go Jeremy! go Jeremy!

[onebatmother]

If you are interested in discussing the philosophy of Jeremy Bentham, please join this thread.

I did actually, at one point, understand this. I lorst it along with my .. erm.. I forget.

And this thread is about the difficulty of being erm.. academic, on MN, without winding people up, and at times getting th shit kicked out of one by .. scary people.

might have known i'd find you doing this

WhoTF????

am not scary person, am err, more.. err, bonkers

like you

thought it was a thread for jeremy vine instead i find it is nonsense upon stilts

in that case OBM I'm a benthamite too!

Why do you want to discuss this missus? are you a Utilitarian?

I thought it was about Jeremy Vile possibly about to do charity climb of Mt Everest or some such

I thought Jeremy vile had to be in there too cos i saw him rabbiting on about nothing much on telly the other day.
We are sooooooooooo intellectual and philosophical aren't we??

'Nonsense on stilts' wd be a good tagline for MN -- instead of 'for parents by parents'.

v tired but have the energy to lol at you thread

So I'm not the only lunatic out of bed then.

pulling an all-nighter on ironing and cleaning grease from the kitchen walls

i love my life

what about you you loon

Lay in bed fretting about a work thing. So got up to do said work thing and drink tea.

and yet we both ended up here
i'm going to go and make coffee and iron in front of a frank sinatra film
I hope your work thing works out

Thanks. Hope Frank Sinatra works out well for you and your ironing.

i guess we can see what obm is on about tomorrow
night (kind of ish)

So, the more I think about it, the more I think we are all now living in Bentham's dream. All his obsessions are here in a technologically souped-up form he could never have imagined, from bodily preservation to all-seeing state surveillance, with an emphasis always on happiness over justice. Except of course that now the Panopticon is not restricted to convicted felons (see here for more scary stuff on this).

Anyway, I have to work today, but I have high hopes that Swedes and Threadworm will join Onebat to document the hilarious consequences of Bentham's visit to the Spa Angst and his encounter with Frau Koch later.

There is a seemingly Benthamite preoccupation with quantifiability and commensurability, but without the (barely) saving grace of any concern with the greatest happiness of the greatest number.

Commensurability is in pursuit of the absurd idea of extending market principles to non-market goods, not a Benthamite trait.

I'm not a fan of Benthamism, by the way. He was as mad as a spoon.

I agree that there is no genuine concern for the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people, but there is a hell of a lot of guff flying around which is justified on these grounds. The obsession with focus groups - discovering in minute detail what people "want", and the idea of "choice" in health and education for example are both presented as benefits to the consumer citizen.

Anyway, about his trip to the Spa Angst...

It started badly when they told him he had to have his treatments in the Utility Room. He booked in for a 'pleasure maximised' therapy with Frau Koch but then got flustered when he discovered that the German for 'pleasure' was 'lust'. He ran off down the stairs and was not found for some time.

hurrah!

I'm just going to loll about in here and pretend that this is about me.
I wont contribute, I'll just lounge. If that's OK? (Might Wiki JB, at a push).

Ooh we've got a book about him somewhere.... must just swot up.

I have been to a panopticon in Cooba.
Shall I be a total c**t and mention Foooco?

Just mention his name, you know. I have no desire to elucidate further (in the certain belief that if required to do so I will be revealed to be an intellectual charlatan.)

What do we all think of this devil-may-care bandying-about of the c word? It felt rather louche last night but I now feel a little .. undergrad. I will stop now I think.