I've never read Burnham's "Managerial Revolution" but from what I've head about it conservatives like it because he convinces them socialism is inherently bureaucratic -- or something like that. Seems to me that for the nascent Soviet Union to survive the civil war, industrial as quickly as possible to be able defend itself against what they all knew was coming, and actually beat the for more advanced Nazi war machine they had to have a very strong centrally planned economy. That this huge bureaucracy couldn't adapt in the postwar decades to different circumstances was an enormous, tragic failure. No doubt bureaucratization is and remains a challenge in the management of our complex societies. Stalin talked about it, so does Xi Jinping today.
Cynthia Chung devotes a chapter to Burnham in her new book a copy of which I only just received a few days ago, haven't had the chance to read it yet. Really curious on her take.
Continued: I believe that it is the nature of Western Academic compatibility leftism, along with Western pessimism in science ("97% of experts all agree that we're all fucked as a species") to take us to a dismal direction.
Don't get me wrong: Life is still good in the West, as I can tell just by talking to friends on Facebook in Africa whom I am working with (small farmers). Whatever ills we have here, they are NOTHING compared to the hardships in Africa, still. The question is, for how long? It's about directionality, vectorial. I believe that our Western views on Science being touted by Academia are leading us on a downward trajectory. Whereas Kenya, Nigeria, China, India, and the UAE are on an upward trajectory, wanting to rise and create hope and optimism for their people. Neil DeGrasse Tyson said to some UAE businessmen that the "UAE's space program reminded" him of the space program in the United States in the early 1960's, in terms of its optimism.
Matt and Cynthia don't seem to have very good things to say about Burnham, and from all the podcasts I have listened to, from The Duran to others, Burnham is listed as one of the Bad Guys. What drew me to it was when Cynthia Chung was talking about C.S. Lewis, in particular in his book "That Hideous Strength" where the bad guys, the N.I.C.E. (National Institute of Coordinated Experiments) said that "16 more wars" (after wwII) were planned to bring their transhumanist society into fruition. Then, Matt or Cynthia said something like, "yeah, that was also mentioned or talked about in The Managerial Revolution, the future wars being planned." So, after reading That Hideous Strength (I had read C.S. Lewis' first two books in the Space Trilogy as a kid), I HAD to read Managerial Revolution. To see just how close Burnham's ideas came to the actual future, which is now our present.
I can definitely say, everywhere you see the word "Manager": "Human Resources Management," "Management Consulting" "Hedge Fund Managers" "Digital Resources Management (DRM)...Download Manager, Settings Manager. That word permeates our culture everywhere.
After reading Burnham, I realize that China today is what he would probably call a "Managerial Society" but so is ours. It's just thinly veiled and goes under the name of "Capitalist."
After reading his book I look at the world as competing ideologies of management, some of them better than others. Managerial isn't necessarily bad to me...the big question for me is this: What does it produce? Does it produce optimism and hope for the future and freedom something to strive for and believe in? Or does it produce pessimism, slavery, and a gloomy outlook for the future? Yes, it is impossible to run societies, business, and production today without managerial structure, the nature of our society being high tech. But where is it going? Is it going toward a greater quality of life for a greater number of people by increasing the energy supply and increasing the creativity to develop new discoveries? Or does it lead downward into a dystopic path.
Damn...that didn't come out well...OK...I am against HEREDITARY, feudalist, or neo feudalist, Managerial structure. But...Yes, I understand the nature of technical production and wildlife management, ecology, and how difficult and complex it is. The question is does it encourage one to develop one's creativity and rise above one's station and inspire one to become more brilliant (as in Plato's story of a slave who became greater than his master)...Or is it more like Aristotle: natural born slaves and natural born masters? Is your managerial society one that empowers people to become better? Or does it keep them slotted into a dismal, predetermined state? The whole Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins mentality to me is what I am getting at, what bothers me about our society. The pessimism.
Thank you for the link! By the way, you might want to take a look at Cynthia's latest talk. It was about Schiller, and Germanic Classicism, vs Romanticism, how Shiller was deliberately forgotten in Germany. She mentions Adorno and the Congress for Freedom and the CIA plants, exactly like that other guy you linked me to. She talks about how ugliness was promoted instead of beauty in art and music, and how this was designed to make us slaves and lead us away from freedom. Talk about synchronicity!
I've never read Burnham's "Managerial Revolution" but from what I've head about it conservatives like it because he convinces them socialism is inherently bureaucratic -- or something like that. Seems to me that for the nascent Soviet Union to survive the civil war, industrial as quickly as possible to be able defend itself against what they all knew was coming, and actually beat the for more advanced Nazi war machine they had to have a very strong centrally planned economy. That this huge bureaucracy couldn't adapt in the postwar decades to different circumstances was an enormous, tragic failure. No doubt bureaucratization is and remains a challenge in the management of our complex societies. Stalin talked about it, so does Xi Jinping today.
Cynthia Chung devotes a chapter to Burnham in her new book a copy of which I only just received a few days ago, haven't had the chance to read it yet. Really curious on her take.
Continued: I believe that it is the nature of Western Academic compatibility leftism, along with Western pessimism in science ("97% of experts all agree that we're all fucked as a species") to take us to a dismal direction.
Don't get me wrong: Life is still good in the West, as I can tell just by talking to friends on Facebook in Africa whom I am working with (small farmers). Whatever ills we have here, they are NOTHING compared to the hardships in Africa, still. The question is, for how long? It's about directionality, vectorial. I believe that our Western views on Science being touted by Academia are leading us on a downward trajectory. Whereas Kenya, Nigeria, China, India, and the UAE are on an upward trajectory, wanting to rise and create hope and optimism for their people. Neil DeGrasse Tyson said to some UAE businessmen that the "UAE's space program reminded" him of the space program in the United States in the early 1960's, in terms of its optimism.
Matt and Cynthia don't seem to have very good things to say about Burnham, and from all the podcasts I have listened to, from The Duran to others, Burnham is listed as one of the Bad Guys. What drew me to it was when Cynthia Chung was talking about C.S. Lewis, in particular in his book "That Hideous Strength" where the bad guys, the N.I.C.E. (National Institute of Coordinated Experiments) said that "16 more wars" (after wwII) were planned to bring their transhumanist society into fruition. Then, Matt or Cynthia said something like, "yeah, that was also mentioned or talked about in The Managerial Revolution, the future wars being planned." So, after reading That Hideous Strength (I had read C.S. Lewis' first two books in the Space Trilogy as a kid), I HAD to read Managerial Revolution. To see just how close Burnham's ideas came to the actual future, which is now our present.
I can definitely say, everywhere you see the word "Manager": "Human Resources Management," "Management Consulting" "Hedge Fund Managers" "Digital Resources Management (DRM)...Download Manager, Settings Manager. That word permeates our culture everywhere.
After reading Burnham, I realize that China today is what he would probably call a "Managerial Society" but so is ours. It's just thinly veiled and goes under the name of "Capitalist."
After reading his book I look at the world as competing ideologies of management, some of them better than others. Managerial isn't necessarily bad to me...the big question for me is this: What does it produce? Does it produce optimism and hope for the future and freedom something to strive for and believe in? Or does it produce pessimism, slavery, and a gloomy outlook for the future? Yes, it is impossible to run societies, business, and production today without managerial structure, the nature of our society being high tech. But where is it going? Is it going toward a greater quality of life for a greater number of people by increasing the energy supply and increasing the creativity to develop new discoveries? Or does it lead downward into a dystopic path.
Damn...that didn't come out well...OK...I am against HEREDITARY, feudalist, or neo feudalist, Managerial structure. But...Yes, I understand the nature of technical production and wildlife management, ecology, and how difficult and complex it is. The question is does it encourage one to develop one's creativity and rise above one's station and inspire one to become more brilliant (as in Plato's story of a slave who became greater than his master)...Or is it more like Aristotle: natural born slaves and natural born masters? Is your managerial society one that empowers people to become better? Or does it keep them slotted into a dismal, predetermined state? The whole Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins mentality to me is what I am getting at, what bothers me about our society. The pessimism.
I presume she expands in her book on her essay here: https://risingtidefoundation.net/2021/10/13/the-strange-case-and-many-faces-of-james-burnham/
Thank you for the link! By the way, you might want to take a look at Cynthia's latest talk. It was about Schiller, and Germanic Classicism, vs Romanticism, how Shiller was deliberately forgotten in Germany. She mentions Adorno and the Congress for Freedom and the CIA plants, exactly like that other guy you linked me to. She talks about how ugliness was promoted instead of beauty in art and music, and how this was designed to make us slaves and lead us away from freedom. Talk about synchronicity!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTTeX6useKI
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http://stopcovid.canalblog.com/archives/2022/12/21/39753747.html
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http://legalaction.canalblog.com/archives/2022/12/02/39730603.html
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http://legalaction.canalblog.com/archives/2022/12/21/39753168.html
Best regards,
Andrea Salvatore Buffa