In a message dated 98-11-15 01:52:19 EST, you write:
<< Long time no argue, Justin!
>> Well, you can get that impression from *The German Ideology*,
>
>>From where in the GI? Cites, please.
Remember I said 'can get that impression', not 'must arrive at that
conclusion'. The hard relativist need only look at the first few pages to
find apparent vindication.
Well, as someone in the business of imposing implausible constructions on opaque texts to get desired legal results, far be it froim me to say you couldn't get an impression of almost anything from any piece of writing.
>
> 'First of all, we have evolved not to be ruthless proto-capitalists, but to
> "enter into mutually beneficial forms of co-operation."
>
> (I said): Why not both?
Well, mebbe there is such a thing as 'mutually beneficial capitalism'
Np, no, my point is that we evolved into ruthless proto-capitalists--those behaviors are manifested under some conditions, like ours. We also ahve evolved to display mutually beneficial forms of cooperation, perhaps under other circumstances,
> if
there is, we're talking modest benefits indeed (
I don't want to get into a squabble on a side issue, but you shouldn't sneer at the refvolutioanry achievements of the bourgeoise,w hich arew considerable.
>It also occurs to me that unless you're as mad a Lamarckist as Lysenko wasyou'd have to argue that the dynamic relations preceeding
capitalism by a few tens of thousands of years would be what's made us
ruthless proto-capitalists.
Yes. So?
>I do not hold we can be turned into ideal-type communists -
certainly not in a generation or two , but that does not mean I have to hold we can't do an
awful lot to our naturalised relative drives in a comparatively short
period, just at the level of cognition, for a start!
Yes, of coutse.
>Nice to be blathering with you >>
Same here.,
--jks