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15 years ago @ ACADEMIA NERVOSA - The dominant paradigm ... · 0 replies · +1 points

But, speaking of "deviations", I don't think that we can draw parallels between the significance of BDSM-related behavior and that of homosexuality. We could perhaps draw parallels between the social significance of BDSM and gender-based cultural movements like queer culture. In that sense, someone who is part of a certain culture that society deems 'deviant', is not exhibiting an innate behavior but is making a choice to participate in such a culture. As long as that participation is consensual there is nothing to discuss really.

On the other hand I think that perhaps our disdain for culture-wars, like for example the wars waged by the dominant culture against other cultures, like LGBT, BDSM or other, has made us essentially uncritical regarding the meaning of certain behaviors.

15 years ago @ ACADEMIA NERVOSA - The dominant paradigm ... · 1 reply · +1 points

The fact that social deviations have in the past been considered examples of mental pathology doesn't say much about the nature of the specific "deviations", only about mental science. In particular it betrays the fact that in psychiatry, personal behavior, roughly speaking, that is correlated with problems in the social arena has always been considered suspicious from a pathological standpoint. Perhaps that is not so unreasonable, although it is certainly not precise.

16 years ago @ A Division by Zer0 - Exploitation cannot be... · 1 reply · +1 points

But the creditor at least has a right to the available property of the borrower. The capitalist does not have a right to the consumer's paycheck. So if a bank lends money to you (invests in you) so that you may buy a house, in the event of your default they have a right to take your newly bought home. If a capitalist invests in the means to produce something he assumes all the risk of his product not being wanted by consumers, whereas the consumer assumes no such risk but still benefits from the added value of the capitalist's labor.

16 years ago @ A Division by Zer0 - Exploitation cannot be... · 2 replies · +1 points

Why is friendship needed? people can survive without friendship.
But in any case what do you mean 'survival'? 10000 years ago survival meant living until your 30th birthday. In any case life is not a binary value, there are qualities, and it's not 'luxury' to want to live a better life rather than merely survive until the arbitrary day you die.

16 years ago @ vrypan|net|weblog - GGD Athens · 0 replies · 0 points

δεν τα κατάφερα αυτή τη φορά, αλλά στο προηγούμενο που πήγα πέρασα πολύ ωραία και ωφέλιμα. Μοναδικό «μελανό» σημείο ήταν η διαφημιστική παρουσίαση της Sony που μας έβαλαν να δούμε.

16 years ago @ vrypan|net|weblog - το IntenseDebate μ�... · 0 replies · +1 points

θα το μεταφέρει το intensedebate στο friendfeed?

16 years ago @ A Division by Zer0 - The Free Market is you... · 0 replies · +1 points

perhaps you are confusing evolution with cell structure and behavior. The latter can be examined in petri dishes, but the former can't. Evolution is much more than DNA.

And of course the law of supply and demand is only one proposition of economics. There are many other theorems, like the Welfare Theorems which tell us about market efficiency and other 'good stuff'. And no, having an ideal free market is not a prerequisite for research into free market operation. So assertions about idealized markets operation can be tested against contrary assertions. This is what science is all about.

16 years ago @ A Division by Zer0 - The Free Market is you... · 1 reply · +1 points

it's funny how someone arguing rationally can claim that human rationality is false. in any case, rational humans may be a simplification but not an invalid one, in almost the same way that newton's laws of motion are simplifications of the truer einsteinian laws of relativity.

And, once more, you are confusing libertarians with economists in saying that it is an especially libertarian thing to say that free market capitalism is a better system than any other so far. It is economists who know why, and tell us, that free markets work better. Libertarianism is only reinforced by this discovery by economists but is not based on that discovery.

16 years ago @ A Division by Zer0 - The Free Market is you... · 0 replies · +1 points

for example, monetarism (Friedman perhaps the most well known monetarist) is an economic theory that requires government to have a monopoly over the money supply. This is for pragmatic reasons and to one degree or another is contrary to more anarchic aspects of libertarianism.

16 years ago @ A Division by Zer0 - The Free Market is you... · 2 replies · +1 points

Just as evolution is a sound proposition regardless if there are people supporting it for other reasons (say a dislike of religion) so it is with economic laws which are sound regardless if there are people, libertarians, who support the laws' conclusions for other, moral, reasons. Your criticism of libertarians is unfair because the laws of economics are established independently of libertarian moral preferences and therefore libertarians are not being dogmatic when they use them as arguments in favor of libertarian ideology.

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