<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><div>George had asked where support will be found for the kind of humanities and arts that can have an influence "decades in the future" rather than just in "the next quarterly corporate report." Brian responds that although the "institutions of knowledge production" are "unable to respond to the current crisis," the wealthy will continue to enjoy their Shakespeare and Sade in the absence of the traditional educational system. Let's suppose Brian's correct. His thinking remains instrumental. Something is unable to respond. Knowledges is a question of "production." What the wealthy retain is therefore the possibility of thinking otherwise, of reflection beyond the limitations of the next quarterly corporate report, beyond production. As implausible as it is to think the wealthy will indeed
escape, we have not yet appreciated the depth of the losses under consideration. Such damage is not addressed by economics. It's not repaired by revolution.</div><div><br></div><div>Bernie<br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Arial" size="2"><hr size="1"><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">From:</span></b> Brian Holmes <bhcontinentaldrift@gmail.com><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> idc@mailman.thing.net<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Wednesday, September 21, 2011 11:26 AM<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [iDC] DIY: nightmare for humanities, social sciences, media<br></font><br>On 09/20/2011 11:41 AM, John Hopkins wrote:<br><br>> Howard Odum, in his landmark (updated)
book "Environment, Power, and Society<br>> (for the 21st Century) The Hierarchy of Energy" (2007) demonstrates that because<br>> information/knowledge requires energy for it to be captured, maintained, and<br>> propagated, when a society (or other system) heads into an energy-poor situation<br>> (versus the energy-rich 200-years we've been enjoying to date), the scope of<br>> information AND knowledge available to the system decreases.<br><br>That's an interesting recommendation, thanks, I will follow it up.<br><br> From my view, we live in a knowledge economy that never became a <br>knowledge society. The digital communications and information-processing <br>system has developed as a form of financial governance serving, on the <br>one hand, to articulate the just-in-time production system, and on the <br>other, to prey on the pools of savings that have accumulated throughout <br>the world (from health-care funds to retirements via your
home, bank <br>account, negative savings on the credit card, etc). The universities <br>have bloated along with the knowledge economy, to the point where they <br>are now almost as corrupt as Wall Street itself.<br><br>All this is headed for a crash, not (yet) because of energy shortages, <br>but simply because finance is a lousy way to govern. Long-term <br>environmental determinisms should not distract from the actual trends <br>that push them. The present crash is real (check the daily papers) and <br>may become a lot worse as neglected ecological problems spur conflicts <br>in all directions. The last big financial crash led to fascism and world <br>war. This one may well lead to world civil war - a generalized societal <br>struggle of all against all.<br><br>Over the last three decades, the university knowledge factories have <br>produced this economy, along with a neoliberal ideology (represented in <br>its pure form by so-called "public choice
theory") that simply denies <br>the existence of society. Philosophers and other humanities, arts and <br>social-sciences profs have mostly gone along for the corporate ride, <br>especially at the top ends of the system where they are seduced into <br>inconsequence. As for the hard scientists, those who have stood up <br>against the instrumentalization of their disciplines are extremely rare. <br>Basically it is only the adjuncts who have made some efforts at <br>transforming all that!<br><br>Of course, there are still a large number of thoughtful people out <br>there, who now feel quite uncomfortable at the way things have gone - <br>and not only at the potential loss of some of their prestige, perks, job <br>security, etc. George's concern about what will happen to the humanities <br>and social sciences is well founded. If they were to just disappear from <br>the residual public realm, no one in power would miss them. Rich people <br>will always be
able to pay for their Shakespeare and their de Sade, and <br>corporations have their social sciences covered pretty well (they call <br>it "management"). The others will always have distance learning from <br>Phoenix. The result is a country where people are either careerist <br>egotists pursuing their private stars, or harried and debt-ridden <br>flextimers without a single moment for collective thinking and <br>organizing. In other words, a country just like the USA.<br><br>Sorry, but the complaints about the fate of the humanities seem to me <br>just as shallow as the enthusiasms for DIY learning by computer. Either <br>we start a revolution in the knowledge factory, or we're screwed, my <br>friends! The institutions of knowledge production are overblown, but <br>clearly unable to respond to the current crisis. At this point they are <br>massively reproducing the corrupted basis of the knowledge economy. <br>Autonomous education can help change that,
if it is not just an <br>imitation of the corporate model based on fragmented interactivity. We <br>need critique that is turned toward action. And it has to become <br>socially complex, which implies some kind of institutional form. A <br>response to the crisis from inside academia is still on hold - stopped <br>at the top by professors who will not risk becoming as political as <br>their right-wing counterparts already are. Without such a response, the <br>nightmare will not just be for your favorite humanities program.<br><br>let's act toward another future, BH<br>_______________________________________________<br>iDC -- mailing list of the Institute for Distributed Creativity (distributedcreativity.org)<br><a ymailto="mailto:iDC@mailman.thing.net" href="mailto:iDC@mailman.thing.net">iDC@mailman.thing.net</a><br><a href="https://mailman.thing.net/mailman/listinfo/idc" target="_blank">https://mailman.thing.net/mailman/listinfo/idc</a><br><br>List
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