progressivism, individualism, and the public ... - Telmarc Group

The Telmarc Group
PROGRESSIVISM, INDIVIDUALISM, AND THE PUBLIC
INTELLECTUAL
7 VISIONS AND VIEWS
We now want to return to the question of why some become neo-progressives and some
neo-individualists. To do this we do two things. First we look at a somewhat
philosophical structure which concentrates on people and their world views as expressed
I the architectures of the entities which they design. Then we go back and look at
socialism a century ago and then look at the Obama administration. We then try to ties
the philosophical structure and
7.1 ARCHITECTURES, WORLD VIEWS AND INTERPRETING GOVERNING STRUCTURES
We now will look at a general construct for political systems and how the various
approaches we have been discussing may fit within them. We do so by introducing
several concepts, principally that of architecture and world view.
Let us start with a simple example and then we will extend it to the political domain.
Here is how it may work. Let us consider a builder of academic buildings, such as would
be done on the MIT campus. The powers that be on the campus decide they want a new
building to house some group of researchers, say electrical engineering and computer
science, a group which has been separate and apart since the beginnings of computer
science. But we now want them together.
They go off to an architect who will design the building and then have it built. The
building will then create an atmosphere for getting these two groups to work with one
another. So off the group goes and seeks out an architect. For each and every architect
there exists some example of how things may be, how buildings should be, as say Frank
Lloyd Wright would design them, and we use this example, this paradigm, as the
foundation for say that school. Let us call this the Wrightian school for wont of a better
term. There may be a large group of such architects and they all share the same view, say
openness and large windows and whatever. Thus we say they have the same world view
of how to design. There may be other architects with other world views with other
paradigms. We may have the Classicists who like large marble columns and grand
openings. We may have the avant guard types with sweeping windows. But the first two
points are that there are examples or paradigms which in turn inspire world views for
groups.
Now the architect must have a roof, walls, windows, and other elements which define a
building. The engineers define these things, it may need a foundation and the like. The
elements are the general parts of a building, they are needed to make it work, they have
been approved in some code. The architect using his world view may move them around,
give each a different emphasis, a broader or lesser focus, but each must be there. Now the
architect may have a variety of effectors, technologies, materials that he can use for each
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