One of my red-hot Trotskyite correspondents passed along this link, with apparent approval:
Ultimately this is the question by which the revolution will be judged: After all is said and done, did it actually result in an improvement in the quality of life for the Libyan people?For one sentence, this is pretty breathtaking on a number of levels: the fluency with cliche being the least of them, but quite impressive in its own right (all said and done; quality of life).
There is of course the unjustified assumption that there was a 'revolution in Libya' -- rather than, say, a coup, or a factional struggle, or even a conquest; the gratuitous assumption that it can and must be 'judged'; the unreflective assumption that there's some scalar figure of merit by which to judge it; the downright extravagant assumption that 'quality of life' is the proper standard; and finally, the clearly nonsensical assumption that there is a population-wide metric of 'quality of life'. Suppose some people's lives are worse and others better? How do you measure the worse and the better? How do you combine, say, income and self-respect? Or do you assume that the latter simply reflects the former? How do you do the averaging -- arithmetic or geometric? Do you exclude outliers? Just how important is easy access to Internet porn?
But suppose you could average all that out, in some reasonable way. I don't think you can; but suppose(*).
Wouldn't there still be a few other questions to ask? Like for instance: what does a big victory for the Empire imply for the 'quality of life' of people in places outside of Libya? Just for starters.
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(*) Hey, we could always suppose that pi was a rational number. Wouldn't that be fun? And wouldn't it make things so much simpler?
Comments (13)
Sinners though we are, but there's no harm in attempting to emulate an admirable trait of a Grand Old Mensch of the Left as described by another Grand Old Man and leave Trots to their devices; they have no shortage of jouissance in their little corner of the world as it is, and besides I fear they tend to scare away any half-way regular person who wanders into this neck of the woods every once in a while.
Posted by sk | July 3, 2012 12:10 AM
Posted on July 3, 2012 00:10
Sorry, try this instead of first link in last post to catch the name and for those who can't get enough of the Mensch, here he lays down the law to another red-hot Trotskyite.
Posted by sk | July 3, 2012 12:24 AM
Posted on July 3, 2012 00:24
Wait, wait, is there porn accessible on the internet? Give us a link!
But seriously doesn't this interesting list of objections make SMBIVA itself pointless? Why try to stop people from voting for Democrats if there is no way to evaluate differing political platforms or differing societal outcomes?
Posted by Boink | July 3, 2012 1:31 AM
Posted on July 3, 2012 01:31
Here ya go!
Posted by sk | July 3, 2012 2:00 AM
Posted on July 3, 2012 02:00
"Suppose some people's lives are worse and others better? How do you measure the worse and the better? How do you combine, say, income and self-respect? Or do you assume that the latter simply reflects the former? How do you do the averaging -- arithmetic or geometric? Do you exclude outliers? Just how important is easy access to Internet porn?"
I can answer at just one of those questions. I'll leave it to you all to guess which one.
Posted by Drunk Pundit | July 3, 2012 2:22 AM
Posted on July 3, 2012 02:22
Boink, how many Segways should we produce to achieve a higher quality of life? I think the point is that the metrics being used to evaluate quality of life tend to evade the questions of whether it's enough, or even needed, and whether the price of production makes it worth the effort.
Posted by Al Schumann | July 3, 2012 5:13 AM
Posted on July 3, 2012 05:13
I seem to remember that in Iraq the pinnacle of DemocracySexyWhiskey! was the upsurge in cellphone usage.
Do they have an iStore in Tripoli yet?
Posted by Happy Jack | July 3, 2012 12:18 PM
Posted on July 3, 2012 12:18
"Ultimately this is the question by which the [war/invasion/occupation/overthrow] will be judged: After all is said and done, did it actually result in an improvement in the quality of life for the [Vietnamese/Nicaraguan/Iraqi/Afghan/INSERT COUNTLESS OTHERS HERE] people?"
This type of "thinking" only leads to one "outcome."
Posted by chomskyzinn | July 3, 2012 2:43 PM
Posted on July 3, 2012 14:43
"at a time when they should be studying developments in Libya the way Karl Marx studied the Paris Commune, they are turning up their noses and averting their eyes, looking down at Libya now only when they can point out some dirt."
so there father S !
Posted by op | July 3, 2012 7:44 PM
Posted on July 3, 2012 19:44
Got me dead to rights. I am definitely looking to find fault.
Posted by MJS | July 3, 2012 9:29 PM
Posted on July 3, 2012 21:29
I often have the disconcerting feeling that most pundits consider human beings to be a fungible good. Here's a worse example of what you're talking about:
The modern nation-state has been, on the whole, good for humanity.
And here's a conservative fellow arguing that hey, Bain may have moved some jobs overseas, but somebody still got the job so what's to complain about?
Posted by Christopher | July 3, 2012 10:26 PM
Posted on July 3, 2012 22:26
The Segway production schedules have always been difficult to estimate.
"that's my car gun. my car gun belongs in the car."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgKqo3TvZoI&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLC281E1B4FE6315EE
Posted by Boink | July 4, 2012 5:53 PM
Posted on July 4, 2012 17:53
What has since most struck me about the Libyan "spring" is that it caused the Tuaregs, previously allied with Qaddafi, to return to Mali, where they allied with Islamic extremists to drive the government out of the north. The Islamists seem to have emerged as dominant. I'm pretty sure this was an "unintended consequence" of Western intervention.
Posted by Laurence Hunt | July 12, 2012 1:29 PM
Posted on July 12, 2012 13:29