From: Mike Linksvayer (ml@gondwanaland.com)
Date: Thu Sep 03 1998 - 23:11:37 MDT
On Fri, Sep 04, 1998 at 12:42:46PM +0000, Damien Broderick wrote:
> As people have remarked before, iirc, the black drug
> culture of inner American cities is not just about getting money to live
> on, it's about creating a meaningful social order, a working power
> hierarchy, all that mafia Godfather stuff - and it apparently isn't working
> all that well even in those terms.
No doubt participation in illegal drug cultures does give participants,
and not only inner city blacks, a sense of purpose. However, the
culture revolving around illegal commerce and associated violence
is almost entirely a creature of prohibition. Note the lack of a
criminal culture based on the distribution of alcohol, caffeine,
and nicotine. End crack/heroin/marijuana/etc. prohibition and
those involved will move on to other pursuits, some of them
constructive, just as those involved in the illegal alcohol trade
moved on after the end of that prohibition. If you cannot see this
happening, you may consider questioning your racial prejudices.
I see unemployment as a) not much of a problem (the labor market
is quite tight in the US), b) easy to make less of a problem
(increase labor market flexibility), and c) impossible to do much
about in the long term if technology makes the skills of most or
all humans virtually worthless.
How can we address the alienation and purposelessness that appears
to run rampant, particularly through impoverished sectors of society?
As a culture, we could put less emphasis on material wealth. We
could start by refusing to glamorize the rich and famous and the
products they promote. We could also promote the idea that one
can find personal value in things other than material wealth --
wisdom, love, art, even several of the Extropian Principles.
Politically, we could adopt a "help the poor first" set of libertarian
policies -- end the drug war, eliminate taxes that fall hardest on
the poor (e.g. the payroll tax), and kill corporate pork -- before
even considering pushing for policies that are perceived as only
benefitting the rich or only harming the poor, such as eliminating
capital gains taxes or eliminating welfare. Inequality may not be
morally wrong, but it is a major problem, if only because leftists
claim to have solutions, and that makes leftism very appealing to
many people. Libertarians typically ignore or even celebrate
inequality.
As noted regarding the illegal drug culture, participating in a
culture does give one's life meaning. Our society places far too
much emphasis on participating in culture vicariously through
consumer purchases and commercial entertainment. Obviously poor
people have a hard time keeping up, although based on the number
of poor people I see who look as though they have spent a large
portion of their incomes becoming walking corporate billboards,
they really feel the need to try to keep up. I would like to let
people know that participating in culture created from the bottom
up could be considerably more rewarding, empowering, and less
expensive than aping movie and sports stars.
-- Mike Linksvayer http://gondwanaland.com/ml/
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