Yoshie Furuhashi (Quote Kvetching)

Roger Odisio rodisio at igc.org
Sat Dec 23 22:38:24 PST 2000


Justin Schwartz wrote:
>
> At the risk of underlining my obliviousness, what am I being oblivious to?
> And what am I being complacent about? Is the suggestion that I think our job
> is easy? I don't. --jks

Complacent in the sense of thinking you've expressed either any ideas, and done so in such a form, that most don't already understand. Oblivious to the fact that you've said nothing about marxism or its critique of capitalism.

Each of your thoughts is sufficiently opaque and malleable as to be expressable by the most virulent right winger. The rich run things, as they should based on their merit and for efficiency and productivity/growth benefitting all. Democracy is a joke (and in fact incompatible with capitalism); that's why we have a republic. And the last one they would change slightly: work is a necessary drag that bosses must coordinate/control; in fact work is a disutility performed only for money, whereas people, by their nature, prefer leisure, as we learn from the neoclassical apologists who teach us economics in school.

My beef is with your implication that you've given any reason why marxism is less useful. You haven't.

RO

P.S. Duly noted that Max, or anyone else, does not know who hit the famous homer of Ralph Terry.


> >
> > >>>>In my experience, the Marxist critique of capitalism is common sense
> >to most working people; it's pretty obvious that the rich run things, that
> >democracy is a joke, that work is drag because the bosses exploit us, etc.
> >These ideas can gain wide currency if expressed without Marxist technical
> >vocabulary, which is offputting.<<<<
> >
> >Brilliant, just brilliant, the obliviousness perhaps exceeded only by
> >the evident complacency.



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