|
Market Rhetoric as an Obstacle to Healing M.
Neil Browne
Robert Bellah heightened our awareness of individualism as a habit of the heart. But the increased export of market rhetoric and its consequent assumptions into what have been traditionally regarded as public sphere concerns suggests that individualism can also be a threatening habit of mind for those seeking a larger space for healing. The re-inclusion of the "diseased" or "marginalized" awaits empathy and a resultant commitment to rectifying their vulnerability. The deductive framework, ontological assumption of the heroic individual, the materialist teleology of market logic, and the metaphors of auction, machine, and Robinson Crusoe combine to defend the turning of a cold shoulder to the diseased. Our paper attempts to explicate the extent and elements of this obstace to healing. But more importantly, we present arguments for the intellectual weakness of the obstacle.
|
