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to the rescue?
TRUTH | STORIES | CULTURE | FUN PUBLISHED OCCASIONALLY
FEBRUARY 25, 2022
It is fairly well known that many Silicon Valley whizzkids feel some guilt over what their artificial intelligence (AI) has unleashed upon the world: the prospect of joblessness and precarious employment patterns. One proposal some of these people like is Universal Basic Income (UBI) – everyone handed a basic sum of cash in order to survive, and keep the economy rolling along. But we get too far ahead too soon. Stepping back: on the right side of politics, especially in the United States, you will see anything vaguely socialist getting mischaracterised as Stalinism or Leninism. This is a stunning case of perception distorting reality: the belief that those who claim to want to make the lives of more people better, or merely to question the status quo intend in reality to set up gulags and erect an impenetrable state apparatus with the goal of stripping citizens of their ‘freedoms’ (such as these may be). The truth is, you would be hard pressed to find a single living soul on Earth willing to defend the monstrosities that took place on Stalin’s watch. Continued overpage
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THE LOOKING GLASS February 25, 2022
COMMENT
Of Science, and some Bibles The New Zealand Listener tends to function here as a bit of a local Times of London: the place where the bowler-hatted (or otherwise) might dash off a letter when something’s got them quite irate. There was quite a kerfuffle recently as a group of eminent scientists within the University of Auckland signed their name to a Listener letter protesting Maori science in the school curriculum. A curriculum is endlessly contestable and political. A claim neither to touch nor to contain anything political must in itself be political: such a claim implies that the political, cultural and economic firmament is dandy, thanks - and possibly even beyond question. This newspaper can hardly claim any proper grasp on what Maori science is (yet, at least). However, there are many fields inside school curricula that handle any mix of fact and fiction, of history and culture: who is to say how and whether Maori science intersects with these? You would think the whole point of a curriculum is for students to be presented with as many ideas as possible, and to learn how to arrive at their own conclusions; and also to understand how individuals, just as much as entire cultures, can absorb, adopt and adapt ideas from outside. If we allow that Western science (with its Greek origins) can evolve and transform over time as its own ideas and truths get contested, we can study its historic evolution as we can that of any other science. In New Zealand, the ongoing development of tangata whenua alongside tangata tiriti in reflections on ‘truth’ and its very nature is worth understanding and appreciating. Not to mention that all living cultures and knowledge systems should seek to deepen their understanding of each other, and allow cross-pollination. A bible might be a convenient name for a great work we have within reach that we gain from reading closely. Three are noted here for their relevance to these comments, and to this edition of The Looking Glass. Thomas Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions considers the ongoing transformation of science (and thus, perhaps, of truth itself) and how political it often is: being wedded closely to ego and self-interest. Another bible, Karl Popper’s Poverty of Historicism, considers what science is and isn’t, alongside introducing and demolishing historicism – the belief that history is set to run a predeterminate course, namely that noted within early Communism. Indeed, our cover item brings up an idea that might get invalidated by attempting to align it with Stalinism or Leninism – as the thin end of that nasty old wedge. In this item, The Looking Glass indulges in a spot of tubthumping – putting an interesting idea out there to be taken apart, and as desired, reassembled, in whatever form fancied, as arising from the harsh glare of critique. By no means last, the third bible has to be our very own Listener itself. A kiwi institution since 1939, and perhaps unique in the world. Where else can you find analyses of new classical music releases alongside the goss on popular celebrities? Incisive and daring treatments of the issues of the day? My own Nana always called it her bible: if it’s worth knowing about, it’s in there. She was not wrong.
Volume I
(from the cover / page 9)
American Socialists are portrayed as unpatriotic villains whose desire is to force a large radical reform of society from top to bottom, when what many actually hope to see is piecemeal experimentation in corners so small it is unlikely to make very much difference to anyone (apart from the disaffected). Socialism or Marxism (name it what you choose) does not have to entail economic micromanagement from the state. Think of the way schools are run in New Zealand. They operate with a hierarchical / semidemocratic structure, within a governing constitution. Beyond that, statutory powers of the Ministry of Education aside, it’s a case of hands-off from the state and/or the owners. Think of the way businesses are run. Also with a hierarchical / semi-democratic structure, within a governing constitution, and otherwise hands-off from the state and/or the owners.
The Looking Glass is currently published on an irregular basis (as content and time permits) by the Community Rags of Aotearoa NZ Trust Project. Submissions and monographs will be accepted, subject to any issues of space, length and quality. At the present time, no payment is made for content, but property will be retained by the original author in all other uses, and contact must be made to that author if republication is sought. Property is held long-term by the publisher only in the format published (and not at the exclusion of the author). Opinions and positions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of CRANZ (TP). Editor: J. D. Newman Volume I Number 3
February 25, 2022
The Community Rags of Aotearoa New Zealand Trust Project is envisaged as a not-for-profit co-operative of writers, artists, thinkers and readers. The Project aims to support and facilitate the publication of relevant and small-scale community newsletters which are grassroots-based and which allow communities to see themselves locally reflected in print, art and image. The Project holds the lofty ambition of fair pay for fair work, all within an encompassing non-profit structure (with returns to the community or back into the Trust and its projects). Much of this is a work in progress. For more information on the Trust Project: https://ragsandmags.tumblr.com/post/182743017613/about-thecommunity-rags-trust-project Email: c.rags.nz@gmail.com
Number 3 The major structural difference you might find between socialist (or state-owned) and capitalist approaches in how organisations run is who the ‘owners’ are. Not how they operate. school are (fromThe the cover / pageorganisations 9) (now) given a free hand within machinery set up for them or by them, and over various assets, and handed to its personnel to operate. But an independent review or audit process is usually in place to make sure the things that should be happening there are happening. Elections will happen where they should, and happen properly (say, for governing school boards). Similar to schools, businesses or corporations are ideally given a free hand within the machinery set up and handed to its personnel to operate. Here too, there will be an independent review or audit process to make sure the things that should be happening are. Elections will happen where they should, and properly (say, for boards of directors). One idea, possibly socialistic, to explore (and one way our world could end up looking) is this: the simple extension of schooling (with dormitories, or similarly modest living spaces as necessary so everyone who needs living quarters has them) to people of all ages. Such ‘schools’ are run exactly as the schools and the corporations we speak of in the paragraphs above, each within an individualised constitutional framework. Ownership and funding of such a school can be any mix of government, corporate or charity. Religions may even want to be part of it. These schools will all look very different to each other. A prospective student will have a choice of which of these organisations to
THE LOOKING GLASS February 25, 2022 join, so they will compete with each other and become as attractive as possible. As a project (overseen by government or the state) this all begins on a very small scale and expands as needed over time. Perhaps there will be ten places for those most in need to every one place for anyone itchingly keen to be part of it (in particular with something interesting to offer, and who may serve as a de-facto teacher of sorts). These grown-up schools would be heavily encouraged to be democratically run/ controlled/ governed by their student memberships where and however practical. And the curriculum? This is laid down within a broad framework where any such school which is more open minded and apolitical (but not afraid to tackle political questions) is better supported by state funding than any such one that is not. The students will (as far as practicable) read, write, study, play, view, discuss, think and act. They will find better ways (on their own and/or as groups) to live their lives (whatever that may end up meaning to them). Like most of the best and modern schools, there will be inquiry-based learning. In many cases (but as an option and by no means as a requirement) they will create co-operatives and indeed corporations to put new and exciting products and services out there in front of people. To do so they have an instant source of peer review for their ideas, and thereby greater access to capital from the school itself (possibly) and/or banks (as with any viable business venture). Many of these schools would end up tax-positive and the students could earn good Continued overpage
Teleportation is a staple of science fiction, being the technique employed by Star Trek’s Enterprise personnel to jaunt from the ship in orbit to the surface of the planet, and back again. It is also known as Transmat in Doctor Who: episodes of that show from the late 1960s depict teleportation to be 2030’s everyday routine method for moving people and cargo around the world – and that’s just eight years away. What this involves is instantaneous dematerialisation from the point of departure (at a port near you) and re-materialisation at your destination: London! Paris! Seoul! And (but of course)… the very Moon! Technical aspects aside (it is actually possible and has purportedly even been done – but only with subatomic particles) it presents profound philosophical problems which mean that even if it were possible for human individuals, we might be hesitant to go anywhere near it. Since it involves replicating the individual or body being transported from scratch (say, a car or a human) the thing or being that ‘arrives’ may look and sound like the original, but can it possibly be the original? In Divided Minds and the Nature of Persons (1987), philosopher Derek Parfit poses the question: is the newly materialised person you? They (he/she) will feel like they are you, and your memories back to childhood are all in place for them. And what happens to the original? Must it be destroyed? To function according to what’s on the tin, the teleport machine is required to destroy the original. However, a modification can make this step unnecessary (by simply removing it) meaning that now there will be two yous wandering about – each laying claim to being you. And even more than two, if you (or they) decide to teleport again. Which modification to the machine would you like - if at all?
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THE LOOKING GLASS February 25, 2022
(from page 11)
incomes. They will do so as workers within the co-ops and businesses, these either remaining within or getting spun out on their own from the school. Often, the only difference will be the baseline capital and management structure between these and a more traditional corporation. If that. That’s it. Does it seem scary? Small-scale at first, but, dependent on success, potentially farreaching across a number of generations with some long-term fine-tuning. A student/ citizen will receive guilt-free support in return for giving something back (at the most basic by growing personally, and also by improving the human resource assets of the nation). Yes, the initial increased tax-take that may be needed would entail a small deduction in wealth for some - a pinch however these same opportunities should be made available to everyone, including the wealthier among us. This is the kind of journey along a socialist pathway which takes care of our vulnerable but not without something in return. Into the bargain citizens are presented with an opportunity to release themselves from the daily grind (and with learning, to transform and improve overall demand patterns which, in many cases, seem only to feed into to this daily grind). Such piecemeal A Silicon Valley street scene: Valencia Hotel, Santana Row, San Jose, California (the largest city in the zone nicknamed ‘Silicon Valley’).
Wikipedia: Allie Caulfield
tinkering can be rolled out at a slow enough pace - across generations if need be - to inflict the minimum of pain. No businesses would be forcibly acquired (as per hard-left Marxism). Extant businesses may face new and exciting challenges and forms of competition (including competition for labour) and new and exciting demand patterns, thanks to the general broad education available to everyone. An opportunity to hone their competitiveness is what we are often led to believe that corporations thrive on. International trade is the trend and should continue to remain robust, and tariff-free. Plus: note here how we flip the AI problem and dissolve the minimum wage issues. AI, mechanisation and robotisation is (and has been for some time) the solution to the business expense of having human workers, with the unfortunate outcome of job loss. However now, AI solutions will generally be appreciated by everyone - these no longer present a threat to livelihoods and security. And so, the problem becomes the solution: a flip. The minimum wage would set itself: if we all have the choice between ‘going to school’ or ‘working’ (although these will blur and look similar much of the time), we will weigh it up and choose ‘working’ when the wage
Volume I
is attractive enough – and that will be the minimum wage point. And of course, homelessness, and its ugly cousin the accelerating cost of housing and rental options, and any associated precariousness, can be consigned to history. As for equality, equality of outcome is not sought here. It is access to opportunity, to capital, and to a pathway for making sense of and getting something from life. Its more about Aristotelian ideals of humane love and creative work for the individual. As usual, for most, the political and legal framework would take distant second place to daily life, but citizens could very well become more actively and knowledgeably equipped to engage and participate. And if we must have our grand old Tweedledum and Tweedledee political parties, at least they will deal more reasonably with a wiser and better-informed public. (None of that, it seems, would be what Josef Stalin would have wanted to see in a million years.) Above all, democratic institutions are to be preserved, and perhaps improved upon. Democracy must always come first, the huge lesson from the USSR Communist experience: and that will hold whether the political and democratic future delivers policy aligned with whatever is considered to be capitalism, communism, socialism, or some mix. The Valley reaps what it sows How much this kind of thing appeals to the Silicon Valley folk cannot be underestimated. Much of the proposals in place such as UBI arise from these very people (an example being Democratic party hopeful for the presidential
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THE LOOKING GLASS February 25, 2022
candidacy ticket, Andrew Yang: see panel to the right). Silicon Valley (of course) will be right there to help with the AI issues, over which many have felt demonstrable guilt over the threat it presents to livelihoods and the vanishing middle classes. Corporations and financiers alike would receive plenty of notice and many signals of where to shift capital, and retain or reconsider an appropriate labour component in production. Homelessness Homelessness is a feature and a consequence of capitalist society but not only capitalist societies. It featured in feudalism, and also turns up in some of the more ‘socialist’ places - such as New Zealand. The big question is, not who or what causes it to happen, but why does homelessness exist in 2022, anywhere at all? How do we do something about it (and ought we)? Is the answer more capitalism? Less? Nothing? How does capitalism in its current guise enable us to pick ourselves up when we fall? How does a homeless person become ‘homeful’ within any political framework – but in particular,
capitalism (of interest, since it is fair to say that it’s our framework: that of the western world and those seeking to follow its model)? Presented here is not a case against capitalism. It’s an exploration into making its bad parts good. Capitalism is a fine steed. We have much to thank it for. While democracy means that it always looks as though we hold its reigns, we need to be sure (and convinced) we are the ones perched atop of the beast, and not the ones getting dragged around in the mud and the grit behind it. Stalinism is well-dead, and we do not need the state to organise production. We do need consumption and production roughly to equate, to avoid inflation. Bottom line: from around the th 19 century, access to education and health and the franchise has been ever expanding. That is still a work in progress. Here we ask, how do we expand access to capital? This is probably the big theme for the 21st century, and it’s a shade overdue. Continued overpage
A fine steed: but we need to be sure (and convinced) we are the ones perched atop of the beast, and not actually getting dragged around in the dust and mud behind it. Image: Unsplash: Keith Luke
Andrew Yang (see page 13) has now split from the Democratic party to create his own: the Forward Party. Yang put his name forward within the US Democratic party for presidential candidate in 2020. His major bent was Universal Basic Income (UBI), a platform he carries across into the new movement. Yang’s background is in law and to some extent computer-based business ventures – exemplifying the strong like between UBI and silicon valley types (although New York is his base). The Forward Party is intended to reduce partisan bickering, and the slogan it adopts is “Not Left. Not Right. Forward.” Reaction is mixed. Although the party “shows how we can find solutions if we think in new ways and summon the courage to do so,” according to Kara Swisher of The New York Times, it is also taking heat for the spoiler effect it may have against the closely aligned Democratic party in favour of the Republicans, a by-product of the US first-past-the-post electoral system. New National party leader Christopher Luxon owns seven houses. One of which is worth upwards of $7 million. “You can attack me for being successful… I can’t defend that,” he told Newshub’s Jenna Lynch late last year, upon his coronation. “They are my personal affairs,” he adds, with justification. It remains to be seen, however, just how invested politicians of all stripes will be in finding solutions to the housing shortage, with prices careering ever beyond reach. A deal has been made between National and Labour to amend the Resource Management Act to allow townhouses of up to three storeys with up to three dwellings on almost all residential sites in major cities. TOP (New Zealand’s UBI proponent party) has a new leader in Raf Manji.
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THE LOOKING GLASS February 25, 2022
Volume I
(from page 13)
Shareholders and Entrepreneurs Do we need a shareholding class? Conventional wisdom suggests so – shareholder capital is vital for investment. We can (over time and with minimal pain) move some of those people along and replace them with (say) a variety of devices such as co-operative ownership trusts, spoken of in earlier paragraphs. This will mean the ones who are calling the shots will care deeply about the (metaphorical) cows from where the milk is extracted – being themselves those very cows. Do we need the cult of the entrepreneur? Some of these people are, and have been, and continue to be amazing, and bigticket achievements such as Branston and Musk’s recent journeys into space are an inspiring source of wonder. The risk is, we have busied ourselves sending faulty signals that we can usually do our best work alone. A lot of our best work is done in groups, or, if you are keen on the business-speak, in ‘teams’. How can we organise ourselves into like-minded groups, and get the support to do so: to think and share ideas, to create and build? It seems we need to find ways to make that into an everbigger part of our culture. Rethinking schooling and cooperatives might be one approach. A new logo, streamlined for the’80s... a new acknowledgment that TV comes first… oh yes, and a good old 50% price hike to go with those (other) inflationary times
Images from the Lonely Geek website (https://www.lonely.geek.nz/)
Retrofuturistic televisual contraptions
Day of the Shomachine Our great-grandmother was a marvellous lady. One of her quirks was that she never owned a TV set, or had one in the house. She wasn’t interested. That makes sense now – she was well into her fifties when it was new. In my forties, there are always new things which are of passing interest as novelties, but I can never imagine myself either owning or wanting any of them. She liked to read. And listen to the radio. And she bought the Listener. Why would you buy the
gajitz.com
Listener when you didn’t have a TV? The clue lies, of course, in the magazine’s name. Once she pointed that out to us, we speculated on the newly launched TV Guide (now the biggest circulating magazine in the country). Would it still keep its tired outdated name once something new and even more exciting came to succeed TV, in some distant year… say, 2020? Some unimaginable contrivance that we decided they would call The Shomachine? Time has told. And perhaps we, rather than Al Gore, invented the internet. At any rate, both magazines carry their given names to this day. The jumbo-sized New Zealand
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Listener of the 1970s and ’80s was a publication you could only describe as handsome. It had begun its slow shuffle away from its broadcasting, entertainment and literary roots (which things very seldom feature on the covers these days) and towards the current affairs gap that Time and Newsweek and the Sydney Bulletin (the latter two now defunct) cover elsewhere. It has an interesting (and arguably socialist) history. After 1935, the Savage Labour government bought up all the radio waves and bought up as a going concern a magazine called the New Zealand Radio Record and tied all of these into the newly established NZBC, modelled on (as if the name doesn’t give it
away) the BBC. The only way you could find out what was on radio for a full week in advance (and from 1960 on, TV) was to buy the Listener. This legal proscription of competition guaranteed sales: a place in virtually every household, as many will remember – in many houses I visited as a child there would always be a Listener or three, the covers folded back onto themselves at the TV listings section). This system of forcible purchase also financed a sound home for literary talent: poetry and fiction was a staple feature. Many of our famous writers could divert starvation thanks to the Listener. Though were we to be honest, we would admit that, TV listing pages aside, the magazine went almost entirely otherwise
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unread in many households. But what is really interesting is that here in our own Listener we were essentially provided an amalgam of two BBC publications: its own Listener journal which was not for radio listings but instead offered a fairly high-brow selection of transcripts of ‘valuable and important’ radio programmes, on topics like philosophy and current affairs; and the Radio Times which was way more low-brow and gossipy, think of New Zealand’s TV Guide and you’re pretty much there. Our Listener walked the line of these two inspirational roots very well, using a strong and vital sense of humour to help keep the content for either kind of audience of interest and amusement to the other. There may even be a bit of chicken-and-egg here: the New Zealand tendency (real or imagined) of not taking itself too seriously has been fairly core in the magazine for much of its run. New Zealanders’ semi-mythical ‘classlessness’ would also have helped. Anyhow, a character of humour and open-mindedness runs through the publication. It never took itself too seriously. Out of production for several months of 2020, sales appear on the up. *** What a shame there is no place online to see every single cover like there are for other magazines (ones better known worldwide, Continued overpage Piggies (tails and Muldoon) on the left? Spectacles offering more promise than delivery on the right? You be the judge of any of that. Top left: the first edition (July 1939); Top Right: Halleys Comet (1986); Bottom: Muldoon and Lange square off for 1984’s general election.
Images: Lonely Geek, Auckland Museum
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THE LOOKING GLASS February 25, 2022 Karl Popper
Wikipedia
(from page 15)
such as Time). This collection here is a very nice representation: https://www.lonely.geek.nz/kiwitv/index.php/history-mainmenu50/91-magazines/2659-newzealand-listener-1939 Another trove of Listener covers can also be seen here: https://www.aucklandmuseum.co m/discover/collectionsonline/search?sbj=New+Zealand +Listener These are from the period 1984-86, just after the magazine’s much vaunted ‘new look’ (design and layout now done using computers rather than nasty old manual cut-and-paste). Lots of iconic personalities from the period are seen, thanks to the Auckland Museum (these are actually shop posters). These principally involve the photography of the legendary Jane Ussher. Favourites are the Muldoon and Lange ‘couplet’ from the eve of the 1984 election. There’s also Halley’s comet, which could almost be classed as a personality: one memorably striking and moody image from that dusty clear-skied summer of 1986.
Karl Popper on Doing Science [excerpt from his classic Poverty of Historicism:] “According to [a] piecemeal view, there is no clearly marked division between the prescientific and the scientific experimental approaches, even though the more and more conscious application of scientific, that is to say, of critical methods, is of great importance. Both approaches may be described, fundamentally, as using this method of trial and error. We try; that is, we do not merely register an observation, but make active attempts to solve some more or less practical and definite problems. And we make progress if, and only if, we are prepared to learn from our mistakes: to recognize our errors and to utilize them critically instead of persevering in them dogmatically. Though this analysis may sound trivial, it describes, I believe, the method of all empirical sciences.” This is one take on many that are out there on what science is. Others will follow in future pages.
GOOD CAUSES:
One Whanau With each edition of this publication, we showcase worthy community charitable projects. Papa Hone is fighting poverty in the Northland. His One Whanau at a Time featured recently on One News. The link is here:
Volume I
https://www.teaomaori.news/pa pa-hone-fights-povertynorthland-one-whanau-time Also: https://www.onewhanau.nz/ “One Whānau at a Time is focused on lifting the standards of living so all tamariki, kaumatua, whanau are off the ground, in warm beds, dry healthy homes and with the basic necessities for living in these hard times. “Founder, Papa Hone and his wahine Rachel, enter the houses of whanau that are struggling with the pressure of living in these times with high rent, high costs of living, high unemployment in the Far North of New Zealand. Our main focus is on the tamariki, their wellbeing is paramount to our kaupapa. We are a voice and stand up for the rights of the children and their whanau and provide them with basic needs in warm dry homes.”
GENERAL NOTICES
The CRANZ Project The idea with this publishing trust to start small and expand as we go: ‘stone soup’ style. Our not-for-profit trust (hopefully it can be charitable) will have the role and purpose of creating and supporting community newspapers and newsletters within communities around NZ. Email us at c.rags.nz@gmail.com with any questions, or to find out more.
“The Moon is moving away from the Earth at a rate of 4cm per year, and to be frank I don't blame it.” Essjax