KCW on the PMC

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>Kelley Walker wrote:
>>
>>  o  Indeed, the debate over how to define and study class has been
>>  central to the development of sociological theory.
>
>Kelley, this debate is really fruitless -- there is no common ground for
>it. Were you and I living in the same geographical area we might
>(probably would) be able to unite in terms of shared practice. And even
>in the rarified atmosphere of a maillist (as a browse through the
>archives would show) we share a good deal. But whenever the subject of
>class comes up, we are separate before we start. And I have argued this
>out with various sociologists going back to at least 1970. One can make
>the abstraction of "strata," just as one can make the abstraction of
>"humans-with-an-odd-number-of-
>remaining-teeth." The difference betwen them is that the latter is
>merely silly (though profoundly true) while the latter is a serious
>barrier to understanding capitalism. (Incidentally, the concept of
>strata is rather older than that of class -- it goes back to Plato. One
>of Marx's foundational achievements -- along with the recognition that
>what the object of knowledge is relations rather than the things related
>-- was his untangling of the concept of class from the trivialities of
>stratification. And the developed theories of stratification (from Weber
>on) have had no other real purpose or actual result (however expressed,
>and whatever the theorists _thought_ they were doing) but to hide the
>existence of the working class. Such theories probably also blur the
>outlines of the capitalist class, but it is the concealment of the
>working class from itself which is the real evil.
>
>Carrol

Non-Marxist leftist discourse on the so-called PMC (= false & useless 
abstraction, for occupations are not the same as & in fact cut across 
classes) is highly useful for neoliberals.  Observe how neoliberals 
(especially neoliberals who used to be leftists) put their mastery of 
"developed theories of stratification" to good use.  Fake populist 
demagoguery against the "PMC" -- doctors, lawyers, teachers, social 
workers, etc. -- is essential to the art of cutting back social 
programs for & making legislations more punitive toward the entire 
working class.

Think about the politics of student loans: propaganda against 
"deadbeat doctors" creating a wedge to decrease support for lax 
enforcement of loan collections, thus making it easier to enact wage 
garnishments & the like that assault workers.  The tort reform 
propaganda attacks "greedy lawyers" to make corporations safe from 
lawsuits by workers.  The bankruptcy reform began with exposes of 
"inexcusable abuses by the privileged" (= those who go bankrupt but 
remain rich, while weaseling out of their obligations) & then went 
after its real target: working-class debtors.  The welfare reform 
used rage against "deadbeat dads" to make the lives of poor women 
miserable.  Derogate "pointy-headed professors who refuse to teach 
undergrads" to diminish support for state funding for tertiary 
education.  Scorn "incompetent public school teachers who couldn't 
care less about poor minority students" to avert attention away from 
atrocious inequality in public school financing.  Low payments for 
public defenders -- justified on the assumption that saintly lawyers 
should & would work for practically nothing -- to take away the 
rights of defendants.  And so on, and so forth.

Neoliberals (who are often neo-conservatives & know a thing or two 
about Barbara Ehrenreich & the like) are very good at making use of 
criticisms of the "PMC", male privilege, white privilege, etc. -- 
erstwhile specialties of leftists -- to attain their ends.

Yoshie