>alec ramsdell wrote:
>
>> Is it simply a matter of changing relations of
>> production?
>
>Huh! SIMPLY????!!!??? Reversing 6 to 10 thousand years of history in an
>absolutely fundamental way, recasting the entire dynamic around which
living
>human activity organizes itself? And you call it simple. Run that by me
>again. What in the world does the phrase "relations of production" mean
to
>you? I'm serious: I simply can not dream up any conceivable definition
of
>the term which would give it a place in any sentence containing the
word
>simple or any synonym.
I forget the term just now for the opposite of hyperbole, but that's the figure of speech I was using. We're in agreement, though, that it's nothing simple. I was implying that cultural concerns, or more broadly superstructural concerns, are a part of the difficulty. My point is simply to question whether culture, say banking culture, is just a precipitate of base relationships of production-distribution-exchange-consumption, the latter being of primary concern for (revolutionary) change. I don't think it's that easy. In the example from Galbraith, the culture of speculation, or "casino mentality" affects the dynamics of the real economy:
" . . . the larger problems of commercial banks, much more central to the perception of the integrity of capitalism itself, could not be handled in this way [S&L bailout through public expense]. These problems had to be dealt with by creating economic conditions under which the survival and recovery of the large institutions could be arranged below the table, so to speak. For this, only the resources and powers of the Federal Reserve would be sufficient." (Galbraith, p. 223)
So one must consider "mentalites" (yes, I know, ugh) with material conditions and social relations (questions of class consciousness, solidarity, etc). They interpenetrate one another, and I don't think this is in principle endemic only to a particular phase of capitalism.
-Alec
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