Didn't they try a lot of this in 1930's and 1940's Germany? It caused a
lot of trouble.
MM
Brad McCormick, Ed.D. wrote:
> Durant wrote:
> >
> > Engineers can get things wrong even when they are working in the
> > field where they are experts; so there are loads of formulas and
> > legislations to adhere to, even if they create something new,
> > even then they usually apply what an artist or a scientist
> > sketched.
> > We have to learn from history, we cannot delegate
> > an elite to create our future, we all have to be there at the design
>
> > and at the completion.
> >
> > Eva
> >
> > > We should "draft" the best system engineers in the country, give
> them the
> > > system design objectives, and then let them design the system.
> It's the
> > > last chance we have.
> > >
> > > Jay
> > >
> > >
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> Yes, that's precisely the point, isn't it: What *should be* the
> objectives?
>
> Surely engineers can help us clarify what the range of possible
> objectives *can be*, given our current cultural and natural
> resources (since part of what they can do is to give us
> a best guess estimate of
> exactly what the inventory of resources is).
>
> And, as citizens, engineers can have valuable input
> from their perspectives of what objectives are desirable
> to pursue -- combining their personal views and desires
> with their knowledge.
>
> But the key thing, it seems to me, is that whatever
> objectives are agreed upon be ones which (as Eva said in
> a previous posting:) enhance opportunities for
> *every* person actively to participate in the process
> and thus both to accomplish something and have a sense of
> accomplishment (contrast: "the society of spectacle" with
> its lumpen consumertariat).
>
> As Fredric Jameson writes in _Postmodernism, or, the
> cultural logic of Late Capitalism_:
>
> Under the circumstances, nothing is served by substituting
> one inert institutional structure (bureaucratic planning)
> for another inert institutional structure (namely,
> the market itself). What is wanted is a great collective
> project in which an active majority of the population
> participates, as something belonging to it and constructed
> by its own energies. The setting of social priorities --
> also known in the socialist literature as planning --
> would have to be a part of such a collective project. It
> should be clear, however, that virtually by definition the
> market cannot be a project at all. (p. 278,
> Duke Univ. Press, 1991)
>
> \brad mccormick
>
> --
> Mankind is not the master of all the stuff that exists, but
> Everyman (woman, child) is a judge of the world.
>
> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 914.238.0788 / 27 Poillon Rd, Chappaqua, NY 10514-3403 USA
> -------------------------------------------------------
> <![%THINK;[SGML]]> Visit my website: http://www.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
