"The wind has gone out of political thought, certainly among politicians, but equally significantly from commentators, intellectuals and political theorists." ...

At the root of this depletion of political thought is a "fetish* of pluralism", believes Prof Jacoby.

"What I think has happened is a lax idea of pluralism has begun to gut political thought," he said.

Let us recall before exploring the appalling "Twin Peaks" of received wisdom, also known as ideology, and
observed stochastic "economy," implied by Prof Jacoby's niggardly assessment of worldly mechanics, Tho. Pynchon's delightful recreation of applied science in the wilderness of British America in Mason & Dixon.

OK, done: Prof Jacoby has no one to blame but himself, which wouldn't do, for reducing --or rationaizing-- all political struggles among peoples to a mere and abject deplorable fetish*. Perhaps he has written and broadcast elsewhere factual information that models agency and strategic features; perhaps he has published some synthetic theory, philosophically speaking, of the structuration (of industrial nations') political economies; I wouldn't know, given his particular podium before an international, Anglophone audience is, ethically speaking, limited by space, time, and so-called ethnicity. (Have you noticed the www convention, AP I believe, of single-sentence paragraphs?) Review also, for example, Lacan on jouissance or Adorno and Weber on the "marketplace of ideas" or the McKinsey Quarterly for that matter. Sample headlines ...

Getting patients to take their medicine--Improving adherence to drug regimens can save lives and reduce health care costs (2006); Overhauling the US health care payment system, During the next five years, rapid innovation may restructure the value chain of health care payments and change the sector's balance of power (2006); Assessing the impact of societal issues--A McKinsey Global Survey: Executives place the environment and climate change in a class of their own when evaluating the impact of societal issues on shareholder value. They also indicate that companies are getting a little better at managing sociopolitical issues and understanding what the public wants (2007); Eight business technology trends to watch--Over the next decade, eight technology-enabled business trends will transform many markets and businesses. Creative leaders should start using them now to craft their strategies (2007); Using energy more efficiently: An interview with the Rocky Mountain Institute's Amory Lovins--The cofounder and chairman of a prominent nonprofit research institute offers advice to CEOs who want to save costs by using energy more efficiently and discusses the role that regulators should play in channeling the power of market forces to reduce energy consumption (2008); Why baby boomers will need to work longer--Most US baby boomers are not prepared for their retirement, and neither are the US and world economies. Boomers can help mitigate the consequences by remaining in the workforce beyond the traditional retirement age (2008)

Ideology is not dead, far from it. Ideology thrives on training regimens in ones employment and schooling and punative socialization, those "soft" disincentives to deviate from normative behavior and prescribed intellectual formation of rational efficiency, simple or unambiguous communication, and I mean standardized coda. Such as "synergy" or "rationalization" which are devoid of meaning. Review Lyotard, Foucalt, Wallis Budge, Orisha, anything Chinese, Aborigine on "plurality," autonomy of one.

So I recommend this essay. It is provoctive in its deficiencies.

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* FETISH disambiguation


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.