>The less cops, prison guards, & soldiers we have, the better. The more
>money spent on cops, prison guards, & armed forces, the less money we have
>for schools, health care, etc. It's a zero-sum game. Moreover, the more
>individuals have law enforcement jobs, the more likely the war on crime is
>to continue, since organized cops, etc. lobby for tougher laws on crime &
>less civil liberties. The general interest of the working class and the
>particular interest of the armed agents of the state are inherently
>contradictory.
On this view the appropriate response is to push for the privatization of the state by calling for all of it to be run, basically, as a business. As much as feasibly possible, of course. Then you can claim nothing of the sort as you have above, a view which is astonishingly simplistic in its complete lack of analysis of the state other than to insist that it operates as some sort of monolithic, unidimensional leviathan.
I guess I'll just take comfort in the consideration that a marxist revolutionary such as yourself, one who feels so emboldened as to make flat-footed anti-working class sentiments as above, refuses to consort with the likes of the ranks of the working class who have guns. I am fairly certain that we are all safer and sleep more soundly knowing that marxist revolutionaries who espouse sentiments as above don't have or want to have access to guns.
I fail to see how you can make a fast and clear distinction between security guards and cops with guns and DAs, PDs, parole officers, counselors, physicians, psychiatrists, Drug treatment programs operators and the like who also work for the state and perform the very same policing functions as the state and in far more insidious, hidden ways.
On your account it would appear that there is no way in which unionization can be conceived of as political practice for, if it were, then surely you would want to unionize cops, etc. I guess practice does not shape consciousness after all.
Kate
PS Do you honestly think that _any_ education will do as long as it's well-funded? Do you honestly think that the health care system does not police our behavior? And do you honestly think that that same health care system will always be better as long as it is better funded? If so, color me shocked.