Class start at 11:10am with Ben having the students writing down the questions we have from last class about “Aunt Ayn”. While the students take turn writing on the board, Ben writes down the outline for the class which includes: Housekeeping, Aunt Ayn & Uncle Fred_ where they’re from, Hayek’s argument, Hayek vs. Rand_ an ideology, a historical moment, a metanarrative. Then Ben mentions briefly about the grading for the blog posts as a student asks.
Class officially starts with Ben taking attendance and an announcement that some students will not be able to attend class. He tells the students to take care of themselves. He and two students talk about the Tea Party rally; both of them say that there is not much Tea Party “stuffs” going on like the news reported but there is a rally, even though not many protesters.
Ben talks about the definition of “collective bargaining.” Then he mentions the reason why he cannot give an A to this class without having the students doing some work to earn it. He gives an example that a student can complains to him to have fewer assignments in the class but Ben can tell the student to withdraw and not changing the assignment. In this case, Ben has total control of the class. But in a case when all the students in the class decide not to withdraw but “boycott” Ben’s assignments then Ben will have to give the students what they want. This is an example of “power shift” and the reason why “collective bargaining” is dangerous.
Ben talks about the 2nd External Writing but does not give a clear idea of what it is, promising he will send e-mails around. Then Ben repeats, “It’s coming to me,” three times for some reason.
Ben moves to the focus of today’s class discussion, which is all about Hayek and Rand. He talks about the Formal Difficultation on Thursday but everyone will be doing an Optional Difficultation today. Then Ben pulls out the best seller book called “Liberal Fascism” on the projector. The “Hitler’s mustache” on the smiling face on the cover of the book is emphasized.
Ben is up on the board writing facts for the Context Boggle Game. As usual, only one student wins the extra credit. Facts about Rand: big time atheist, testified as a friendly witness before HUAC, opposed Christianity (the best Kindergarten of Communism), best philosophies_ Aristotle, Aquinas, Rand 1st major success_ The Fountainhead (1943) come from Communist Prussia (closed dad’s pharmacy). Facts about Hayek: 2 kids, 2 Helens (wives), background in German Social theory or Scottish moral philosophy (Adam Smith), Austrian, there’s a Hayek Society at London School of Economics, Larry Summers like him (says he’s good at explaining invisible hand), 2nd-most quoted economist after Keynes. Ben mentions that Hayek was at the University of Chicago. Then Ben relates their (Rand & Hayek) arguments to a keyword, “laissez-faire”, which means the government stay out.
Ben and the class discuss about how difficult Hayek’s text is: language barrier of the author, big-long words, he writes outside of his expertise, hard to see any clear and focus argument, too many small arguments overshadow the big important argument… Some people (outside of this class) comment on the author that his book will not convince anyone. There is an out-of-discussion moment when Ben comments that some two students look alike and cause him to mistake their names… but not really. Then Ben comes back to in-class-topic. A student emphasizes that Hayek does not mention race and oppression. In pages 114 and 118, quotes: “To call private property as such… of its meaning,” there are some mentions about privileges.
Then Ben goes on his board-day mode where he talks more than usual and sticks to the board, crowding the white board with as much notes as possible. He first goes to Liberalism and Classical Liberalism (Libertarianism), which simply says “the government should make laws that give equality to everyone in free market.” Since there is no such thing as equality, the counter argument is “It’s impossible;” hence the saying, “pull yourself up by a boot strap if you want to succeed.” Ben then moves on to Socialism, which he explains simply means “the government should give everyone equal opportunity.” Counterargument: Milton Friedman said as oppose to socialism, TANSTAFL= “There Ain’t No Such Thing As Free Lunch.” Keynes is an important economist and Ben explains his argument in a simple tone, “If you tell the rich to keep what they make, they’ll sit on the money and the money can’t circulate, which means the rich stay rich, the poor stay poor, no jobs offered, and economic fails. It’s best to tax the rich then give to the poor, allow money to circulate thus, create jobs, and keep the economic functioning.” Ben comes to the conclusion, based on Keynes’ argument, is that Obama is not a socialist but a capitalist. Ben moves on to Ideology, which is simplified to “either conscious or not.” Next on line is Fascism, also get simplified to “The idea where everyone is bound together and fight for freedom. There is only one choice, one nation, one race, and one leader. If you are not one of us, you are opposing us and we have to kill you.” The idea is from an ancient roman symbol where two axes make an X, an individual is a piece of wooden stick of that axe and there is no such thing as individuals (can’t make an axe with one stick).
Then Ben moves away from the notes-crowded-board briefly to give students a chance to discuss and gives himself sometimes to clean up some spaces for more notes. Board-day mode resumes after 5~10 minutes of student-student discussion. Ben talks about what Hayek is arguing for: a concept of history_ repeat itself, we can stop it from happening again, moving in a negative direction. Ben gives more keywords for the day. Narratives, simply is a chain of events. Metanarrative, narratives lead to one big event. Metanarrative includes Progress Narrative, simply means Hegelian way of history, “We move toward freedom;” and Declension Narrative, which is the opposite of progress narrative, “We all go to hell in a hand basket,” things are going badly, are all failing. Ben mentions the best example for declension narrative is the Bible, start out in heaven and move toward doomsday.
The overall of the book seems like Hayek argues that socialism=fascism=Nazism, thus the government control over economy=total loss of freedom. The question is, “Isn’t it an oversimplification?” A student mentions that it seems like Glenn Beck use this book to lead people to the direction he wants when people don’t actually understand it and easily give in to his arguments/convincing.
Ben last words of the day, he reminds students to bring the course packet, both Hayek’s text and Rand’s, go through the readings, and keep thoughts/questions for Thursday class. It seems promising to have more board-day mode.
No comments:
Post a Comment