December 22, 2007

Death Among The Econ

Perhaps this piece should be called, "Death Among The Econ." There is a nihilistic undertone that prevails through much of the 'observation.' As well, in the article, there is mention that older generations are no longer respected by younger Econ. Could this be that the path of understanding the Econ and their tribal religion is now trodden to the point of absolute illumination?

I think of enlightenment as a sort of awakening to something that has always been there, but was hidden in the shadows of imcomprehension. If enlightenment is the illumination of that path, and that path is now fully illuminated, can enlightenment continue to occur?

Perhaps the Econ are a society of humanistic behavior that is, was, and always will be more of the omnipotent nominal observations than they will ever be laws that govern or can be upheld!

Unlike the Econ, the Sociogs and the Polscis are a more optimistic lines of people! In that vein of thought, we (endowed with the powers of observation and reason) all can get a 'feel' for what is going on in a society and can thus act accordingly. The Sociogs seem to desire a governing body to take such obersvations and to enact 'how to live' methods unto those who are incapable of or who easily frustrate over thinking for themselves! The Polscis seem to desire a governing body to filter the observations from reaching those who are 'less' than the governing body so that a sort of ignorance is bliss can float around them.

The Econ seem to be a little more nomadic with regards to personal enlightenment; however, with the educational pursuits, aka ventures into adulthood, the proving of one's knowledge simply allows for the easier acquisition of knowledge for others. In this regard, through personal development, the group all benefits!

"I'd tax myself so that others would have a better education!" can be interpretted as I'd tax (laboriously pursue my own interests in adulthood) so that others (also working to gain enlightenment) would have a better education (perhaps they'd learn something that I'd miss and thus I could glean from their academic maturity)!

So, as ashes break down and become nutrients for subsequent generations, how can the death among the econ become something that will benefit subsequent generations?


December 11, 2007

Life Among The Econ

The title of this web page honors Axel Leijonhufvud's satire of economists, Life Among The Econ. Here is how his research study begins:
"The Econ tribe occupies a vast territory in the far North. Their land appears bleak and dismal to the outsider, and travelling through it makes for rough sledding; but the Econ, through a long period of adaptation, have learned to wrest a living of sorts from it. They are not without some genuine and sometimes even fierce attachment to their ancestral grounds, and their young are brought up to feel contempt for the softer living in the warmer lands of their neighbours, such as the Polscis and the Sociogs. . . . .The extreme clannishness, not to say xenophobia, of the Econ makes life among them difficult and perhaps even somewhat dangerous for the outsider. This probably accounts for the fact that the Econ have so far-not been systematically studied. Information about their social structure and ways of life is fragmentary and not well validated. More research on this interesting tribe is badly needed."
Now consider Leijonhuvud's discussion of status relationships among the Econ, which may be especially relevant to the purposes of this course:
". . .The dominant feature, which makes status relations among the Econ of unique interest to the serious student, is the way that status is tied to the manufacture of certain types of implements, called 'modls.' The status of the adult male is determined by his skill in making the 'modl' of his 'field.' The facts (a) that the Econ are highly status-motivated, (b) that status is only to be achieved by making ”modls,” and (c) that most of these “modls” seem to be of little or no practical use, probably accounts for the backwardness and abject cultural poverty of the tribe. Both the tight linkage between status in the tribe and modlmaking and the trend toward making modls more for ceremonial than for practical purposes appear, moreover, to be fairly recent developments, something which has led many observers to express pessimism for the viability of the Econ culture."
Enjoy!