Re: [microsound] gift economics

["Nicolas Grenier" <greniernic@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

>
>are there any serious gift-economy (beggar-economy is the same thing 
>right?) models in existence? or just discussions?
>
>can such a thing be descriped? i.e. models that could be implemented in a 
>real world and feed a grown-up with children?
>
>or would we end up in a world where artists (case of this list) are either 
>students, serving a corporate payroll or (like in my case) independently 
>wealthy hacks of dubious talent?
>

I think you're making a good point: probably that gift-economy is an 
artistic idea in the sense that it originates more from intuition than 
rational thinking; its abstract nature would make it hard to implement in 
real life and would give some advantages to artists of dubious talent.

What has permitted humans to survive in the animal kingdom? Is it feelings, 
intuitions and emotions or rational thinking? What is the fundamental 
strength of the human race? I would say rationality more than than 
intuition; from what I know of our brain structure (not much, but still a 
little more than most people I know) we possess the same palette of emotions 
than animals. What made our sucess is our ability to manipulate mental 
objects/images and to make associations. Those functions are executed by our 
neo-cortex which is tremendously bigger and more complex in the human race 
than in other animals.

What I think we are experimenting in our time is a reconquest of the human 
mind by our intuitions, to the disavantage of reason; think about the 
abundance of absurdity in art. I'm not at all saying that we should kill our 
emotions (I consider myself to be a very intuitive person), but I think that 
the fact that intuitions are winning the race against reason can be a 
dangerous situation. Maybe am I completely wrong in my understanding of gift 
economy, after all I haven't explored the subject in depth, but the kind of 
ideas this concept carries seems to me to be more intuitive than rational.

I'd love to live in a world where everybody could thrust everybody, but I 
don't want to live in a world where humans have lost their claws; I would be 
very doubtful of their future. I'm one of those who believe that 
competing/fighting inside our race is essential to keep us alive; to much 
can erradicate us, to little can just as well.

Nicolas Grenier

Dynamite Bob
http://www.besonic.com/dnb

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