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> | [revision 3 was the last submitted before the deadline; I edit for clarity / pride in my work / classmates' benefit]
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| | "How a functionalist farce became a modern morality play"
By AndrewGradman
Word count: If you turn my table of contents on its side, you will see the Hong Kong skyline. The paper on globalization portrayed therein is worth exactly as many words. |
| | Nationalism is a tautology ("an audience pursuing whatever vision it circled on the museum map") until measured with respect to an outside stimulus. Rousseau called that stimulus the "lawgiver," but it's just a name. |
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< | Conversely, we can define a nation as a group with a consistent social reaction to a known stimulus. The national axes against which anthropologists measure identities—attitudes towards God, poverty, death, leisure—were entrenched long before corporate cutters mounted our virgin shores. |
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> | Conversely, we can define a nation as a group with a consistent social reaction to a known stimulus. The axes against which anthropologists measure identities—attitudes towards God, poverty, death, leisure—were entrenched long before corporate cutters mounted our virgin shores. |
| | I.2.iii A Functionalist Defines Capitalism |
| | I.3.ii Nationalism vs. Capitalism = socialism vs. solipsism = Us vs. Me |
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< | The tide of globalism has been rising since World War II, drowning ancient cultures, displacing the sea of faith. Chinese-sourced tchotchkes metastasize in its bloodstream. |
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> | The tide of globalism has been rising since World War II, drowning ancient cultures, displacing the sea of faith. Chinese-sourced tchotchkes metastasize through its bloodstream. |
| | The Amish invite every member to sample urban narcissism, but only after sixteen years of communal inculcation. Under globalism, the international agents of industrial stockholders invade the communes; glut the next generation's infant fetishes; indoctrinate by addiction. |
| | * nationalism vs. capitalism→colonialism
* socialism vs. solipsism→utilitarianism
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< | These marriages seem more stable, and more volatile, than the one-night stand the Nazis pulled on the Communists. Yet the one thing socialism and solipsism still won't discuss at pillow talk is how to actually measure the utilities they claim to be adding. They can't. |
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> | These marriages seem more stable, and more volatile, than the one-night stand the Nazis pulled on the Soviets. Yet the one thing socialism and solipsism still won't discuss at pillow talk is how to actually measure the utilities they claim to be adding. They can't. |
| | So no, it was not a valid question. |
| | If business is "That government which markets its brand through sales contracts"—and the marriage of business and government is a never-ending custody battle—we may restate my question thus: whether corporations (transferable-contractual-solipsistic-private spirited) or constitutions (territorial-democratic-socialist-public spirited) can market (legitimize) themselves better to you, the judge. |
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< | Capitalism already captured TV; if you're a zombie, come claim your plunder: forever cherish this dividend of childhood, memories of meals eaten in a frontfacing row, parents alongside. |
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> | Capitalism already captured TV; zombies claim your dividend, memories of childhood meals eaten alongside parents in a frontfacing row. |
| | Bloch flees to the Internet to stir the "storm corner for the revolution". |
| | I.5.ii Legitimacy |
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< | When I'm not at the mall, I snuggle up with the late sociologist Peter Drucker. |
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> | When I'm not at the mall, I snuggle up with the late sociologist Peter Drucker. |
| | I.5.iii Oversight |
| | I.5.iv No ancestors! We're freeeeee! ! ! |
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< | I imagine Eben looking out at our classroom, his generation's legacy. I'm glad I'm not in his position. I would not be able to restrain my temper so well. |
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> | I'm glad I'm not in Eben's position, surveying our classroom, his generation's legacy. I could not restrain my temper so well. |
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< | Act II. Modern morality play : messiah :: Functionalist farce : overman |
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> | Act II. Modern morality play : messiah :: Functionalist farce : ? |
| | "What we just did," said one mule to the other, massaging under his bootstraps, "is impossible. Mules don't ruminate." |
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< | "That's why I love America," said the other. "It invented pragmatism because it doesn't like the truth. Now we can invent the truth too." As if to demonstrate, he took another drag from his reefer.* |
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> | "That's why I love America," said the other. "It invented pragmatism because it doesn't like the truth. Now we just invent the truth." As if to demonstrate, he took another drag from his reefer.* |
| | "Then tell your professor this," brayed the first: "Our generation may have degenerated into stubborn mules, but if that means we sterilized ourselves as well, then I deny being a mule at all!" |