Re: <nettime> Nobel laureate in economics aged 102 endorses the human economy...

[Brian Holmes <bhcontinentaldrift@gmail.com>]

On 01/21/2013 08:52 AM, Newmedia@aol.com wrote:

> Does either Sugihara or Arrighi ever mention Tavistock or "social
> psychology"?  Were they part of the "humans relations" movement (i.e. the
> title of the SOCPSY journal, starting in 1947)?  ....

Mark, I am always fascinated by your ideas and the things you refer to. 
For instance, I am aware of Lewin's work on Group Dynamics and of some 
of its Cold War implications, but all too hazy concerning the context at 
MIT in which it took place, so please tell us some more about it!

As for Gregory Bateson, I'm very interested in his later work and I 
think some of its radicality must be driven by regret for, among other 
things, a letter he wrote during WWII to another famous personage:

"Bateson had remarkable strategic foresight concerning the effect of new 
technology on warfare. While in the Pacific Theater, he wrote to the 
legendary director of the OSS, "Wild Bill" Donovan, that the existence 
of the nuclear bomb would change the nature of conflict, forcing nations 
to engage in indirect methods of warfare. Bateson recommended to Donovan 
that the United States not rely on conventional forces for defense but 
to establish a third agency to employ clandestine operations, economic 
controls, and psychological pressures in the new warfare. This 
organization is, of course, now known as the Central Intelligence Agency."

Could anyone ever forget writing such a letter? Perhaps one of our 
correspondents could go look it up in the Bateson archive at UC Santa 
Cruz, where there is apparently a photocopy. Anyway, the 2005 article 
which I quote above, by some military dude apparently called "McFate," 
is entitled "Anthropology and Counterinsurgency: The Strange Story of 
their Curious Relationship." You would find it very curious too. The guy 
laments how anthropology became next to useless to the US military after 
the Vietnam War, and describes how the Army made an effort to bring the 
discipline back into the fold for the needs of the Iraq and Afghanistan 
Wars. I am sure many on this list would be able to give us an update on 
how successful, or not, that effort was, again I'm a little hazy on that.

As for Arrighi and Sugihara, they're historians of the long run and the 
Industrious Revolution they are talking about goes back to the Tokugawa 
period in Japan. I don't think it has much to do with the Tavistock 
Institute...

Although there is never a good reason to forget 20th-century history, 
there are good reasons to try to go beyond it. For some that means 
looking into a deeper past, in order to imagine a different future.

all the best, Brian


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