(2004-08-31) Agre Vs Conservatism

Phil Agre on "What Is Conservatism and What Is Wrong with It?" (Conservative) Conservatism is the domination of society by an aristocracy.... Conservatism is incompatible with Democracy, prosperity, and Civilization in general. It is a destructive system of inequality and prejudice that is founded on deception and has no place in the modern world... Conservatism constantly changes, always adapting itself to provide the minimum amount of Freedom that is required to hold together a dominant coalition in the society... A better starting place (for realistic New Economy design) is with analysis of the practical work of producing goods in social systems of actual finite human beings - that is, with analysis of information and institutions, as for example in the singular work of Thorstein Veblen, JohnCommons, Joseph Schumpeter, Karl Polanyi, John Von Neumann, Mark Casson, Joseph Stiglitz, Paul David, Bruno Latour, and Michel Callon. This work emphasizes knowledge and the very general social conditions that are required to produce and use it. Simply put, knowledge is best produced in a liberal culture. This is why the most prosperous and innovative regions of the United States are also the most politically liberal, and why the most conservative regions of the country are also the greatest beneficiaries of transfer payments. Liberals create wealth and government redistributes it to conservatives.