity in the polis and AtD, p.868 "an expression of communal will"

[Mark Kohut]

Well,
   
  I like it. 
   
  why small-business capitalism, with social safety nets and all, might be good, whereas, corporate capitalism is too excessive, many 'liberals' believe....(most left-of-liberals also).
   
  why 'town hall' arguments by citizens, even if fierce and too personal, are somehow sportsmanlike, human polis-centered, rather than when decisions (for a community) are
  rammed through by lawyers and lawmakers behind the scenes.
   
  why the 'competition' for nature's resources by animals IS competitive, sometimes 'red in tooth and claw' but sometimes very cooperative, very sportsmanlike, very like a polis in poise.....
   
  Power in a polis?.....Ha(l)ving it?..........................
  Yes, overthrowing an evil-doing polis usually corrupts, (or, is done by the mirroring evil-doers)..............................
   
  p. 868 How do you see this in the light of AtD, p. 868...."some..will never understand how 'power'--
  lo stato--could have been an expression of communal will"....."in which penance must be a
  necessary term".....????

Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
  Mark Kohut wrote:
> Michael Bailey wrote:
>
> passing thought:
> (excessive) competition is the auto-immune disease of the polis ?????

> Wow, please elaborate--i.e. reduce its meaning from this maybe brilliant
> aphorism---to something
> I can "get".......if you can.

a) typical liberal anti-competitive bias on my part
(part sour grapes, part real preference for co-operative behaviors)

b) to the extent that there is a polis, a "common wealth",
we are all members one of another (naturally I'm snickering
at the Beavis 'n' Butthead implications of that, but also thinking
of John Donne's bell tolling for the losers, which includes the winners,
who I think were Jesus's target demographic in naming us as
"poor, miserable, blind and naked")

c) reasonable competition allows the development of
sportspersonship; excessive competition encourages
maximization instead of optimization, thoughtless and
inconsiderate behavior...decadence...stealing elections,
that sort of thing...

d) this all ties into Bodin (equating him with Pig Bodine
is a particular hobbyhorse of mine), the theologian and
witch-burner who made what I hail as a good point in
discouraging revolutions because social progresss depends
on political stability (simply put, in order to oust the evildoers,
one must become even more adept at doing evil, and then
when one achieves power, one's habits don't conduce to doing good.
Better far to immediately practice peace and soften the harsh regime.)

e) however, this really was a passing point (though thanks
for awarding it provisional brilliance - a status it may well
lose after this gloss) amid my explication of the Vlado-Yashmeen
whirlwind romance. I have one more long (not onerously long, I hope)
post in me on that: it has quite thrilled me. I know the whole
book is probably put together just as finely, but even in Pynchon,
knowing it's all good, sometimes a passage or section just shines.


       
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