Apr 24 - Mosco

Whoa, this is way late. The end of semester is here, anyone can tell.

I really liked Mosco's work. It's possibly my preferred lecture up to this point. I know I said that before, and since there's one more week left, I might change my mind. But I especially liked his approach to mythical analysis of the society. We can very easily judge a decision-making process without knowing the rationale behind it. Likewise, some aspects of our own culture are often regarded as universal truths -- which sociologists would call ethnocentrism. The western civilization is prone to judge other cultures based on its own paradigms -- hence Mosco's myths. His view of a society that acts either consciously or unconsciously based on its own truths, and exports those views as being intrinsically good and better than those currently in place in other cultures is something to think about.

It is easy to perceive this dynamic between cultures, but what if they are also applied to your own culture? What if the perception of technology and its role surpasses its own ability to produce a certain outcome? And what about the spurious effects of some technologies, not only in the work relations (as one could easily predict), but in the creation of new "myths", and the maintenance of current ones?

Mosco's discussion on neo-liberalism is also noteworthy. Ever since the French economists argued in favor of the "laissez-faire" -- greatly helped after a while by Adam Smith's 'invisible hand of the market,' there seems to be a consensus (yet another myth) that the market is the best predictor of the cohesion of any given social system. Therefore, we reach the Pareto Optimal, and it seems that, if this is not the best overall result, at least everybody agrees with it. Which for me is not true, since in this equation labor usually plays a very small part, if any at all.