From Free Life, Issue 20, August 1994
ISSN: 0260 5112

Rescue Hypothesis

Another desperate rescue hypothesis concerning the collapse of Soviet socialism from the redoubt of political correctness, The Times Higher Education Supplement:

"The totalitarian model insisted, and still insists, on seeing the Soviet Union as an ideology in power, whereas the less pretentious and more revealing work of plain historians has shown that from the time of Stalin, if not before, the country was being run on an ad-hoc basis that conformed to the demands of a despotic autocracy with no interest in Marxist ideology ... the quasi-fascistic characteristics of Leninism do not vitiate the ideas of Marxism, communism or socialism."

John Murray (Lecturer in Russian Studies, Trinity College, Dublin), "An Empire and Its Attendants", Times Higher Education Supplement, 8th October, 1993, p. 29.

All Nazis Now

More ominously familiar sentiments from the groves of academe:

"Talk of capitalism versus communism, or the free market versus the planned economy now looks pointless. Commentators are looking for a "third way", a new type of social corporatism which takes compromise for granted and is committed to achieving a blend which had been thought immiscible ...

If communism is dead, then so, surely, is untravelled capitalism. From junk bonds to pit closures, the signs are clear that profit and loss accounts and the tyranny of the balance sheet society do not even begin to tell the story. We now need to-talk of different types of capitalism, how they might evolve, where their strengths lie, and how serious are their weaknesses ... This kind of exercise is, at present, . This kind of exercise is, at present, more easily carried out in departments which, unlike economics, have developed the healthily reflexive instinct of self-doubt, which have become accustomed to methodological uncertainty and which star from observation of the real world ...

(It) is precisely in Japan where one can start stripping away at the moribund models of human motivation which have proved so obstructive in the intellectual evolution of economics. For impressive as that country's performance is, there is strong empirical evidence that it is the departure from self-interested behaviour, the cultural imperatives of duty, loyalty and good will, which have contributed so strongly to industrial success. It is arguably in the downfall of the rational, self-interested consumer and the crude profit-maximising producer that the future of economics lies. If the alternatives to capitalism are defunct, Jet us now turn to the alternatives within capitalism and seek to understand more thoroughly their moral foundations.

"Editorial", Times Higher Education Supplement, 29th January, 1993, p. 12.

The Dangers of Literacy

A fascinating blending of politically correct psycho-babble with "feminism", in, of course, The Guardian:

"'Reading is one way in which children learn about social organi- sation,' says Dr Kimberley Reynolds of the newly opened Children's Literature Research Centre at London's Roehampton Institute. 'Fiction makes sense of what the child can't understand. What it can't deal with in its own life (because it's too close) is disguised inside books in a safe way, helping the child fictionally resolve conflicts. Boys who read a lot of fiction are, working towards a 'feminine' resolution of the problem of separating from their parents - which means their development is achieved relationally with an emphasis on affective relationships and nurturing. They will be well-rounded, mature characters, less interested in aggression and mastery.'

Girls' failure, on the whole, to separate from their parents may account for their greater propensity to read and to read fiction almost exclusively. 'If one of the goals of contemporary society is to promote equal opportunities', says Dr. Reynolds, 'then a commonality of reading experience between the sexes is something we should work towards'.

American children's author Robert Lipsyte, says, 'Boys have to learn what girls already know, that a book is something you can make into a cave - and that you can crawl into the cave, explore it, find out what's in it and what's in you. A book is a secret place in which you can find your own secret places'".

Sonia Leach, "Story Bored", The Guardian, 9th March, 1993, Section 2, p. 13.

Thatcher's Legacy

The continuing horror of the legacy of the Thatcher regime movingly exposed by a letter writer to the Manchester Evening News:

"Some of the causes of violence must be laid at the door of young women. During the Thatcher years it became common for women to chose men who were aggressive, macho money mad or had power. They continued to treat badly men who were poor, gentle, kind and caring".

"Male Socialist", Letters, The Manchester Evening News, circa February 1994.

This is One I'd Like to See

Transsexuals unable to raise the money for, or persuade the NHS to fund, their sex change operation, should be made aware of the wonders of "social constructionism". No muss, no fuss, no nasty scalpels, just call for a sociologist and socially construct your "gender":

"(We) cannot say what men or women are really like, in any culturally innocent sense, for gender is always, even in the realm of biology, a cultural matter".

Publishers flyer for Maryon McDonald, ed., Gender, Drink and Drugs, Berg Publishers, Oxford, 1994.

Is there a Sociologist in the house?

Comic Relief

The onward march of vicious right wing ideas into the world of comics is exposed by a vigilant comic fan:

"The character of the Batman has been abused in recent years by

people with unsavoury hidden agendas. Frank Miller and friends

have simply been using the character to promote right-wing ideas, and to reinforce the selfish, socially blinkered, uncompassionate

and totally ruthless attitudes that were fashionable in the Eighties but are looking increasingly out of date now ....

The Batman of the modern comics certainly has his fans, but these fall into two broad groups of misguided people: pretentious intellectuals who insist on reading highfalutin messages into pulp fiction and males under 30 who fervently believe in all the selfish ideas and the bombastic, emotionally stunted heroes of the Eighties, epitomised by the type of brainless movie characters played by people like Stallone and Schwarzeneggar.

Both these groups are people who should not really be reading superhero comics, because the genre in its uncorrupted form has nothing to offer them. Nothing that they would like, anyway. Not until the day they see sense and change their tastes and stop believing that violence is the only solution and that a guy who carries a big gun has a big dick, too. The relationship between the two is usually inverse.

Elizabeth Kaspar, "Azrael and O'Neill: The Brute and the Hypo- crite", Comics International, No. 34, August 1993, p. 58.

Oh Yeah?

Of course, one may say anything, but demonstrating one's ignorance of the views of both Hayek and the so-called Manchester School, is not a good basis for such obiter dicta (not supported by any further arguments) as the following: p. 84:

"Leaving aside the metasociological abstractions of 'capitalism' and 'socialism', we may say that a pure market economy without state intervention, after the manner of Manchester or Hayekian liberalism, does not, and cannot exist. All economies are in some measure 'mixed'; the real question is one of dosages between state control and market freedom".

Professor Martin Malia, "Another Weimar?", Times Literary Supplement, 23rd February, 1994, p. 3.

Flying Carpets, No Doubt

Further revelations on the all-pervasive nature of Western ra- cism:

"The cornerstone of the ideology of science is the 'scientific method', which is supposed to ensure neutrality and objectivity by following a strict logic - observation, experimentation, deduction and value-free conclusion. But scientists do not 'discover' the laws of nature - rather they manufacture them. Observations are tailor-made to fit a theory, and the theories themselves emerge from a set of beliefs and dogmas that are prevalent at a given time. Subjectivity and cultural concerns are thus part and parcel of the scientific enterprise.

But it is not just in its institutions and method that science is biased against non-Western cultures. Indian scientists have begun to argue that certain laws of science are formulated in a racist way. A detailed examination of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, central to classical physics, led the Indian physicist C. V. Seshadri to conclude that it is 'ethnocentric'. Seshadri charges that because of its industrial origins the Second Law defines efficiency in a way that favours high temperatures and the allocation of resources to big industry. Work done at ordinary temperatures is by definition inefficient. Seshadri points out that both nature and the non-Western world are losers in this definition. For example, the monsoon, transporting millions of tons of water across a subcontinent, is 'inefficient' since it works at ordinary temperatures. Similarly, traditions crafts and technologies are designated inefficient, and thus marginalised.

Non-Western cultures need to revive their own unique sciences based on their own particular perceptions of nature and reality. If the Islamic, Chinese and Indian traditions could scale such heights of scientific endeavour in history, there is nothing that says they cannot be 'rediscovered' and prove equally valuable for our time. The past few years have seen the emergence of a worldwide movement for the revival of 'indigenous knowledge'.

This movement aims to rediscover scientific knowledge which, during colonialism, was either outlawed or simply written off."

Ziauddin Sradar, "Zero Didn't Come From Nowhere", The Indepen- dent, 21st March, 1994, p. 16.

You Say Tomato...

Lit Crit & Theory professor Michael Sprinkler of the State Uni- versity of New York at Stoneybrook continues to plug the old Marxist apologetics about communism's "opposition" to fascism:

"[Paul] de Man's unwillingness to commit himself to the major political tendency that historically opposed fascism systematic- ally, communism, exacted a heavy price."

Michael Sprinkler, "Subversive Ironies", Times Literary Supple- ment, 24th December, 1993, p. 19.