ethos

Amartya Sen

There is little room for the realities of economic life - faced by the majority of the world’s people  - within the scope of widely accepted and conventional economic theory.  There is a particular exception to this general tendency and that is embodied in the theoretical framework of Amartya Sen who has clearly brought human compassion into the realm of economics.

Amartya Kumar Sen was born on November 3, 1933 and was the sole recipient of the 1998 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work on welfare economics. He is currently a Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University and is also a fellow of Trinity College at the University of Cambridge.  He is known for his astute analysis of economic theory as it relates to the actual realities that haunt the underprivileged in the world.  He examined, in detail, the economic conditions that result in famine, homelessness and unemployment.

Sen was born in East Bengal, India in the region that is now called Bangladesh. His family is very distinguished with strong roots in academia and government.  As a nine-year-old boy, he witnessed the horrendous famine that devastated Bengal in 1943, in which three million people perished. He would later conclude that this terrible loss of life was unnecessary.  This experience seemed to have exerted a powerful influence upon where his future career would take him. 

In his seminal work entitled, Development as Freedom, Amartya Sen claims that, “Enhancement of human freedom is both the main object and the primary means of development.”  In his view, freedom encompasses economic facilities, political freedoms, social opportunities, transparency guarantees and protective security.  Within this context, freedom is not simply a political attribute, but has very practical manifestations such as accessibility to adequate health care, housing, etc.

Sen proposed a model for economic development that is substantively different from the conventional paradigm.  While obviously a proponent of free trade, he envisions a very different approach to its implementation.  He identifies the traditional ethics, exemplified in the policies of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, as focusing on the primacy of income and wealth.  Furthermore, he defines poverty as a “deprivation of elementary capabilities which can lead to premature mortality, illiteracy and other consequences.”

He has postulated a freedom-based orientation to policies geared towards economic development.  The author states that, “With adequate social opportunities, individuals can effectively shape their own destiny and help each other.  They need not be seen primarily as passive recipients of cunning development programs.”

This unique perspective allows application of this economic model not only to developing countries but also to the developed world.  The fact that tens of millions of Americans lack access to adequate health care provides a striking example.  A link between income and mortality can also be readily established.  For example, the life expectancy of African-Americans compare to poor countries such as China, Sri Lanka, Jamaica and Costa Rica.

In this view of development, a consideration of personal liberties cannot be divorced from economic consequences.  The link between income and poverty is, of course, self evident.  Freedom can be seen not only as residing in so-called political freedoms, i.e. freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, but also dependent upon those aspects of economic life that are fundamental to living successfully, i.e. adequate health care, housing and food, referred to as substantive freedoms.  What good are political freedoms to those who expend all their energy simply trying to survive?

From this economic perspective, development is seen in terms of substantive freedoms and requires an analysis of the unfreedoms that people may suffer.  This differs substantially from the current operational approach of the traditional institutions.  The IMF’s approach to economic development often exacerbates, or, in extreme cases, creates the very inequities that make the plight of the poor even more devastating. 

Sen has devoted much of his attention to the idea of justice and from this idea he has evolved his economic theory.  He has detailed his analysis of justice in his work entitled, The Idea of Justice.  He has approached the theory of justice through the diagnosis of injustice.  From his analysis, understanding involves reasoning and critical examination.  He stresses the roles of rationality and reasonableness in understanding the demands of justice.  Coming from this orientation, he has concluded that the implementation or evaluation of social change should focus on whether or not such change would enhance justice.

In his view, injustice may either arise systemically or stem from individual behavioral transgressions.  In Sen’s mind, injustice must be evaluated at the level of the individual as well as the institutions.  For example, a society that prides itself on the democratic nature of its institutions may quietly condone and neglect the poverty and hunger that is a fundamental part of the lives of some of its people.  Within the paradigm that Sen has proposed, this reality is an injustice in part because it is readily open to remedy.  This practical consideration of the real impact that social institutions and public policy have on the lives of individuals represents a radical departure in regards to the analysis of the institutions themselves.  Within this point of view, the emphasis is on reasoned and rational arguments rather than relying on articles of faith and unreasoned convictions; reasoning and justice are, therefore, regarded as interdependent factors.

In his writing, Sen claims that the age of European Enlightenment in the 18th and 19th centuries has had a marked influence on his thinking.  He describes the idea of justice from two historic perspectives.  The first he refers to as “transcendental institutionalism.”  This represents the point of view taken by such notable philosophers as Thomas Hobbes and Rousseau.  They envisioned a perfect justice that could be realized if the institutions themselves were perfected.  This approach does not, however, take into account the behaviors of ordinary people and their social interactions.  Sen believes this to be a major flaw, and, in many ways, an impediment to real justice.

The other perspective he refers to as “realization-focused comparisons.”  This idea examines actual realizations and accomplishments.   In defense of this approach, he cites such well-known thinkers as Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill.  As far as Sen is concerned, “The rules may be right, but what does emerge in society – the kinds of lives that people actually live.”  This particular focus lies at the heart of Sen’s thinking.  This point of view can be readily summarized in Sen’s own words, “The need for an accomplishment-based understanding of justice is linked with the argument that justice cannot be indifferent to the lives that people can actually live.” 

Sen proposed that reason needs to be balanced by an instinctive revulsion to cruelty and to insensitive behavior and that the remedy for bad reasoning is better reasoning.   Sen was strongly influenced by John Rawls in regards to formulating his theory of justice.  In Sen’s scheme, justice must include the fundamental property of fairness and the application of reasoned judgment.  He strongly asserts  that individuals have a deeply held inner sense of justice and a conception of the good.  The following statement provides some insights into his thinking, “Why should we regard hunger, starvation and medical neglect to be invariably less important than the violation of any kind of personal liberty.”  In his mind, justice must encompass an actual assessment of real freedoms and capabilities.

Amartya Sen applied his conceptions of justice, freedom and the use of reason to economics in his seminal work entitled, On Economic Inequality, and formulated an economic paradigm that continues to challenge the conventional approaches to economic development.  His sensitivity to the plight of many of the world’s people lies at the very heart of his conclusions.

sex and death

"Death is like sex...

you will find it in your own way."

the bomb

INTERMEZZO

NO justice, NO peace

We have an obligation to every last victim of this illegal aggression because all of this carnage has been done in our name. Since World War II, 90% of the casualties of war are unarmed civilians. 1/3 of them children. Our victims have done nothing to us. From Palestine to Afghanistan to Iraq to Somalia to wherever our next target may be, their murders are not collateral damage, they are the nature of modern warfare. They don't hate us because of our freedoms. They hate us because every day we are funding and committing crimes against humanity. The so-called "war on terror" is a cover for our military aggression to gain control of the resources of western Asia.

This is sending the poor of this country to kill the poor of those Muslim countries. This is trading blood for oil. This is genocide, and to most of the world, we are the terrorists. In these times, remaining silent on our responsibility to the world and its future is criminal. And in light of our complicity in the supreme crimes against humanity in Iraq and Afghanistan, and ongoing violations of the U.N. Charter in International Law, how dare any American criticize the actions of legitimate resistance to illegal occupation.

Our so-called enemies in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, our other colonies around the world, and our inner cities here at home, are struggling against the oppressive hand of empire, demanding respect for their humanity. They are labeled insurgents or terrorists for resisting rape and pillage by the white establishment, but they are our brothers and sisters in the struggle for justice. The civilians at the other end of our weapons don't have a choice, but American soldiers have choices, and while there may have been some doubt 5 years ago, today we know the truth. Our soldiers don't sacrifice for duty-honor-country, they sacrifice for Kellogg Brown & Root.

They don't fight for America, they fight for their lives and their buddies beside them, because we put them in a war zone. They're not defending our freedoms, they're laying the foundation for 14 permanent military bases to defend the freedoms of Exxon Mobil and British Petroleum.

They're not establishing democracy, they're establishing the basis for an economic occupation to continue after the military occupation has ended. Iraqi society today, thanks to American "help" is defined by house raids, death squads, check-points, detentions, curfews, blood in the streets, and constant violence. We must dare to speak out in support of the Iraqi people, who resist and endure the horrific existence we brought upon them through our bloodthirsty imperial crusade. We must dare to speak out in support of those American war-resisters, the real military heroes, who uphold their oath to defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, including those terrorist cells in Washington DC more commonly known as the Legislative, Executive & Judicial branches.

"If There Is No Struggle, There Is No Progress"

Frederick Douglass said

"Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are people who want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both ... but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."

Every one of us, every one of us must keep demanding, keep fighting, keep thundering, keep plowing, keep speaking, keep struggling until justice is served. NO justice, NO peace.

this is your world

paradise or oblivion

inequity

bizarro world

obey

(an alternative world)

broken humanity

"All my means are sane, 

my motive and my objective mad."

Herman Melville "Moby Dick"

the art of asking

creation of adam

"God made man in His image...

 

but then man made God in his image."

letter from god

Amen

"If all the beasts were gone,
men would die
from a great loneliness of spirit,
for whatever happens to the beasts
also happens to the man.
All things are connected.
Whatever befalls the Earth
befalls the sons of the Earth.”
― Chief Seattle

little monkeys

Interdependent originations

from the journal science [ link ]

love with unconfined wings

When Love with unconfinèd wings

   Hovers within my Gates,

And my divine Althea brings

   To whisper at the Grates;

When I lie tangled in her hair,

   And fettered to her eye,

The Gods that wanton in the Air,

   Know no such Liberty.

When flowing Cups run swiftly round

   With no allaying Thames,

Our careless heads with Roses bound,

   Our hearts with Loyal Flames;

When thirsty grief in Wine we steep,

   When Healths and draughts go free,

Fishes that tipple in the Deep

   Know no such Liberty.

When (like committed linnets) I

   With shriller throat shall sing

The sweetness, Mercy, Majesty,

   And glories of my King;

When I shall voice aloud how good

   He is, how Great should be,

Enlargèd Winds, that curl the Flood,

   Know no such Liberty.

Stone Walls do not a Prison make,

   Nor Iron bars a Cage;

Minds innocent and quiet take

   That for an Hermitage.

If I have freedom in my Love,

   And in my soul am free,

Angels alone that soar above,

   Enjoy such Liberty.

Richard Lovelace
 

how to die

our common destiny

how now brown cow ?

O V E R V I E W

An Acrostic Ode

 Struggling for sanity, your

 Eyes

 Always told the truth:

“Nothing to hide here,

 Man, I am what I am.”

 Occasionally joyful, your love

 Resonated in that

 Reassuring way:  you told me

 I belonged.  And the

 Sincerity with which you carried

 On should be a lesson to us all.

 Not anyone you loved will ever be the same.

context of ecstasy

Pablo Cesar Amaringo

Pablo Cesar Amaringo (1938 – 16 November 2009)

ufo disclosure now

saucer on the moon

Watch video: UFOs captured on film during the Apollo Program

with silent lifting mind

"High Flight"

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

  

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

 Sunward I’ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth

 of sun-split clouds and done a hundred things

 You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung

 High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,

 I’ve chased the shouting wind along and flung

 My eager craft through footless halls of air.

 Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

 I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.

 Where never lark, or even eagle flew.

 And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod

 The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

 Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. 18 August 1941

The Perspective of Loss

There is something to say

At times like these

Something like “I’m so sorry

For your loss”

But “I’m so sorry”

Never seems to sum it up

Doesn’t touch the size

Of the pain

Or the scope

Of the void

The focus, you see,

At times like these,

Is on the sorrow

Of the Ones

Left Behind.

As it very well should be.

Those Ones Left Behind

Will never hear

Or see, or touch,

Or smell him again.

They don’t get to say

“I love you”

Or, “You make me so mad!”

Or anything, anymore.

And so we are sorry

For the loss,

For the pain,

For the void.

For his family,

His mother,

His Ones Left Behind.

. . .

What would he say

If we could hear him?

Something like, “Don’t cry for me,

I love you.”

Because he is free.

His joy is never-ending.

His soul is alive:

He dances,

He smiles,

He is light.

His focus, you see,

Has changed for good

It’s nothing but love

He breathes joy

He is Light.

And that is okay with me.

For Sean. 

Think About It

Blessings Everyone:



I edited together a collection of videos, thoughts and ideas hoping to inspire thinking, instead of knowing. Seeing instead of just looking. listening instead of just hearing.

Then we can make this a better world one SMILE at a time.

UNTIL we 'STOP' being a part of the problem, we'll NEVER be a part of the solution...
As SOON as we 'STOP' being a part of the problem, we immediately become the solution.



DARE TO DREAM and BE 'NOT AFRAID'.



your humble servant, 

ancient clown
a.k.a. Pope Vincent