Off-topic: Re: [ALSC-Forum] Straw Poll

[Stephen Waters]

On Wed, 2001-10-24 at 09:46, Eric Dierker wrote:
> 
> Reify is akin to Idol worship.  I am mulling whether it is right here.
> Materialism I understand in this context but whoa, reification.

look it up on webster. :-)
"to regard (something abstract) as a material or concrete thing"

it's sort of the opposite of Marx's characterization of the downnfall of
capitalism: All that is air condenses into a solid.

I freely admit to raising an eyebrow at anything that furthers this
trend to the *detriment* of individuals. The easy counterargument to my
concern is "well, look, there are still people making decisions. No
one's forcing them to do it." My response to that is "Fine. Why can't
they act as individuals rather than be asked to set aside their
individuality to act for the benefit of MegaCorp, Inc.?" And then the
discussion spirals round and round about individuals who like acting as
representatives of Organization X... those fun borderline cases.

Cheers,
-s

p.s., if you or anyone else wants to reply along these lines, it'd
prolly be better to take it off the forum.

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