Responsibility

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Justin, James F., etc.:
>In a message dated Fri, 21 Jan 2000 11:05:28 AM Eastern Standard Time,
>James Farmelant <farmelantj at juno.com> writes:
>
>> Also, underlying support of capital punishment and of harsh
>> punishments by the criminal justice system generally is
>> bourgeois individualist ideology.  According to this idea
>> we are each masters of our own fates.  Each of us bears
>> ultimate responsibility for the choices that we make, for
>> what we make of ourselves whether good or bad.
>
>Do you actually disagree with this proposition? Do you think that if I rob
>a bank, or perhaps, since we are on LBO I should say, if I found a bank,
>and am hauled in front of Doug's revolutionary tribunal, I should be able
>defend myself by saying, I wasn't responsible! I am just a creature of
>society! Bourgeois ideology made me do it!<

I'm really in favor of responsibility, defined in leftist terms.  Leftists
should take responsibility for making sure that we don't reinforce the
ideology of personal responsibility, _especially at present_.  It really
doesn't matter what you think of responsibility in this or that individual
case, merits of various moral philosophies, etc.  Responsible leftists of
anti-determinist persuasions should responsibly exercise self-restraint and
try the hardest not to air their opinions in the bourgeois public sphere at
least.  Your individual opinions, however subtle & interesting they may be,
should count for nothing in comparison to the effects of the ideology of
personal responsibility on the War on Crime, attacks on social programs,
etc.  Unless you irresponsibly think that the right to publish your
opinions is more important than the greater good for the working class.

The proverb to be remembered here is this: "Give them an inch and they will
take a yard."  Therefore, it is immoral to be a moralist (especially in
America).  A dialectical truth that should not be hard to swallow.

Yoshie