Looks like it’s Sunday, and that means it’s time for another #Lifehouse thread. I’m intensely mindful that I’ve been talking about the book Quite A Lot lately, so I’m thinking of dialing back on the frequency of these posts a tad – you’ll let me know if that sounds right. But for today, let’s talk about one of my favorite aspects of the book, which is the chance it finally afforded me to affirm in my writing an intensely material, hands-on flavor of politics that descends from the DIY/DIT 1960s.
And what was very clear to me, and most exciting, was that people equipped with these alternative technics could step outside of the monstrous waste and inhumanity it was even then clear to me (at the age of 13, in 1981-82) was the purpose and motor of the mainstream economy. It would be years before I heard the expression #POSIWID, but I already understood the truth it encapsulated, and I wanted nothing to do with the purpose I saw unfolding in the world.
Old post, but it still rings true. People love to tell others how to be better at being poor, how they can not be poor, etc., when the issues are built into the system itself. Capitalism is unfair, exploitative & destructive. We've tried it and it doesn't work. We need better.
"The notion that there is a clear division between state forces and crime groups—that corruption and collaboration are the work of a few bad apples—is a hegemonic idea promoted by nation-states and the mainstream media. Undoing this binary means learning from the people whose lives have been directly affected by armed groups whose activity is carried out with impunity. Impunity is not the result of a weak or deficient state, but rather it is actively provided to the gamut of armed groups who commit crimes and acts of terror against citizens, migrants, and the poor. The provision of impunity to armed actors who are politically aligned with capitalism is part of a modern nation state’s raison d’etre."
Not that he was perfect, or anything of the sort, but I cannot express the joy it gives me to see Stafford Beer’s watchword “the purpose of a system is what it does” at long last pass into common usage, especially among folks with no obvious reason to know who Stafford Beer was. It’s been a vital analytical tool for me this past quarter-century, in all kinds of circumstances. #POSIWID
@adamgreenfield I learned of the concept of #POSIWID for the first time just a few weeks ago -- here on Mastodon. The whole concept blew my mind. It explains so much of the insanity and awfulness we collectively live in.
Reading the other site, which always upsets me, about Israel's effort to eliminate Hamas, I am reminded that the Purpose Of a System Is What It Does. #POSIWID
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@karlauerbach "The purpose of a system is what it does. This is a basic dictum. It stands for bald fact, which makes a better starting point in seeking understanding than the familiar attributions of good intention, prejudices about expectations, moral judgment, or sheer ignorance of circumstances."
--Stafford Beer
We don't need to restructure the system, because what it's doing is what it was designed for. We need to raze it to the ground and design better.