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"In the words of Tammy Thomas, whose similar story is told in my new book, “The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America,” these people do what they’re su
by DanielBMarkham 13y ago
"In the words of Tammy Thomas, whose similar story is told in my new book, “The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America,” these people do what they’re supposed to do. They have to navigate this heartless economy by themselves. And they keep sinking and sinking."
What the fuck?
The country I grew up in didn't tell people what to do. People were encouraged to figure out what needed doing. Then they went and did it.
I think we do a great disservice to the poor to focus on jobs as some ends to themselves. They are not. Jobs are the result of innovation and entrepreneurship. Not everybody has to be an entrepreneur, but you need enough of them to keep things mixed up constantly for everybody else. There is no "play by the rules". That's bullshit. You either live your own dream or somebody else's. There is no middle ground. You don't just "create jobs" for people who "follow the rules". This is not a maternal society. This is organized chaos, where the chaos is creatively destroying things that don't work and replacing them with new things as humanity moves along.
God, I hate this navel-gazing pulp.
- anon1385 13y agoI find your description of human lives as 'things that don't work' to be utterly sickening. The mind of an individualist is a scary place.
- defen 13y agoPretty sure he was talking about jobs/companies/industries and not people there.
- penrod 13y agoThe phrase "things that don't work" is obviously not referring to human lives, it is referring to behaviors chosen by people. We make choices as to how we spend our time, how we sustain ourselves, how we interact with other people, etc. Some of these choices work out, some do not. Fortunately, we and our fellow humans can learn from these experiences and adapt our behavior. The incremental discovery of "things that don't work", and adjustment to these discoveries, is good and necessary because no one has, or will ever have, a complete understanding of the perfect society for human flourishing. Given the limits on knowledge, I find the mind of an individualist far less scary than the mind of someone who presumes to know how others should live, and is willing to use force to ensure that they comply with that vision.