Forward to the Past - Feudalism and Communism

Written by Sam Vaknin


Continued from page 1

Communism should be well distinguished from Marxism. Still, it is ironic that even Marx's "scientific materialism" has an equivalent inrepparttar twilight times of feudalism. The eleventh and twelfth centuries witnessed a concerted effort by medieval scholars to apply "scientific" principles and human knowledge torepparttar 132663 solution of social problems. The historian R. W. Southern called this period "scientific humanism" (in "Flesh and Stone" by Richard Sennett, London, Faber and Faber, 1994). We mentioned John of Salisbury's "Policraticus". It was an effort to map political functions and interactions into their human physiological equivalents. The king, for instance, wasrepparttar 132664 brain ofrepparttar 132665 body politic. Merchants and bankers wererepparttar 132666 insatiable stomach. But this apparently simplistic analogy masked a schismatic debate. Should a person's position in life be determined by his political affiliation and "natural" place inrepparttar 132667 order of things - or should it berepparttar 132668 result of his capacities and their exercise (merit)? Dorepparttar 132669 ever changing contents ofrepparttar 132670 economic "stomach", its kaleidoscopic innovativeness, its "permanent revolution" and its propensity to assume "irrational" risks - adversely affect this natural order which, after all, is based on tradition and routine? In short: is there an inherent incompatibility betweenrepparttar 132671 order ofrepparttar 132672 world (read:repparttar 132673 church doctrine) and meritocratic (democratic) capitalism? Could Thomas Aquinas' "Summa Theologica" (the world asrepparttar 132674 body of Christ) be reconciled with "Stadt Luft Macht Frei" ("city air liberates" -repparttar 132675 sign aboverepparttar 132676 gates ofrepparttar 132677 cities ofrepparttar 132678 Hanseatic League)?

This isrepparttar 132679 eternal tension betweenrepparttar 132680 individual andrepparttar 132681 group. Individualism and communism are not new to history and they have always been in conflict. To comparerepparttar 132682 communist party torepparttar 132683 church is a well-worn cliché. Both religions -repparttar 132684 secular andrepparttar 132685 divine - were threatened byrepparttar 132686 spirit of freedom and initiative embodied in urban culture, commerce and finance. The order they sought to establish, propagate and perpetuate conflicted with basic human drives and desires. Communism was a throwback torepparttar 132687 days beforerepparttar 132688 ascent ofrepparttar 132689 urbane, capitalistic, sophisticated, incredulous, individualistic and risqué West. it sought to substitute one kind of "scientific" determinism (the body politic of Christ) by another (the body politic of "the Proletariat"). It failed and when it unravelled, it revealed a landscape of toxic devastation, frozen in time, an ossified natural order bereft of content and adherents. The post-communist countries have to pick up where it left them, centuries ago. It is not so much a problem of lacking infrastructure as it is an issue of pathologized minds, not so much a matter ofrepparttar 132690 body as a dysfunction ofrepparttar 132691 psyche.

The historian Walter Ullman says that John of Salisbury thought (850 years ago) that "the individual's standing within society... (should be) based upon his office or his official function ... (the greater this function was)repparttar 132692 more scope it had,repparttar 132693 weightier it was,repparttar 132694 more rightsrepparttar 132695 individual had." (Walter Ullman, "The Individual and Society inrepparttar 132696 Middle Ages", Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1966). I cannot conceive of a member ofrepparttar 132697 communist nomenklatura who would not have adopted this formula wholeheartedly. If modern capitalism can be described as "back torepparttar 132698 future", communism was surely "forward torepparttar 132699 past'.



Sam Vaknin is the author of Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West Lost the East. He is a columnist for Central Europe Review, United Press International (UPI) and eBookWeb and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory, Suite101 and searcheurope.com.

Visit Sam's Web site at http://samvak.tripod.com




The Dismal Mind - Economics as a Pretension to Science - Part II

Written by Sam Vaknin


Continued from page 1

Narratives in economics offer an organizing principle, a sense of order and ensuing justice, of an inexorable drive toward well defined (though, perhaps, hidden) goals,repparttar ubiquity of meaning, being part of a whole. They strive to answerrepparttar 132661 "why’s" and "how’s". They are dialogic and prescriptive (=provide behavioural prescriptions). The client (let's say, a politician) asks: "Why am I (and here follows an economic problem or behaviour". Then,repparttar 132662 narrative is spun: "The situation is like this not becauserepparttar 132663 world is whimsically cruel but because...and if you were to do this or thatrepparttar 132664 situation is bound to improve". The client is calmed byrepparttar 132665 very fact that there is an explanation to that which until now bothered him, that there is hope and - providing he followsrepparttar 132666 prescriptions - he cannot be held responsible for a possible failure, that there is who or what to blame (focussing diffused anger is a very policy instrument) and, that, therefore, his belief in order, justice and their administration by some supreme, transcendental principle is restored. This sense of "law and order" is further enhanced whenrepparttar 132667 narrative yields predictions which come true (either because they are self-fulfilling or because some real "law"- really, a pattern - has been discovered).

IV. Current Problems in Economics

Neo-classical economics has failed on several fronts simultaneously. This multiple failure led to despair andrepparttar 132668 re-examination of basic percepts and tenets:

1. The Treatment of Government

Government was accorded a special status and special treatment in economic theory (unlike other actors and agents). It was alternatively cast as a saint (seeking to selflessly maximize social welfare) - or asrepparttar 132669 villain (seeking to perpetuate and increase its power ruthlessly, as in public choice theories). Both views are caricatures of reality. Governments do seek to perpetuate and increase power but they use it mostly to redistribute income and not for self-enrichment.

2. Technology and Innovation

Economics failed to account forrepparttar 132670 role of innovation in growth and development. It also ignoredrepparttar 132671 specific nature of knowledge industries (where returns increase rather than diminish and network effects prevail). Thus, current economic thinking is woefully inadequate to deal with information monopolies (such as Microsoft), path dependence and pervasive externalities.

3. Long Term Investment Horizons

Classic cost/benefit analyses fail to tackle very long term investment horizons (periods). Their underlying assumption (the opportunity cost of delayed consumption) fails beyondrepparttar 132672 investor's useful economic life expectancy. Put more plainly: investors care less about their grandchildren's future than about their own. This is because predictions concerned withrepparttar 132673 far future are highly uncertain and people refuse to base current decisions on fuzzy "what ifs". This is a problem because many current investments (example:repparttar 132674 fight against global warming) are likely to yield results only inrepparttar 132675 decades ahead. There is no effective method of cost/benefit analysis applicable to such time horizons.

(continued)

Sam Vaknin is the author of Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West Lost the East. He is a columnist for Central Europe Review, United Press International (UPI) and eBookWeb and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory, Suite101 and searcheurope.com.

Visit Sam's Web site at http://samvak.tripod.com




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