Liberals are killing art

[alice malice]

Here it is:

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of such scholarly work is the way
in which the rhetoric of the behavioral sciences is used to lend a
vague aura of respectability. One might construct some such chain of
associations as this. Science, as everyone knows, is responsible,
moderate, unsentimental, and otherwise good. Behavioral science tells
us that we can be concerned only with behavior and control of
behavior. Therefore we should be concerned only with behavior and
control of behavior; and it is responsible, moderate, unsentimental,
and otherwise good to control behavior by appropriately applied reward
and punishment. Concern for loyalties and attitudes is emotional and
unscientific. As rational men, believers in the scientific ethic, we
should be concerned with manipulating behavior in a desirable
direction, and not be deluded by mystical notions of freedom,
individual needs, or popular will.

Let me make clear that I am not criticizing the behavioral sciences
because they lend themselves to such perversion. On other grounds, the
"behavioral persuasion" seems to me to lack merit; it seriously
mistakes the method of science and imposes pointless methodological
strictures on the study of man and society, but this is another matter
entirely. It is, however, fair to inquire to what extent the
popularity of this approach is based on its demonstrated achievements,
and to what extent on the ease with which it can be refashioned as a
new coercive ideology with a faintly scientific tone. In passing, I
think it is worth mentioning that the same questions can be raised
outside politics, specifically in connection with education and
therapy.

Applied social science of the sort I have been discussing plays a dual
role in counterrevolutionary efforts:

http://www.chomsky.info/articles/19690102.htm

On Wed, Aug 6, 2014 at 1:36 PM, alice malice <alicewmalice at gmail.com> wrote:
> Right. The term has always been fairly useless. Nevertheless, here is
> Chomsky talking of the Liberal Intellectual, the Professional...common
> enough in our day...all around us with their menacing middlebrow
> disguises, their  pedantic views on the environment, the health care
> crisis, the Fox TV conspiracy....
>
> On Wed, Aug 6, 2014 at 10:43 AM, Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I guess I have no idea what a 'liberal' is after all. Like 'conservative',
>> it seems to be merely a jingoistic label.
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Aug 6, 2014 at 7:18 AM, alice malice <alicewmalice at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118958/liberals-are-killing-art-insisting-its-always-political
>>> -
>>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>>
>>
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l