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| A White bear on the free market 1st-23rd of June 2011 |
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| Pressrelease: posted by the white bear 24th of June - 2011 |
| A white bear on the free market
Follow a white bear in Glasgow on www.thewhitebear.info - July 1st - 23rd, 2011 it is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves not to their humanity but to their self-love and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages. (Adam Smith/Wealth of Nations/1776) In the free trade classic from 1776, with the colloquial name “An Enquiry Into the Nature and the Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, the economist moralphilosopher and free market pioneer Adam Smith thus seems to say that when it comes to distributing the goods and wealth of this world, humanity is an overestimated idea. It is, it seems not humanity that one should rely on for one’s dinner, but instead what must then be: some kind of bestial selflove. The idea was, that the inner beasts, if they were allowed to trade freely amongst them, should be able to distribute dinner and wealth to all of Scotland. Later on, in 1863, the russian author Fyodor Dostoyevskij, also took an interest in these inner beasts: In a traveldiary about a journey he took to western Europe he suggested, that “one should try and set oneself the task not to think of a white bear” only to discover that “the cursed thing would come to mind every minute”. With this example of minds that are bound to their beasts, Dostoyevskij wanted to show, how this inner critter messes up the minds of even the best of westerners. In 2009 however, this white bear actually managed to turn the situation around and came out of the dirty morass of the inner mind, Thus surfaced and superficial, this bear has grown increasingly selfconscious, and sorry about being nothing but a self-loving creature. It does however take some solace in the fact that people once seemed to believe that such creatures could create universal prosperity. That is why this bear, on 1st of July 2011, will go to the cradle of free trade; Glasgow, where Adam Smith lived and taught. Here it will be residing in the local Contemporary Arts Centre; CCA wherefrom it will venture out to meet up with local scholars, shop at local brewers, bakers and butchers and hopefully discover some new and interesting perspectives on humanity, bears, money and their crises. During and after the journey, the bear will share it’s thoughts and experiences, in video image and text on www.thewhitebear.info |
| Safely arrived on the market - but is picking up a strange new scent coming from southeast.. posted by the white bear - July 1st. 2011 |
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| Grrrrece?! |
| A middle class tragedy - posted by the white bear July 2nd 2011 |
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The first entry from the white bear's journey onto the free market. Here, the white bear goes to New Lanark, a Unesco world heritage site and a historic industrialists Utopia - where it seems that adam Smiths idea, that the division of labor can bring more prosperity to more people, was taken very literally. The white bear also thinks about boredom, Candide and the taxpayers money. |
| A real bear in the real world, a change of plans - and a whole lot of explaining.. posted by a white bear July 22nd - 2011 |
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| The
free market is
expansive and one thing always led to another, that I felt I had to see
and experience before I returned to the back of the mind again. Thus, I
have a whole lot of material to process, and it will take a while
longer than I first thought to do that. Until the big conclusion comes
out, here is a small teaser, with a
little bit about some of my experiences on the free market. |
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| In New Lanark for instance, I
saw an attempt at creating a utopia made out of Adam Smith’s division
of Labor. New Lanark also made me think about the emergence of middle
class, of Eldorado, the taxpayers money, of the weakening of virtues
due to repetitive labor, and of Smith’s idea that
subsidised education should solve that problem. The post that I have made about that journey, is already published above - as ”a middle class tragedy”. It does however, have some factual and aesthetic flaws that I still need to fix. Until then I could instead challenge you to find these flaws. |
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| Later, I will also edit a
post about my meeting with Christopher Berry from The University of
Glasgow. Christopher Berry is a professor of political theory, and an
expert in Adam Smith. He nuanced the Scottish Enlightenment and Adam
Smith for this bear. Nuance is tough to edit though, but I look forward
to giving it a try! |
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| I also went to Loch Ness, the
lake with the immeasurable depths that have actually been measured.
These measurements have deemed Loch Ness to be so big, that it would be
near impossible to unravel all the mysteries that lie under it’s
surface. In the post in my online diary, about Loch Ness, I will probably investigate: Matters of depth, that are of course interesting for such bear from the depths of the mind. Matters of certain knowledge and the posiblility of the unknown; like the possibility of some kind of invisible hand that directs the market. Ideas of mystery in economics, like mystery–economy of selling one’s soul to the devil. Some may find that Smiths proposal of letting selfinterest work for the common good is actually such a devilish bargain where one must embrace some of the less virtuous properties of mankind to win worldly good. Selling one’s soul to the devil is also a timehonored tradition within the arts off course, and with all these devilish connotations, I do understand why many have been wary, sceptic or uneasy to talk to this externalized inner bear |
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| At the orange marches however, the marchers seemed less afraid; perhaps more in touch with their inner beasts. At such a march, in Bellshill, a bit out of Glasgow, one of the marchers even jumped out of formation to kiss me. When it came to speaking to me and my camera though, they were all just as cautious as everyone else. I guess that is just the good old difference between doing and saying; between kissing and saying ”I love you”, that manifests itself here. Anyway on the day that a new South-Somalian state was formed, I went to these marches and speculated a bit about nationality, allegiance, and about the history of the Celtics and Rangers. These two soccer teams, whose fans represent each their side of the complicated conflict of marching or not coming along, are at the same time both sponsored by Tennents breweries. The presence of Rangers and Celtic has also been estimated to be worth £120 million to the Scottish economy. When I am done thinking about what the kiss really meant, I will use these facts and speculations to create a post in the white bear diary about how money may be an experiment with neutrality – an experiment with overcoming the difficult subjectivity that humans are stuck with…. (more about that later!!) |
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| I also took my ’Wealth of
Nations’ across the border, to Liverpool, because the American
reverend: Billy Talen, from the Church of Earthalujah, and his choir,
was giving a sermon here. Reverend Billy and his choir are famed for exorcising the evils in banks, big corporations, Tescos, etc. Many would probably also argue that ”Wealth of Nations” is a possessed book, and that it could benefit greatly from a bit of exorcism. I don’t know about that, I kind of like my copy of it, with it’s coffeestains, notes and all. I will agree though, that it is probably one of the world’s prime examples of a book that has had an impact that was unintended by it’s author (…) and one may say that this somehow makes it a possessed book - so I took this possesed book on an exorcistic trip to this sermon in Liverpool. During the course of the service however, I felt somewhat uneasy and unwilling to give up the book for what they were preaching. Nevertheless they are a forgiving congregation and I think that whateever I decide, I will be forgiven. In the post about this experience, I wil probably discuss matters of forgiveness, ownership, and sacrifice. |
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| It was good that I came across the border to England for other reasons too. I had arranged a fur-dressing appointment, where I was to have my fur done like that of Adam Smith on the scottish 50 pound note. Sadly though, I discovered that the 50 pound note with Adam Smith on it, issued by Clydesdale Bank, was no longer in circulation. The Bank of Englands 20 pound note, however still has an excellent portrait, so I remembered to take back one of those from Liverpool. Adam Smith’s fall from grace, from a fifty pound to a twenty pound is somewhat symbolic for these austere times, but the fact that Adam Smith has been replaced by arts and crafts (as someone pointed out to me) seems no less symbolic. Especially as I have already spoken about the devil and the selling of one’s soul to him and all that.. |
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| Any journey, and also this
journey into the free market, must of course also look into the dietary
habits of the locals, and for a carnivorous beast like me, some
of them seemed most extrordinary! For instance, I met up with Ellie
Harrison, a vegan, who could tell me how the vegetarian and vegan
tradition has a surprisingly large number adherents in the UK. Ellie
also had some interesting and surprising vegan views on the
nature of the invisible hand, that I look forward to edit and share
with you. The post about this green encounter will probably be about
that hand, as well as about butchers, brewers and bakers , dinner for
all of Scotland, and about how the conditions that the wealth of
nations were written for, have, or have not, changed. |
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| When one investigates Adam
Smith, one must off course also investigate the notion of
freedom, and in the past centenary ”blogging” has been put forward as
an exponent of that. Nonetheless an interesting discussion about the
notion of freedom quickly turned into pure primitive envy when I
interviewed the blogger John McKlintock. This bear wondered, with
some selfish grudge, how a blog on very particular interests, John
himself calls them ”Geeky”, can have 500 visitors a week while this
bear’s 5 posts on vimeo.com, about the beast inside us all, has only
had 62 full views. Grrrrroar!? The post in the white bear diary about this meeting, will probably deal a little bit with freedom of speech and -choice, and a whole lot with envy, quantity and the economy of attention. |
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| And speaking of quantity: I have
about 15 hours of film, 150 GB, that should be edited into about 7-10,
5-10 minute long video-posts in my diary. I guess that it will
probably take me approximately 3 months or so to do that. Some of these posts will be about the things that are showed display and some of them I haven’t had time to think the least bit about just yet. On the 22nd of July I said farewell to the free market and a memorable journey, onto it. |
| Invitation: Farewell to the free market! in the Creative lab – CCA, Sauchiehall street 350, 22nd. July – 2011, 5-7 pm – |
| ”it
is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker
that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.
We address ourselves not to their humanity but to their self-love and
never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages. Adam
Smith in ”An Enquiry Into the Nature and the Causes of the Wealth of
Nations” from 1776 So, what Adam Smith seems to say is, that when it comes to supplying dinner to all of Scotland, humanity is an over-estimated idea and thus, It was not just our humanity, that in 1776 was supposed to make sure that there would be dinner enough for all of Scotland, but rather perhaps each our own selfinterested beast. Now I am such an inner beast, I am a white bear that has been stuck on minds since 1863, when the Russian writer, Fyodor Dostoyevskij put it there with a cunning mind experiment: Dostoyevskij proposed, that one should "try and set oneself the task, not to think of a white bear, and the cursed thing would come to mind every minute". In 2009, however, I took things into my own paws, and managed to come out of the head I was in and from the 1st-23rd of July 2011, I have been on this historical free market-place called Glasgow, to study this relationship between inner beasts, dinner and the wealth of nations. On July 22nd, I will take the responsibility of being a dinner-distributing beast very literally and host a farewell-reception where I will share a bite to eat with you. A bite, that is off course obtained, by addressing myself to the self-interest of local butchers, brewers and bakers. Sincerely! The White Bear |
| (Menu: From
the butcher: A local vegan I met showed me some impressive figures
about the number of vegetarians in Britain. Figures that would
have any butcher butch vegatarian if he or she was to regard his or her
own selfinterest, and try to earn money to sustain his or her own
starving children. Therefore all the meat served today is vegetarian,
which for a carnivorous beast like me, is quite extraordinary. I guess
I feel a bit like the post-apocalyptic lion in the bible that
gives up Zebra for straw – in order to enjoy it’s dinner in the noble
company of lambs and wolves. From the brewer: The fact that the Tennents Breweries sponsor both the two competing soccer teams in Glasgow has given me a chance to make a post in the white bear diary about money and neutrality. Therefore I am serving beer from Tennents today. From the baker: In Denmark danish pastry is actually not danish, and is called ”Viennese bread”. This confusion over the nationality of sweet bread may somehow make the idea of national properties and boundaries between people and their money seem like pure imagination. The cake however is, real; a real sweet dream of nation-lessness and borderless humanity - with loads of sugar on top! Enjoy!) |
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