At Madisonian.net, Frank Pasquale has a post entitled Efficiency as a Vice commenting on a paper with that title by Kieran Setiya. Here’s a taste from Pasquale’s post:
Though Setiya opens the paper with an example from an Iris Murdoch novel, I wanted more concrete examples of what he is talking about. I found a candidate in Arlie Hochschild’s article, “On the Edge of the Time Bind.” A few excerpts make the point…
Hochschild notes that
We are continually doing cultural work, choosing this symbol over that . . . in order to say “l love you” or “I would love you” or “I tried to love you” . . . .It is my argument that one set of cultural tools is gaining favor: those drawn from market culture. These, together with the salt and pepper of scientism and rationalism, draw into the home ways of being at work. In light of this rise of market culture, families become very busy resisting, playing with, or–as in the case I present here–embracing rationalism, scientism, and market culture.