Reddit reviews The Careless Society: Community And Its Counterfeits

So, a BIG portion of the SSI payments for "disabled" children end up being "channeled" to the pharmaceutical industry -- basically just an additional subsidization of Big pharma (and then there are additional "payments" that go to schools and others because of the increased number of "disabled" children, etc.)

Long story short... a number of "helping" industries have learned how to label children in order to maximize the cash flow through to themselves.

As author John McKnight (recounting Ivan Illich's iatrogenic concepts) in his book "The Careless Cociety: Community and Its Counterfeits" this is a form of "service" that not only needs, but continually needs to create MORE "disability" to enlarge its own market -- and completely irregardless of the inherent moral hazard.

>Which would seem to require asking elderly people to voluntarily die in droves from easily preventable conditions.

I think it depends on the "mindset" of the people in question.

SOME human beings are actually capable of placing others before themselves, of realizing that THEY themselves are NOT the center of the universe.

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>I don't see that happening without society itself tearing itself inside out.

Here I presume you are talking mainly about the US. And I would agree -- we have a HUGE problem with the Baby Boomers.

It is huge not just because of their demographic "bulge" size relative to the rest of the population -- but it is made far worse by their "ME ME ME" selfish, self-centered mindset, one that they have had since they were small children (and which has been reinforced during every past decade -- if anything it has grown worse over time).

And I agree that the ENDING of that (and it WILL, perforce, have to end) -- will only come with much wailing and gnashing of teeth, basically a "generational war" (and I think a LOT of what is starting to be brewed up right now IS in fact a generational conflict, with a lot of the boomers duping many youngsters into supporting the boomer mindset -- that WILL eventually change, and I think the reversal will be NASTY, both on a public level, AND in many families as well).

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>It would probably work more easily if humanity functioned like a colony of ants.

I think if humanity operated more as a COMMUNITY -- and there IS precedent for this -- rather than a lot of "special interests" pitted against each other by a plutocratic political class (supported by the media they "own" and use for their propagandist purposes).

Part of the problem is that in the west, we have been dissolving real communities (and families) and substituting "professional care" [sic] via government subsidy, at virtually ALL levels.

We have gotten rid of "patriarchy" and substituted a much more pervasive (and potentially FAR more oppressive) "uber-patriarchy" via the nanny-state.

An excellent (and short, easy to read, but lots to "chew" on) book -- written from a "left, but quasi-classic-'liberal' style" viewpoint, is John McKnight's The Careless Society: Community And Its Counterfeits -- if you have not read it, I cannot recommend it highly enough (among other things it will change your way of looking at "professionals" and how they affect our society).

> specifically to Cerberus Alpha's manospherian misandry- both in his opposition to abused men receiving state support to get back on their feet

Can't say I've ever bothered to read anything by the Cerberus Alpha guy -- so I really don't know what he writes (or wrote, since when I searched for the blog you noted... well, it seems to have disappeared/been deleted) -- though just given the "Alpha" thing in his name I am inclined to think he's more of a PUA/RedPill idiot spewing nonsensical BS. (IMO, they are entirely clueless about the whole "alpha male" thing.)

But, in regard to support for abused men... I too would be opposed to state (taxation) support for such things (for anyone) -- but probably for significantly different reasons (again I don't know what the "CA" reasoning is) from both the libertarian perspective (I don't feel "social" programs are the province of the state, and nearly all forms of taxation are a combination of theft/slavery and coercive social control); as well as the fact that such "systems" invariably become counterproductive (cf John Mcknight's book "The Careless Society: Community And Its Counterfeits') and (for a variety of reasons) just create more of the problems they are purporting to alleviate.

I guess it would be important to note that I have been basically MGTOW for over 3 decades (shit I'm getting old) ... long before the designation was created (so I'm really not going to be up to date on the various young punk writings about it, and I am definitely NOT a creature of any "movement" or "group") --- and I'd go even further and state/claim that, ironic or paradoxical as it may seem, I kind of come from a "long line" of MGTOW-type men, who exhibited/embodied many of the same "go it alone" character traits, although they (living in different eras) managed to actually find female mates that they could function with, yet still maintain those traits... something that seems pretty nigh impossible these days (at least unless/until I leave the states).

> Just another case that verifies your observation on bureaucracy, Shimoda.

BTW, sorry for sort of going off on a tangent there... just where thoughts went given the comment flow.

Also, by any chance have you ever read little book by John McKnight (sp?) title is something along the lines of "Counterfeit Care" or "Counterfeit Community" -- talks about how many supposedly "helpful" services (and indeed possibly initially they really were helpful, or at least begun with a noble intent) end up producing MORE of the problem they are supposed to solve. Excellent book, very thought provoking.

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EDIT: Aha found it, title is actually The Careless Society: Community And Its Counterfeits, so I wasn't too far off.