Everyone entered the classroom and took their seats as usual!
Ben told the class to write down questions from Thursday about Aunt Ayn, Students got up and wrote their questions on the white board. Then Ben spoke about the blog posts where he told the class not to worry too much as long as you get 2 pts you should be fine.
Ben took attendance as he does regularly; afterwards he asked Mariana if she got his email? Then the class moved closer into a circle to eliminate excessive space.
The Program of the day was on the board, which was in this order:
1) Housekeeping
2) Aunt Ayn + uncle
3) Hayek argument
4) Hayek vs. Rand an ideology historical moment a metanarrative
Ben asked Kate & Hallie about the medicine stuff? Kate speaks about the tea party and the rally. Then Hallie spoke about her time down the protest of the tea party, where she explained that there weren’t that many protesters there.
She said usually there are 60-70,000 present instead of the mere 200-300 tea partiers. She also stated that there was a 7% pay cut!
Then Ben spoke about the “power shift” which made him think back to why he doesn’t give everyone an A in class. Where he’s the teacher and has authority whether he gives his students all A’s or all F’s. Also if one individual came up to Ben and told him that there was too much work in this class he could easily eliminate that one student from the class but if collective bargain were to take place he wouldn’t have much of a choice but to give in. Collective Bargain would be where there would be one representative who speaks for the rest of the group. Allisa started talking about Greek Mythology where all the women were stuck home and their men were at war. They eventually demanded that if the war didn’t stop they wouldn’t have sex with them, in the end made a peace treaty where once again collective bargain was used. Direct Action which is a strike!
Ben continued how there were a lot of implications of Hayek’s work. Then he spoke about external writing # 2 and he’ll go over that on Thursday. The rough draft is due before spring break; outside source is required in the second writing. This Tuesday’s difficultation got changed around because some interesting aspects came up which will be done on Thursday. The class took a look at the best selling book of Jonah Goldberg “Liberal Fascism” that has a 1970’s smiley face with a Hitler moustache. Then the boggle began. Liz told the class that were going to do background information on Rand and Hayek. Rand was an Atheist, he testified as a friendly wit investigate communism act, he opposed Christianity; he thought the 3 best philosophers were Artistotle, Aquinas and himself of course. First major success was the Fountain Head (1943) he came from communist Russia & lastly closed his father’s pharmacy. Hayek had two kids, is Austrian, background in German social theory and Scottish moral philospy.Married two Helen’s there’s a Hayek society at London School of Economics, Larry Summers likes him, two most quotes economist after Keynes. TAM ended up winning boggle!!!!! Woooh hoooo
Rand was a screen writer before she got into this work. Rand fled communism where as Hayek fled from the Nazi’s. He was in Britain then to the U.S. where for a long time he was at the University of Chicago.Laissez – Faire is where the government doesn’t get involved, Liz & Ben discuss how much background is needed to understand the text. Allison said that she had to go back to the reading couple times to understand it better. Ben says to mark things that are important and go back to it. Mandy said it’s like Hayek words and dialogue more than he needed to be. Lindsey says what was his argument? Contridiction had to see defining argument. Liz says he didn’t give clear positions on what he was arguing about Nazism and Liberalism. Sophie says he doesn’t address who he’s talking about.Allisa says he’s making mini arguments. Ben says he’s making many arguments, it’s weirdly written! Book writes within this moment, he writes a political book.Hallie says he doesn’t address race and oppression pg.118 taps into concept privilege. Pg.114 ones who write the rules ultimately benefit the most doesn’t make it fair for everyone. Ben says the problem is with the capitalist system some people are rich others aren’t. Bottom of pg.118 “to call private property as such….”this goes with Liberalism which is close to Libertarianism, is what he’s arguing for. Which means the same rules for everyone because of the invisible hand. Adam Smith à led by invisible hand. Counter arguments “pull yourself up by a boot strap” if you want to succeed. Which is impossible to do of course! Since everyone doesn’t start equally. Socialism means a step towards communism or away depending how it’s used. Also a fair chance equal opportunity. Mandy spoke about no free lunch someone’s got to pay for it. Milton Friedman who studied with Hayek came up with TANSTAFL which stands for there aint no such thing as free lunch. Keyness argues that capitalist economy needs government involvement, that’s how economy functions best. Ben said the rich got to be taxed get people to spend money, get jobs equals to booming economy. Obama on healthcare is that socialism? Nope Obama is a capitalist. Ideology either conscious or isn’t conscious. Fascism is ancient roman symbol where society should be like the symbol. Two X’s crossing each other, there is no individual, one choice, one race. More than me concept one people, one power. Bottom of pg.127 “our freedom of choice rests on the fact…” everyone’s an individual led by invisible hand if I’m not happy here I can go somewhere else. Liz tells the class to get into groups of three and discuss what Hayek is arguing about?
On the Board Ben writes What Hayek’s Arguing For? Conception of history - repeats himself --> we can stop it from happening again --> moving in a negative direction. Liz says planning is what’s hurting us according to Hayek. Ben speaks about Declaration Narrative which is like Hegel’s chart but instead it goes down, goes bad, falling, things getting worse. For example important narrative such as the bible. Hayek would be considered conservative since he thinks things were once better now their worse.Metanarrative is what you call declaration narrative and progressive narrative. Sophie says socialism = fascism government control over economy which equals to total loss of freedom. Liz talks about how Glen Beck uses situation where people don’t understand and uses it as an argument. # One Amazon best sellers because of Glen Beck show what do his fans get from it? What would Americans think of it? Ben speaks on important things the class to pay attention to, on Thursday two more chapters read specifically deal with these two 2 arguments. Also re-skim the stuff we read today, bring in things you didn’t understand! Bring everything (coursepacket, Hayek’s book, Rand packet) Students pack up and get ready to exit the premises.
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